If you have read my other blogs you will know that I like to set myself challenges. You will also know I’m 2 and a half years into sobriety from drugs and alcohol abuse. I have a cold water dipping group called, “Dare to Dip”. On March 15th we celebrated the 3rd anniversary of Dare to Dip, so to mark the occasion I came up with the idea of conquering the three tallest peaks in the UK, The Three Peaks Challenge. The Three Peaks Challenge is one of the most popular trekking challenges in the UK and involves climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon), one after another – with an aim to complete the challenge within 24 hours, 48 hours or 3 Days.

My goal was to do it in under 24 hours. We did the challenge to raise money for “ManUp?” ManUp? raises awareness about mental health among men. In total, we raised £5160 pounds for the charity. Thank you everyone who stuck their hand in their pocket. 

With the help of friends, we got a team together which changed a couple of times over the lead up but we hired a nine man minivan, which carried two drivers and six climbers in the end. 

The two drivers, Peter and Jo, did such an incredible job. I feel blessed to have met them both and feel like I’ve met friends for life. The driving in itself was a massive challenge with all the waiting around. In that time they done some campaigning at the bottom of the mountains, and raised more money for the charity we were doing the challenge for. Incredible. I would like to take this opportunity, thank Peter and Jo for not only doing all this but keeping our spirits alive in between trips as well. 

The climbers were myself, Karl, Jack, Tim, Katie and Mark. 

Karl is one of my best friends he helped me in my darkest days through sobriety and is one of the reasons I’m still here today. He done so well as not only was he full of flu and temperature during the challenge, but Karl also has diabetes so his sugars go up and down. Just attempting the three peaks was inspiring enough. 

Jack is a good friend of mine who I met recently while doing another one of my challenges. We have embarked on other challenges together since and I’m sure we’ve got many more to come. Jack climbs mountains quite often, so his experience was very handy and his patience with the rest of the team was something to admire.

Tim is a friend and a legend! One of the original team pulled out of the challenge, so Tim stepped in last minute. Tim had done no training and never climbed a mountain before. It was almost unbelievable that Tim’s first mountain experience would be the Three Peaks Challenge! 

Mark is someone I’ve known for a short amount of time but feel like I’ve known my whole life. Since I’ve been in recovery, Mark has been an incredible friend and his words of wisdom have helped keep me on the straight and narrow at times. He’s absolutely hilarious as well. 

Katie is someone I’ve met in sobriety also. She is so kind-hearted and a great person (even helping old ladies with their shopping to the car on the way to the mountains). Mark proposed to Kate on Scafell Pike while they was training for the Three Peaks Challenge, and I’m buzzing to be going to their wedding in the summer! 

Katie lost her friend and brother both to suicide very recently, so we dedicate the climbs to them. Kieran Lavin and Michael Steed, this was for you! 

The Challenge:

The minivan picked me and Jack up from Felixstowe at 5am on Friday morning on the 15th of March. Mark and Katie were already in the van, and the two drivers, Joe and Peter. Everyone was in high spirits and the banter started instantly. We headed to Copdock and picked up Karl and Tim. I was instantly worried because Karl did not look well at all and he confirmed that he felt rough. I asked him if he was still happy with coming, and he said that he wanted to give it a good go. So we set off on the long journey to Scotland to take on Ben Nevis. The journey up there was non-stop laughter. I was chuffed that such special people in my life were all sat in the same van together, about to embark on this massive challenge… because a challenge it was. 

We arrived in Scotland safe and sound and we started climbing Ben Nevis around 5 o’clock in the evening. There were some incredible views early into the descent. I’ve done Ben Nevis before - it’s still a tough climb and Mark started struggling early on. Some people thought he may even turn back round, but they don’t know him like I know him. We all kept digging deep. As we got higher, the snow got deeper and when three climbers were heading back down the mountain in all the right gear, telling us not to go any further. It put doubt in my mind for the first time and I saw a few of the other gang were a bit worried too. But we decided as a group to keep moving forward and we would make a decision if things got worse. Things did get worse, but we still kept on keeping on. Near the top of the mountain, it was like a blizzard, it made us quite disorientated because we couldn’t see the markers to the summit. We had to keep pausing and waiting for snow to pass, then I’d get a glimpse of the next marker and we would all make a dash for it. We came slightly off course on the top of Ben Nevis, which slowed us down a little bit, but with sheer tolerance, grit and determination we kept going. 
I don’t know if it was the altitude or the hard work we put in, but people were saying some crazy stuff at the top of Ben Nevis! Mark was even looking for someone called Gary who Tim tried to help him find until I reminded them both that we wasn’t with a Gary. But our imaginary friend came with us for the rest of the trip when we were all checking on each other. We were all asking how Gary was. He became an inside joke that got us through some tough times. 

