Guest Contributor – Liam Chase

Introduction

If readers would like to contribute an article for the Guest Contributor page heading please contact me, my email address appears on the About Me page heading. The 0nly two things I ask is that the article should be hill related and importantly I should not end up in court through its publication! Otherwise the choice of subject matter is down to the Guest Contributor.

About the Author; Liam Chase

Liam is currently pursuing a career as an engineer but taking every opportunity to go travelling and get outside.  Following the completion of his challenge he has once again taken up playing football alongside working on other business ventures which he is hoping will free up time for more adventures.

British Isles 600m Prominent Mountains Bagging

At the start of 2019 I set myself the challenge of climbing what I originally thought were the 120 600m prominent mountains in the British Isles within the calendar year to raise money for charity, alongside working a full-time job.  However, towards the end I found out that some lists online had not been updated and the list actually only included 119 peaks after Moel Siabod had been resurveyed.  By the time I had found this out I had already climbed Moel Siabod which was slightly frustrating, but why moan when it just gave me a reason to go and climb another peak.

From a young age I’d always enjoyed a challenge and being outdoors so combining the two to raise money for a good cause seemed like an obvious choice.  The scale of the task ahead of me was an exciting prospect especially with the vast amount of the British Isles to be explored with the 119 peaks being split as follows; 82 – Scotland, 24 – Ireland, 7 – Wales, 4 – England, 1 – Northern Ireland and 1 – Isle of Man.

Map of all P600 mountains in the British Isles

My previous experience of hiking was fairly limited compared to what lay ahead of me, having done hikes through Duke of Edinburgh and also an expedition to Vietnam, which involved some training in Wales before hiking in the Sapa mountains.  I had also done some hiking in the Peak District at weekends before taking on the Yorkshire 3 peaks in 2018 for the British Heart Foundation, which was the catalyst for my search of challenge in 2019.

The charities I chose to do my challenge in aid of were the British Heart Foundation and Alzheimer’s Society, both of which supported causes close to my family.  The BHF was chosen due to losing my grandad to heart disease 16 years ago.  This was also the charity that all my grandparents had always supported with over 50 years volunteering combined between them.  Now at an age where they are unable to continue their support, I feel an obligation to continue this myself on behalf of my family.  I also chose the Alzheimer’s Society due to my grandma currently suffering from dementia for the past 3 years.  Throughout her battle I have witnessed her going from being completely independent to requiring 24-hour care and struggling to even remember my name. 

The challenge started on New Year’s Day, climbing Cross Fell in Cumbria with a couple of friends from work.  Just before this I had posted news of my challenge on social media which as soon as I had done this, I felt a sense of accountability to complete it.  At the start of the challenge I was picking off a few of the more southerly mountains due to the snowy conditions up in Scotland and my minimal winter mountaineering experience.  The 3^rd peak I completed, Aran Fawddwy in Wales, proved to be one of the most testing with horizontal rain battering myself and a friend for the four-hour round trip to the summit and back.

The summit of Cross Fell on New Year's Day

From there I gradually started to complete the more southerly peaks in Scotland and then proceeded to buy a campervan to help complete the challenge.  The acquisition of this helped massively with accommodation expenses and saving time as I was able to sleep at the bottom of the required mountains.  After acquiring this I organised a two-week trip over Easter to Ireland and Northern Ireland to complete all 25 of the mountains over there in a single trip.  By the time I had returned I had completed 42 of the 120 summits.  I had also endured what turned out to be the worst of my climbs, Mweelrea in the Galway area, where Storm Hannah, which devastated areas of Wales, hit earlier than forecast whilst I was walking the ridge by myself.  Out of all my climbs this turned out to be the only one I ever considered turning back from, but I was grateful I didn’t as this tested my mental state more than it had been ever before.

Attempt of a summit photo, Mweelrea

After completing all the Irish peaks, I proceeded to start focusing on the Scottish ones on my list as the weather was starting to improve and the hours of daylight lengthening.  From mid-May through until the end of August every weekend, bar three, was spent driving up to Scotland either on a Thursday evening or Friday afternoon and rushing back on a Sunday afternoon to be back for work on Monday morning.  A common weekend during this period would involve at least an eight-hour drive to the mountains before catching a few hours’ sleep at the base of my first planned climb.  I would then proceed to climb this first mountain before driving to a second and often third one during the Saturday, often resulting in me hiking 25+ miles during the day.  After travelling to the planned mountain for Sunday morning I would again only get a few hours’ sleep before starting the climb early and then starting the long drive back to Leicestershire.  My longest day of hiking occurred on the summer solstice which in the north of Scotland meant I had daylight from 4am right through until 11:30pm.  During this day I ticked three big summits off my list; An Teallach, Beinn Dearg and Sgurr Mor, hiking 36 miles and ascending over 10,500 feet before climbing Ben Wyvis on the Sunday morning.

At the start of September, having completed 97 of the 120 mountains, I had a small break from the challenge to visit Peru, where I was booked onto a multisport tour which included mountain biking, kayaking and hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  Although this wasn’t a relaxing break it was still nice to get away from the relentless mid-week routine of route planning, sorting equipment and meal preparation as well as the endless hours driving during the weekends.

