The Six Hammered would like to thank everyone who has generously sponsored us on this adventure.
To date we have raised over £9000 towards Eikon and Hope House.
This will make a difference to the lives that these charities support - I know they appreciate what you have all contributed to.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Monday, 25 June 2007
Peaks 9-15
Offical Finish Phote - we were all there!
After Tryfan a chance to take a deserved break at checkpoint 2.
This is the point of no return. Once starting this leg, it is easier to finish than to find the route back and get of the mountain.
11 teams started this challenge and only 5 teams finished - ours being one of them. Actually we came in second with a total time of 18 hours, behind the winners - a team from the Marines. Our actual offical Peak to Peak time was clocked at 15 hours and 12 minutes, and our route was 29.17 miles.
There are few pictures of the remaining walk as the weather was absolutely appalling. From 2/3 of the way up Pen-yr Ole Wen (peak 9 @ 978m) it began to rain and it did not stop until we finished some 6 hours later.
I do not think that any of us have experienced wind so fierce or rain that hurt so much or visibility so poor - thank goodness for Goretex and GPS.
To put this into perspective: one team had to be air lifted off this section by mountain rescue, another followed the wrong path and ended up a two hour car journey away from the finish, others were just not allowed to go on.
This was a huge achievement and credit to 6 friends who had a mad idea over a couple of pints.
We clocked in at 10:15pm
Peak 8 - Tryfan 915m
So...the weather did brightened up for one peak.
This is Tryfan (2:12pm) and the views are spectacular.
Peak 7 - Glyder Fach 994m
No picture of the summit as you are probably bored of the sight of us.
Instead a view of the descent from Glyder Fach and the next that needed to be climbed (Tryfan). The dry stone wall marks the route up!
Photo taken at 1:38pm
Peak 6 - Glyder Fawr 999m
We now enter in the range known as the Glyder.
Time now 12:30pm. The weather might be improving as you can see a bit more of the landscape!
Peak 4 - Elidir Fawr 924m
We had a choice of descending Snowdon via a path/track or just go straight down...decision was to get down quick. Only problem was because of the damp conditions, the grass and rocks were slippery so a lot of was done buttock surfing!
At the bottom of Snowdon is checkpoint 1 - time to re-fuel, replenish water bottles and put on some dry clothing.
After a short stop it was off to scale Elidir Fawr which is also know as Electric Mountain as it houses a fairly impressive energy plant.
Time arrived at the summit 10:15am.
Peak 3 - Snowdon 1085m
The highest and most talked about peak in Wales was next. Snowdon was conquered at 6:15am.
Weather not getting any better and did Trotty know he reached the top...everything looks a bit fuzzy through his glasses :o)
Peak 2 - Garnedd Ugain 1065m
Next up was Garnedd Ugain. We arrived here at 5:57am
What do you think about the head gear?
Peak 1 - Crib Goch 923m
Crib Goch is the first of the 15 peaks above 3000 feet and was reached at 5:04am
Cloud base was low and wet weather gear was already required.
This is probably the most challenging peak as scrambling/climbing is required followed by a ridge walk onto peak 2.
The start of the 15 peak challenge
The day, or middle of the night had come for the start of the challenge.
As you can see in the picture, it was pretty dark at 3:45am Saturday 23rd June. The weather was not too friendly and rather than keep us hovering around the start until the official 4am kick off, the organisers decided to get us on our way 15 minutes early.
Thursday, 7 June 2007
2nd June - The right way out of the "valley of death"
The last time we climbed Elidir Fawr we traversed the boggy floor of the col before climbing up what felt like 1:1 for I cannot remember how many feet. This is what is looked like on an overcast day.
1st June - The back 7
Only Four Hammered made it for this outing as it was half term. And with no Lee talking complete nonsense from start to finish it was quiet. One saving grace though, we all completed it together!
This was going to be an adventure as none of us had any experience of walking over this section of the course. After a hearty breakfast, we made our way to the base of Carnedd Llewelyn and plodded towards the end. It would have been great if getting to the end meant the end. As we parked the car at the start and there was no car at the end, we had to do the whole thing in reverse...17 miles in all :o(
31st May - The Glyders
JB and Richard had an early start from London and arrived in Snowdonia mid afternoon. Their challenge was to scale and walk the Glyders - correctly known as the Glyderaus. This range is made up of the following peaks:
- Glyder Fawr - 3279ft
- Glyder Fach - 3262ft
- Y Garn - 3104ft
- Elidir Fawr - 3029ft
- Tryfan - 3010ft
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