Because of the snow is very hard to find the summit on Ben Nevis at one point, we thought we might not even be able to find it until I heard Mark shout out, “Who the hell put a shed here?!” 

We had made it!

When we were all surrounding the summit, I said, “Guys, we are the highest people in the UK right now!” And we all cheered. Mark suggested we take a second to ground ourselves, so we had a minute silence for all the people that we have lost to mental health, and for the people we were doing the climb for. It was a powerful moment, and one that will stay with me for a long time. It was the quietest I’ve ever seen Gary be honest. 

The exhilaration didn’t last long because I reminded people that we were only halfway there now we have to get back down. I think the snow helped in a way to get back down, because the last time I climbed it, the shingles were tough on the old knees, Mark threw himself down the side of the mountain, like a human sled, I’ve never quite seen anything like it. 

Spirits were good on the way down, but Karl was very quiet. I could tell he wasn’t himself and that he wasn’t feeling great. All I could think was, “Wow! This geezer has just climbed Ben Nevis with the plague. What a hero!”

When you climb those three mountains in a big group, it’s impossible for everyone to stay together the whole time. People have different energy levels at different times. Only individuals know their own bodies - when they’ve got plenty in the tank and when they need to reserve. But we all did Nevis in 5 and a half hours. Jack felt that if we were going to complete all three mountains under 24 hours, we needed to make up some time, so it was a quick change at the bus before we started the long drive to the Scafell Pike. 

There was still good banter on the way to Scafell Pike, but everyone was tired, and the atmosphere was one of knowing how big of a challenge this was gonna be after just completing the first mountain. There were so many sheep in our way - they were all in the road leading up to the Scafell Pike. I blurted out, “What do sheep actually do?” I got ripped for that for the rest of the trip considering I’m a chef. 

Anyway, we got to Scafell Pike when it was still dark so head torches were on again, a quick rally round and then we were off climbing mountain number two, the tallest peak in England. Mark who struggled on mountain one, got a second wind because he was off like a rocket and no one could catch up with him. No one did catch up with him. It was so inspiring to see. 

The sun started to come up when we came to a little river with stepping stones. Mark was already across it with Katie just behind him, then Tim and Karl got across. Then it was my turn with Jack just behind me. I leapt for what looked like quite a big, steady rock, but it rolled and so did my ankle! I fell down a little waterfall, smashing my knee and entering the water. I got up quickly and ran to the other side, but I was drenched and my knee was in quite a bad way. I had prepared mentally before this task, thinking that something like this could happen and that I’ll just have to push on, so that mental preparation helped me but it did take a knock to my morale. I was soaking wet, freezing cold and in quite a bit of pain. Jack said to me, “Are you good?” I said to Jack quietly, “I’m hurt.” He said to me, “It’s done now. There’s nothing you can do about it, you’re just going to have to push on.” That was all I needed to hear to keep me going, although the pain slowed me down a lot on that mountain. 

I’m proud of myself and my team for pushing through. It felt like a hard slug - there’s a lot of rocks on that mountain and they was all frozen over and with wet feet it made it quite slippery. Nevertheless, more words motivation from Karl, Tim and Katie really help me get to the top of that mountain. Everyone had internal battles going on through these mountains, but I feel that we all came together as the team when we needed to. When we got to the top, we were greeted by Mark, who was screaming, “I am Spartacus!” like a mad man (I think he was with Gary again!). A few more snaps at the top of this mountain and it was time to come back down. It was tough on the old knee, a lot negative thoughts coming into my head and I had to bat them out. But other people started to climb up the mountain at this time, and I think me and Tim told every single person that passed us that we were doing the Three Peaks Challenge. Karl mocked us for it! 

I think we completed Scafell Pike in 3hrs 35 minutes. It was another change at the bus, and then we had to Snowdon to complete the third and final mountain. On the way to Snowdon, we were all in and out of consciousness doing. We were exhausted but still determined. To complete two of the tallest peaks in the UK was a massive achievement in itself, but we had a third one to do. 

