At the top of Ben Nevis - Alan Stone, Brinn Jardine, Vicky Enebeli and Andrew Caple[/caption]At the weekend The Magnificent 7 from Smiths News IT at last put all their hard work and training into practice, when they tackled the National Three Peaks Challenge. Vicky Enebeli reports on her experiences...
We started Ben Nevis at 4:30pm on Saturday and the last ones came down from Snowdon at 7:30pm on Sunday.
Overall I did enjoy it and the team building and bonding was brilliant fun. In particular Andrew Caple and Alan Stone were really motivational and supportive of me throughout the whole experience!!
However, I completely underestimated the intense level of mental and emotional stress that climbing a mountain would involve and I don’t think anything could have prepared me for that. Ben Nevis was a real hard slog and when you are going up you just don’t know how long it will take and I was afraid to ask anyone coming down in case I didn’t like the answer!
It was a great sense of achievement getting to the summit though and coming down felt a bit easier as you then knew how far it was down. But halfway down, the rain set in and made the rocks and boulders really slippery so it was really easy to twist your ankle or fall.
I found Scafell Pike harder though as the climb up is much steeper with bigger boulders to climb and there is a sheer drop on the side with a waterfall/stream that had a strong current, so that was quite scary as you are more aware of this coming down than going up!
I think at this point I was thinking of my two girls and that was quite an emotional point for me! That is when I knew I had reached my limits and I actually just wanted to come down.
[caption id="attachment_5999" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Andrew Caple with 'friend 'at the top of Snowdon[/caption]I didn’t manage Snowdon as the weather got really bad and for me at that point I was pleased with myself and what I had done but I really couldn’t do it again – physically or mentally!
The support team were brilliant and it was so great to see them waiting for us with cuddles, tea and hot food!
And finally news of how the rest of the team fared and fundraising...
Andrew Caple did Snowdon in 3 hours – 3pm – 6pm, and Brett came down about 6:15pm and Marcus at 6:30pm. Alan and Brinn came down about 7pm and Andy and Sally at about 7:30pm. The weather conditions really slowed us down and affected the driving too.
Our fundraising total for CLIC Sargent is currently £2,150 (not including Gift Aid). We're really pleased with the money raised. On the bus as the emails kept coming through on the Just Giving page, this really did help to hear the names of more people donating.
Editor's note: here's a very well deserved full name check for The Magnificent 7 and their support team! They are:
Andrew Caple, Marcus Cotes, Andy Taylor, Brett Hanley, Alan Stone, Victoria Enebeli, Brinn Jardine and Sally Willovoys.
The all important support team were Terri Baylis and Cathy Flynn . NB Cathy is auntie to Joshua Flynn, the little boy whose cancer treatment has inspired The Magnificent 7's efforts.
The sharp-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the Magnificent 7 became the even more Fantastic 8! Some of you will remember Sally from her days at Smiths News :)
What a fantastic effort - well done all of you and as grandparents of Joshua, our little superhero, a special big thank you - the Magnificent 7/Fantastic 8 is aptly named.
ReplyDeleteWell done and thank you very much to the magnificent 7/8, plus the lovely Terri and Catherine as driving crew, for completing the gruelling 3 peaks challenge on behalf of joshuas fund for clic seargeant. 3 mountains in 24 hours in the wet, cold and windy weather is astonishing. Well done all. With love, joshua and his mummy, daddy and baby brother. Xxx
ReplyDeleteMarvellous to see the Flynn family have added their comments. Here's to the Joshua Flynn fund achieving its target.
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