Wales 3000

Congratulations to James Richards and Ben Franks for conquering Wales 15 highest peaks in just 14.5 hours on Saturday July 25th, 2009. A remarkable achievement and one that has so far raised over £407 for Compassion UK.

The Rules
In order to complete the Welsh 3000 Challenge, James and Ben were required to have been at the top of all 15 of the mountains over 3000ft in Wales within the space of 24 hours, without using any form of transport.

The Distance
The length is about 25 miles, but the walks to the start point and down from the finish point can take it to over 30 miles in total.

Report & Pictures by James Richards

On the 25th of July 2009, Ben Franks and I (along with the vital support team of Naomi, Lois, Zoe and Benjamin!) tackled the Welsh 3000 walk, which consists of being at the top of all of the 14 mountains over 3000ft in Wales within a 24-hour period without using public transport.

We decided that as the weather was forecast to be OK, we would camp on top of Snowdon the night before. After a 4-hour drive up to Snowdon, my wife Naomi and I met with Ben and his fiancée Lois, and their friend Zoe. After saying our goodbyes and committing our way to the Lord, we headed off up the Pyg Track at about 7.30pm, arriving at the top of Snowdon at about 9.00pm. We set up camp, had a high altitude prayer meeting then got our heads down.

I must have seen at least 4 teams pass by during the night, possibly participating in the 3 peaks challenge!

We woke about 4.00am and I cooked up some pasta and we packed up camp. As the mist was still quite thick we decided to wait for it to clear a bit, and so finally left the summit of Snowdon at about 5.15am marking the start of our challenge!

Pretty rapid progress was made along the ridge to the second peak of Carnedd Ugain and along to the Crib Goch ridge which was a bit hair raising as it has very steep drops either side of a two foot ridgeline!

Making our way off Crib Goch and down to the road was a bit problematic as there were no clear paths and we lost a bit of time on that section, having to retrace our steps up quite a steep hill.

Our support team of Lois and Zoe met us in a lay-by down on the road just up from Pen-y-pass at about 8.00am with some much appreciated water and food, and after a quick stop we headed off toward the 4th peak, Elidir Fawr. For me this was one of the hardest mountains, as it just seemed to keep going and going forever, but eventually we made it to the summit and the views at the top made the slog worthwhile. We contoured around the mountain and up to the 5th peak, Y-Garn before a steep drop down, then back up to Glyder Fawr. After making our way over to the 7th mountain, Glyder Fach, the ominous Tryfan lurked ahead.

It was a very steep drop down a scree slope that brought us to Tryfan, the 8th peak, and after a good scramble we reached the two stones at the top known as Adam and Eve. The journey down Tryfan for me was also one of the hardest parts of the walk. After walking for over 9 hours, the balls of our feet were very sore and walking down steep slopes didn't help! However at the bottom of Tryfan, our faithful support team was waiting and I got to see my wife Naomi and my son Benjamin which was a great morale boost. We had a stop of half an hour, ate some sandwiches and refilled our camel backs. Ben and I both freely confessed that it would have been very easy to stop here and not carry on as we looked toward the 9th peak of Pen-y-ole wen (PYO).

I can't remember what time we left for the last section but I think it was about 3.30pm as we started our trek up PYO. It was a hard slog up but we made it to the summit and morale was boosted as we could taste the finish. However, we also knew that there was a long way to go yet!

Making our way along we bagged the 10th and 11th mountains, Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn, before having to make a slight detour to grab the 12th mountain of Y-Elen. It was here that we met with another team and asked if it would be ok to follow them for the last two mountains. It was great to have another team to talk to, especially as two of their members were Mountain Leaders, so we knew that we were in good company.

The journey across the last two mountains was a welcome, gentle climb and after taking a picture at the top of the 13th mountain of Foel Grach, we arrived at the trig point on top of the last mountain Foel Fras at about 7.45pm giving us a peak to peak finish time of 14.5 hours which we were both very pleased with. Even the mountain leader said that was a very good time.

The hardest part was still to come though as we had to make our way to a remote car park over the Drum mountain. It seemed to go on forever and I didn't think my legs could physically move anymore as the car park dangled in the distance like a carrot on a stick, but, we did make it back. After a brief spell of the girls trying to find the car park, they did in the end, and a warm car ride back to a much appreciated house provided for by some friends of Ben and Lois, our adventure came to a end.

We would like to thank everyone for their prayers and financial support in sponsoring us, and also our support team (Naomi, Lois, Zoe and Benjamin) who played an essential role helping us to complete the challenge. Also many thanks to Ben and Lois' friends for graciously allowing us to use their lush house for the night!