Dead Woman's Pass on the Inca Trail

Upon my return I felt refreshed and focused on completing the remaining Scottish mountains before the weather started to turn wintery.  Within the first three weekends back I completed a further 14 mountains on my list, leaving the remaining total in the single figures.  One of these weekends involved completing two remote peaks, Sgùrr na Cìche and Càrn Mòr.  Due to their remoteness from the other mountains on my list I had left these as a couple of stragglers to pick off towards the end.  Having completed three peaks on the Saturday I decided to make an early start on the Sunday in an attempt to tick these both off.  These were the only two peaks on the entire list which I was able to complete in a single outing from my campervan.  To do this I proceeded to cycle to the base of both mountains on the logging tracks.  By the time I had returned to my van after completing the 24-mile round trip to both summits, it was 5pm and an 8.5 hour drive lay ahead of me.  This turned out to be one of the hardest weekends, not only walking but also with work, having arrived back into Leicestershire at 3am before having to be at work for 7am on the Monday morning.

At the start of October I’d organised taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge with a group of friends from work.  Alongside both the charities I was supporting for my challenge we chose to also support a local charity, The Lily Mae Foundation, who had recently supported one of our friends and his partner through a difficult time.  On the 4^th October we set off for our chosen starting point, Ben Nevis.  At around 3pm we set off for the summit of Ben Nevis along the tourist route which was a motorway compared to what I was used to on the other mountains.  Having completed Ben Nevis in 4.5 hours we headed south towards Scafell Pike which we had planned on climbing overnight.  After 5.5 hours of driving we had arrived and set off with our head torches illuminating the path ahead of us.  After an interesting river crossing experience which gave us all a few laughs we reached the summit in the pitch black of night, before returning to the car in a time of just over 4 hours.

Summit of Scafell Pike

The next stretch of driving down to Snowdon turned into the toughest with lack of sleep within the group.  Upon reaching Snowdon we hit a small snag in our plan, the Pen y Pass car park was full meaning we had to decide between either changing our plan of going up the Pyg Track or getting a park and ride coach from Nant Peris, and in the end we decided on taking the park and ride back up to the Pen y Pass car park.  Overall this cost us approximately 45 minutes, putting pressure on the walk which we had previously expected to be fairly easy going.  The wet and busy ascent of Snowdon was probably one of my least enjoyable of my challenge, I had gotten used to the luxury of either having the mountains to myself or sharing with very few people.  The mass crowds ascending Snowdon was a shock to my system, however looking back I see it as a positive that that many people are wanting to get out and enjoy the outdoors.  On the descent of Snowdon we decided to head down the Miner’s Track to try and avoid some of the crowds which were causing us a few small delays.  After a small run towards the end we finally finished, completing the 3 peaks in a time of 23 hours 36 minutes.

After completing Snowdon I still had plans to tick off another summit on my list, Moel Siabod, which in the end turned out to be an unnecessary climb but definitely still an enjoyable one.  For this I was joined by one other member of our 3 Peaks team before completing it in the dark.  Within 29 hours we had hiked 31 miles and climbed mountains in three countries.

The next morning I had one final peak to tick off my list, Carnedd Llewellyn.  I set off for this on my own, with one of my friends dropping me at the side of the road to start the climb.  Knowing the others were waiting for me I pushed hard, getting up and down in the space of 2 hours 20 minutes, including getting the standard summit photo to update my social media profiles.  After getting picked up and grabbing a quick bite, we headed back after a successful weekend for everyone within the group and for the Lily Mae Foundation, having raised over £1000 between us.

After the mini challenge within my bigger challenge I selected the date of my final climb, Pen y Fan in South Wales, for the 9^th of November in anticipation of being joined by family and friends to celebrate.  Over the next month I continued to complete the final mountains on my list at a slightly slower pace due to them being more spread out.  During this time, I joined a group of over 50 people to climb Ben Lomond, my final Scottish mountain, to celebrate two people I had met via social media completing the 282 Scottish Munros in just six months.  I also climbed my final English peaks, Skiddaw and Helvellyn, with a couple of friends, in what was some of the best wintery conditions I had hiked.  Helvellyn was especially fun balancing our way up Striding Edge and sliding down Swirral Edge.  For my penultimate summit I travelled to my final island of the adventure, the Isle of Man, with my Dad to climb Snaefell.

Wintery conditions on the summit of Helvellyn

For my final mountain, Pen y Fan, I was joined by 21 family and friends to celebrate with me as I reached the summit.  Conditions weren’t ideal with the climb starting in rain and cloud cover not allowing a chance for any views, but it didn’t dampen my mood when I saw that final cairn.  A few celebratory beers were shared between us in the cold conditions at the summit, but they were by far the most earned ones I have ever enjoyed.

The final summit; Pen y Fan

By the end of the challenge I had driven over 31,000 miles, hiked 1050 miles and climbed over 350,000 feet, the equivalent of climbing 12 times the height of Mount Everest.  I had also explored more of the British Isles than I would have ever done, having ventured to six different countries and seven of the Scottish Islands.

At the end of the challenge the donations for both charities also started to roll in, with the current total between the two charities almost at £5300!  A total I’m incredibly proud of and grateful to everyone who has donated.  My Just Giving pages for both charities will be closed by the time of this articles publication.

Currently for 2020 I have yet to make any definite plans for further challenges, with a possible climb of Mount Olympus in Greece being discussed but I am open to any ideas for what I can do next.  If you’d like to follow my next adventures, feel free to follow me on Instagram @challengechase.

Liam Chase