17th June 2019
This weekend team Apex Consulting took on their toughest challenge yet – the National Three Peaks Challenge! Together the team drove up to Scotland, then back to England, before finishing in Wales to complete the challenge. The event was part of the company’s yearlong challenge to raise £25,000 for The Children’s Hospital Charity. Apex Consulting caught up with Holly Mason, Marketing and Business Development, who was the one who came up with and helped organise the event to find out how the team got on.
Hi Holly – well done on completing the National Three Peaks! How do you feel?
Tired and sore! But absolutely over the moon. Everyone worked so hard and we all helped each other to keep going. It was a great team achievement.
I bet! Tell us more about what the climb involved.
The National Three Peaks Challenge involves climbing the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours. We drove to Fort William in Scotland on Friday and started the long climb up Ben Nevis just before 5pm. For the first mile we were all talking and joking but after that it was heads down and time to put in the hard work. Looking back, Ben Nevis was the hardest out of the three because it had the longest walk (about 10.5 miles overall) and a 4413ft climb to the summit. It has a much greater vertical ascent than the others!
Then it was onto Scafell Pike back in England. We started at 5am and were all a bit groggy after not much sleep on the minibus so it was a quiet trudge up that one! By the time we reached Snowdon though we were all a bit more revitalised – mainly because it was the last one and having done a practise run the previous month, we knew what to expect. We didn’t complete the overall challenge in 24 hours, but we reached the summit of each within 24 hours, so we were happy with that! We were very lucky with the weather as well as it had been raining heavily in the weeks leading up to the event, but it managed to hold out and the sun even made an appearance at the very end as we descended Snowdon, which was a nice way to cross the finish line.
Was it what you expected?
It was definitely tougher than I expected and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that! I’d completed a few long walks and I’m generally fit and active, but I still feel like I could’ve done more looking back. We had a few minor injuries and torn muscles along the way, but we all came out unscathed – just! As hard as it was, the views from the top were amazing (when we weren’t submerged in clouds!) and thinking about why we were doing this really helped keep our spirits up. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again and would definitely recommend it as a team building activity – even though it’s pretty hardcore! I’m sure some of the team would have rather we go bowling or go to the pub instead!
How did you celebrate when you finished?
A hot shower and an early night! We reached the hotel in Wales about 8.30pm and they were just about to close the kitchen so we all had to quickly order food before we could have half an hour to ‘freshen up’. We had dinner together and a few drinks, but I was ready to call it a night at 10.30pm and decided to go to bed. I don’t think the others were far behind me! After having very little sleep on the minibus it was amazing to get into a real bed.
What was your favourite part?
It sounds very clichéd, but I really enjoyed spending time with everyone! I think when you all work together it’s easy to forget that your colleagues are people too and it was nice to talk to everyone about things that weren’t work for once. Completing the National Three Peaks together as a team is a massive achievement and I think everyone should be proud of themselves.
A massive well done to Wayne, Jon, Mary, Chris, Jack, Becky, Sotiria, Holly, Richard, Dean and Stephen for completing the National Three Peaks in 27 hours and 21 minutes. A very big thank you to Danny and Christina Gartside for driving, supporting and helping us complete the challenge.
There’s still time to donate to Team Apex and The Children’s Hospital Charity at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tsy2019charitychallenge.