Team GDA's epic Three Peak Challenge Our team of seventeen brave souls set of for Scotla on Friday 19th May, ready to start our epic Three Peak Challenge in aid of GDA. The weather forecast for the weekend was looking, well, wet across all three mountains, but that didn't dampen any spirits. 9 We started our challenge on the morning of the 20th May, with the imposing Ben Nevis; the first an toughest peak we were going to tackle. Despite star off in the rain, the cloud lifted and revealed stunning scenery as we ascended higher, although by the summit was snowing! The foot-deep snow at the top was a bit of a treat, as well as challenging to walk through, but it provided much entertainment on the way down! Top tip- the quickest way to get down a mountain; slide on your bottom on the snow! With the tallest mountain successfully climbed, it was a quick turn-around to set off on a seven-hour coach drive down to Yorkshire to attempt Scafell Pike - in the dark. The very uneven and rocky terrain under foot made it particularly tricky, and the strong winds at the summit made it even more precarious. Coming down the mountain brought its own challenges too, with steep slippy rocks to contend with. There were a few falls at this point but nothing was going to stop us from finishing. And finish it we did, ready to move onto the final mountain; Snowdon in Wales. We'd been promised a slightly 'easier' mountain with Snowdon. We'd take the steeper and 'quicker' Pyg track up and come down the Miners track, the longer but more gradual of the two. The earlier rain had made the rocks slippy and tricky to navigate. Steep rocky steps and low energy levels, made the final ascent the hardest part yet. We arrived at the summit of Snowdon in the same way we had reached the previous two summits, with thick cloud blocking any view. But, we had done it! We had climbed all three mountains in 24 hours!! With knees, feet and legs really beginning to ache and energy levels completely zapped, we hobbled down the Railway Track; a longer route but it meant not having to negotiate our way back down the rocks we'd already suffered going up. Not the route we'd expected to take but much more sensible given the state our bodies were in at that point! All seventeen of us made it to our finish point in Llanberis where we
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