Katie’s cousin, Tom, joined us. He was a great bloke on this mountain. I felt sorry for him because he’d only just joined us and it was here at this stage that we all decided to have a wobble, but he understood that we’ve just climbed two mountains, and we were all very tired sleep deprived, aching and in pain. 
When we set off for Snowdon, the weather was miserable. It was raining, cold and wet but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other. We got about 3/4 the way up and it absolutely chucked it down. It stayed like that for the rest of the climb. 

I had a very strange moment on the mountain where I came around the corner and realise how far we had to go. I was a bit sleep deprived and for a couple of minutes I really couldn’t remember what mountain we were on, or what country we were in. I couldn’t remember if we had to go to Wales, or we were in Wales. It was really bizarre. 

Panic set in for a few other people on that morning. We were losing light because of how bad the weather was, and none of us had much battery left in our head torches… we were all running out of energy. Some people were falling behind, others were getting colder and cold, waiting. Some people wanted to go back down - we got quite fearful at one point and no one I could find it in them to settle the others. It come to me that we’re on Snowdon and I said, “It’s not much further to go. There is a track on the other side of the summit and if we lose too much light we can make our way down there.” 

We all got a second wind and we reached near the top. We were close to the summit, but some people have never done this mountain before, and didn’t know how far it was, and wanted to head straight back down. I turned to Tom, who had a fresher mind than us and asked him, “What do you think we should do?” He said, “I’d like to summit, but I’m happy to go with the majority of the group.” I turned to Karl, who I knew wasn’t very well – “You wanna go back down or summit?” He looked at me like I was crazy and he started walking towards the summit! “Let’s go!” I said, and the whole team dug down deep and we all marched towards the final summit. 

We saw other climbers near the summit which I think settled the group back down. A few words of encouragement from strangers saying we were nearly there, gave us the boost we needed. We made it in a massive effort. We reached the third peak! We just climbed the three tallest peaks in UK, back to back!

But it wasn’t over yet as we still had to get down. We made the group decision of descending down the track. We were all on a mission - in the zone - no one really said much to each other on the way down from Snowdon. Me personally, I just went into a weird trance and just kept marching forwards like everyone else. I couldn’t feel no pain in my knee any more, or in my feet. I couldn’t feel nothing. If I’m honest, I just got an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I was thinking about what we’ve accomplished, and I was thinking about my friends, my family and my two beautiful little girls. 

In that moment, everything in my life got put into perspective. 

I started to think of my own personal mountains, and how far I’ve come with my sobriety, and how far the people that I was climbing the mountains with have come in their own personal lives. 

Something happened to me on that mountain. I grew as a person immediately. It was a very long, long, long and hard slug to the bottom of that mountain, but we made it. We didn’t complete the three peaks under 24 hours. We did it in 25 hours and 45 minutes, but I’m okay with that because everything was against us on the mountains; the weather, people telling us we shouldn’t do it… We’ve been through all sorts of storms in our lives, personally with overcome all sorts of weathers to get to where we are today, and we are a resilient bunch who have been told not to do stuff our whole lives. But we got our heads down and each and every one of us made it to the top of all three peaks. I could not be prouder of each and every one of them. What we accomplished will stay with me for a lifetime.

Sobriety is just like climbing a mountain - at first it is an uphill battle. Your heart is racing and your skin is clammy. You start thinking too far ahead, self-doubt creeps in, you start acknowledging the massive task you have ahead of you. If you keep focusing on the summit, it’ll feel so far away that you don’t take in the beauty of your surroundings. If you keep wishing you were somewhere else rather than where you are, then it’s impossible to be present. You feel anxious and uncomfortable and you doubt yourself. You feel like giving up at times. But you push on. You get further and further in and you start to see how far you’ve come. You remember who you are! You stop focusing on the summit and start concentrating on just putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. You start feeling grateful. The things that really matter come to your mind; your kids, your family and your friends. 

Your heart’s still beating, but now it is beating with purpose. 

Before you know it you are in the clouds, you are at the summit you were searching for. You are on top of the world. 

But what goes up must come down. You have more mountains to conquer. More summits to reach. But now you have the tools to do it and the strength inside you. You know it’s possible. Momentum. We have been climbing mountains our whole lives. We just get better at it. 

If you focus on the top you will miss the beautiful views that surround you.

Sam 😊

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