The weather gods turned against us for the final summit of Club Director General Robert Louden's Four Peaks Challenge.
We'd had a run of good luck, with glorious conditions at Ben Nevis and lots of sun at Slieve Donard and even Snowdon, but on our final day of walking Mother Nature bared her teeth.
The forecast for Scafell Pike, England's highest peak at 978m, was for heavy rain and wind. This made our mountain leader Dave Ascough frown a lot, and meant we started out from Seathwaite in the Lakes' Borrowdale Valley earlier than planned.
We were joined by Robert's guests, which included CEO of the
Duke of Edinburgh's Award Peter Westgarth,
Camping Club Youth representative Jay Jones, and Club Sites Regional Manager Matt Smith.
It was Peter who'd encouraged Robert to get involved with the DofE Award in its
Diamond Anniversary by undertaking his own challenge.
Of the four peaks, Scafell Pike is considered the most technical. It doesn't have a tourist path in quite the same way Snowdon and Ben Nevis do, for example. While the lower hills are straightforward enough under foot, there's a spot of clambering over boulder fields and rocky outcrops higher up which take a little more concentration.
Navigation to the summit got more testing once we hit the low cloud line, and visibility fell to just a handful of yards. The final few hundred yards to the summit are something of a rocky scramble in places, with rugged drops just a short meander off the path, but we reached the stone cairn and trig point pillar at the summit without injury.
After a couple of celebratory shots at the top, we pushed on with the journey back down - with all our team wet and cold, the risks of hypothermia for anyone hanging around are quite serious. Rather than return to Seathwaite, we chose to take the more direct route down to Wasdale Head. With wet rock underfoot, the steep descent was rather slow and treacherous.
We stopped only to pitch the Vango Ostro tent, which we'd also erected at the previous summits. It was
the same tent Julia Bradbury camped in overnight on top of the O2, a world first, back in May as her own Diamond Anniversary challenge, and to kick start
National Camping and Caravanning Week.
And now that interest in the tent's final resting place has grown, we're considering auctioning it off to raise further funds for the DofE Award - so watch this space!
Despite it being mid-August, we were delighted to find a roaring open fire at the
Wasdale Head Inn, and joined lots of other walkers celebrating their various achievements over a pint, part stripped of sodden walking gear hung around the bar. The whole adventure took around six hours to complete.
Later that evening, over a bite to eat with the friendly Holiday Site team from the stunning
Keswick Club Site where we camped on the shores of Derwentwater, we were all able to reflect a little more on the team's achievements.
Our equipment had passed in flying colours under trying conditions - not one of the team had suffered a single blister, thanks to our
Hi-Tec boots and socks.
Keela trousers, fleeces and jackets had kept us warm and dry, and
Vango rucksacks and hydration packs were a hit with all our team of testers.
We'd ascended more than 4,000m, walked more than 30 miles, and covered over 1,200 miles by land and sea, with millpond-still crossings from Holyhead to Dublin and Belfast to Cairnryan with
Stena Line.
We'd also pitched up at some fabulous Camping and Caravanning Club Sites in tents and motorhomes along the route, and met some great people.
While the Three Peaks Challenge is a well-established fund raiser these days, tackled by around 30,000 people each year, the Four Peaks challenge is a lot less common. What's more, we felt we'd done it the right way: we'd camped and invested money into local communities along the route; we'd tackled the peaks at a natural pace, safely and responsibly, and taken care to stick to established paths and not cause further erosion; and we'd been very careful not to generate litter - everything we took up the hill came back down with us. We left no trace.
Many of the peaks were a first for team members, and we were all exhilarated to complete the challenge in one piece.
Check out our two videos of the walk at the
Club's YouTube channel, and thanks to everyone who wished Robert well along the way, or donated to his
fund raising effort.