"The 3 Peak Challenge consists of walking up and down the 3 highest mountain peaks in England, Scotland and Wales within 24 hours – including driving between the three," explains Pete Smith, Senior Territory Manager, and one of the driving forces behind the venture.
Walking in the name of charity
Pete and his colleagues came together to raise money for Sue Ryder, an organisation that strives to help people with complex needs and conditions – much like Coloplast.
"Our original target was to raise £100 each to give a total of £1300, but instead we have raised to date £5,326 for Sue Ryder," says a happy Pete. "I feel this is another key demonstration of the passion and desire of Coloplast employees to go above and beyond, wanting to make a big difference for those who need our help and support. As a team we came together, supported each other and helped each other through every step of the challenge."
While the walk was certainly the hardest part, getting from one place to another was just as important and Coloplast sponsored the vehicles and all the fuel that was needed for the trip.
24 hours to complete
"We left Peterborough on Saturday July 1st at 07:00 and we made our way up to Fort William in Scotland. The journey went well and we arrived at 15:45. We started our stopwatches and began climbing at 16:30. Nine of our team of 11 completed the first mountain and we were all down in five hours and 10 minutes," explains Pete.
Despite being 10 minutes behind schedule, the group managed to make up time on the drive.
"Our amazing drivers John and Chris did a grand job and we managed to catch up and arrived in Wasdale, to begin climbing ahead of time. We started climbing Scaffell Pike, our second mountain, at 04:00 on Sunday July 2nd. Eight of the team completed this mountain and we were down in 3 hours 35 minutes, only 5 minutes behind our scheduled time again."
Faced with going over the time limit, Pete and his team decided that one group would continue immediately to Snowdon to give them a chance of completing the challenge in 24 hours, while the other group would follow once all the members were down. The first group left Wasdale at 08:00 and arrived in Snowdon at 12:45.
A race against the clock
"This gave us four hours to complete Snowdon. Our legs were burning with lactic acid, and cramping up, but somehow, five of us were able to get up and down in 3 hours and 30 minutes! We arrived back at the cars, and with 10 minutes to spare we stopped the clock having completed the challenge in 23 hours 50 minutes! We also had one final member of the team, who completed Snowdon a little later that same day. So in total six members of the team completed all three mountains."
"Each and every person gave their absolute utmost to this challenge, mentally and physically. Having been responsible for organizing and leading this group, I am so proud of each one of them for this tremendous result. Coloplast employees have once again, proven to the world, what an incredible and determined group of people we really are," Pete concludes.