I wasn't intending to post again, but the journey home took 9 hours and, as a proportion of the whole weekend, took quite a significant amount of time.

We had a little swap around and switched drivers more than once to combat tiredness. All of us were feeling the effects of a long day and more than one of us had nearly fallen asleep on Miriam's sofa.

Each of us found that we had eaten quite a lot of food over the preceeding 24 hours and, as a result, we didn't stop for a proper Sunday lunch (as we had half planned to do) and carried on snacking on flapjacks (later, flapjack crumbs) and sandwiches bought from motorway service stations. We learned a lesson that flip-up picnic trays don't hold cups of coffee very securely and that you should hold on to your hot drink unless you want it all over your leg!

Both cars arrived back at Graham's house at roughly the same time and disgorged their contents of half-packed bags and weary bodies. Showing our resilience, (or maybe our stupidity) conversation had already started to turn to "what form might the next challenge take?", however, the consistent theme at this point was the need for a long, hot bath. Oh, and a large glass of wine.

Until next time,

Rob.

We made it to the foot of Ben Nevis just before 3 o'clock in the morning - thanks to our two awsome drivers - while we all tried to get some sleep.

The sky was looking like we were in for a good sunrise on our way up the mountain.

Our tired legs started well, but soon slowed to a trudge, the gradient was incessant. We all stayed much more together as a group this time, all walking at a steady pace, knowing that we had 6 hours to do a climb that ought to take us 5 1/2 hours. The terrain wasn't vey kind: large rocks embedded in the dirt track; varying sizes of gravel; more rocks; and then snow for the last half a mile.

The euphoria we felt at the top, while we toasted ourselves with some more champagne, was slightly tainted by the knowledge that we would have to lug our tired bodies back down that long, steep, rocky path.

Walking on snow was quite tiring, so much so that we were glad to get back on the gravel! Whilst we had managed to stay together on the way up, we stung out a bit more during the descent as we all fought varing stages of tiredness.

Getting back to the car park was a good feeling, realising that we didn't need to walk any further. Our aches and pains temporarily forgotten, we posed for our final team photograph.

Our mood was further improved by a "full Scottish breakfast", served up by Miriam. She was not only good enough to put up our drivers for (what was left of) the night, but also said that she would cook breakfast for all of us, in her pyjamas, once we had finished. What a star!

Only 8 hours driving ahead of us now. What a fab day!

The weather was a kinder to us in England than it had been in Wales. The scenery was fantastic and it was a much more enjoyable climb. We spread out more than we had on Snowdon and, although that made it less sociable, everyone managed to find a pace that they were comfortable with.

Even though Scafell Pike is the shortest of the three peaks, it was a tougher climb than Snowdon and we were all glad to get back to the cars for some food. Some champagne at the top was well received by all!

It looks like we'll be starting Ben Nevis either in the dark, or in the faintest glimmer of light, so we're all a little aprehensive about that.

First ascent - Snowdon

Well, we started off from the car park at the foot of Snowdon at 9:22, after a hearty breakfast at the Little Chef attached to our Travel Lodge hotel.

Of the two possible routes, we had chosen the Pyg Trail over the Miners track. It is more of a steady climb and a little shorter, too. The track was quite narrow, making it awkward to walk two abreast for most of the way. There were quite a lot of other people doing the same route - some plodding up for charity, some whizzing by in running vests with numbers pinned on their shorts.

The weather forecasters didn't disappoint us. It rained most of the way up and down. The only respite was when we were walking in fog.

We were up to the summit in 1:50 and back down only 3:20 after starting off.

Let's hope the views are better from Scafell Pike.

We all met at Graham's house on-time and loaded our belongings into the two cars. It looked like each of the walkers had packed enough to last them for a whole fortnight, rather than just 2 days, but then we had all been forewarned by the weather forecast.

The trip to Oswestry was no trouble and we settled down to some intense preparation... in the bar!

7:00 breakfast and then off to Snowdon!

3PC - Update 9

Having just looked at the weather forecasts again, I can confidently say that this challenge is going to be more of a challenge than we had hoped: there's a strong chance we'll be doing our climbs in the cold and wet. I'll be including gloves, extra layers and plenty of changes of clothing within my kit bag, plus another bag to store wet clothes.

Rob has set up a "blogspot" which will be used for updates throughout the weekend of our progress. If you think your family or friends might want to see your progress on Saturday or Sunday morning, they can log onto http://overthehillskiclub.blogspot.com/. Previous updates are also posted on this site.

See you tomorrow evening at 7pm.

Graham

3 PC Update 8 - weather forecast

Enjoy the great weather while it lasts. According to the BBC weather forecast, we can (predictably) look forward to rain on Saturday. I'll give another update on the weather later in the week, but in the meantime, you should check out that wet weather gear.

Forecasts:

• Snowdon
• Scafell Pike
• Ben Nevis

Rob's special walkers' tip for this week is: "don't cut your toe nails the day before the big walk". I hope you find this helpful!

Best wishes

Graham