Climbing every mountain for Benevolent Fund

Their high-octane exploits since 2002 have seen them raise thousands of pounds for the Fire Service Benevolent Fund which hosts the annual Three Peaks (Sub-24) Challenge. It was set up 20 years ago by the UK Firefighters’ charity. Along the way the team have recorded impressive times as a team of drivers and runners pitted themselves against a myriad of other teams to scale Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, and driving all night between the mountains to complete the challenge in under 24-hours. There are two Group events on different successive weekends and over the two decades the competition has become ever-more intense.

To the local lads’ credit, they have never failed to achieve ‘elite’ status, always completing the event within a 16 to 18-hour time band, and they hold the distinction of winning the competition outright in 2004 with an impressive time of 16 hours and 33 minutes.

The team have for the past seven years, also taken the top place in the Veterans’ category, given that they are all over 40, and have without fail always won the ‘Overseas’ Category too.

However, the men have decided to call it a day and did so on a ‘high’, by taking gold in the Group A event. In the process they recording another elite time of 18 hours. The verified results have given the men third place in the Group A event and sixth overall when the Group B results (held just last weekend) came in.

With the driving element of the competition capped so that the drivers must finish in a tightly controlled time band to prevent risk taking on the route, this year the runners recorded impressive times up and down the three peaks: Ben Nevis, 2 hours 52 seconds, Scafell, 2 hours and 39 minutes, Snowdon 1 hour and 30 minutes.

There have been a number of ‘line-up changes’ over the years. The originals included driver David Jackson, who was at the wheel for the first five attempts. He was replaced by Ronnie Cathers, but there has been a core team of four who hold the distinction of having taken part in each of the 10 challenges: William Spence, the co-driver/navigator, and runners Joe Morrison, Billy Orr and Chris Philson.

“David did the first five events with us, but going back to the first event we event had a team manager with us,” a competitive Joe Morrison recalled: “He was a fella called Jim Murphy. He came with us the first time just to see what the event was about. So we had a team manager and we had the two drivers and we had seven people on the hill. We had one guy who was based in Ballymena, but the rest of us have always been from the city. So we had Gerry McGoldrick from Ballymena, Dermot Cairns, Brian Martin, and the ‘four constants’. Ronnie, like David and William, had a great interest in driving and seemed to have an aptitude for staying awake for 24 hours safely,” said Joe.

Despite the extreme physical demands of running up and down the three highest peaks in the UK, Joe maintains that it is a comparatively easy task compared to the stamina displayed by the all-night driving team.

“Our event starts between 7pm and 8pm on a Sunday evening at Ben Nevis and the drivers drop us off at the start of the final leg at Snowdon generally at 11am to 12pm the following day. The drivers snatch a quick nap when we are climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District, at which we arrive at about 4am and, depending on how quick we are, the drivers might get two hours of sleep,” said Joe.

He insists that the driver navigators are “well rested the day before” and throughout the night one will navigate while the other drives.

“In all honesty, I would have to say that the Three Peaks Challenge is, at the top end, a very competitive race, and the aim is for the runners to complete the challenge as quickly as possible, but the driving element is very tightly controlled in that the driving aspect of it is not a race. It is a means of getting the climbers safely from Ben Nevis to Scafell and from Scafell to Snowdon. They are allowed six hours driving between Ben Nevis and Scafell and they are allotted five hours between Scafell and Snowdon. If they are any quicker than that the team as a whole is penalised; it is to prevent rallying and exceeding the speed limit. It takes that element of speeding out of it. The drivers’ average this year was about 52mph or 53mph. It is a mixture of A roads, B roads and some very small mountain access roads. It really is a skill.”

Asked whether or not a ‘SatNav’ took the skill element out of the challenge, Joe said technology could not always be relied upon.

“We learned that very early on in the years, when we ended up on this road. We were in the back, lying down in the van trying to sleep. Because we try to sleep it is incumbent on the drivers to drive as smoothly as possible; and we could hear the guys discussing what was happening, and we could hear David saying ‘William...there’s grass in the middle of this road’. So there have been a few instances when we have gone up farm tracks and approached farm houses and detoured off main roads where it is not necessary...so the navigator with the hard copy and just with his knowledge, because William has done it the full 10 times, is essential.

“I would rather be a runner any day. We tell this to the drivers and they think we are not being truthful. It looks like we do the hard work, but we don’t. It is what we have trained for and what we love and it is hard work, but it is enjoyable and I really don’t know how anybody can drive for that sustained amount of time right through the night. You see them some years and they are zombies the next day. That’s why I generally drive home, so they can rest,” he said.

Apart from the unprintable ‘what happens in the van stays in the van’ stuff, most of the effort put in by the team is 100 per cent focus on the challenge.

Occasionally, however, there are a few ‘gems’, as Joe revealed...

“Our team manager Jim Murphy is originally from London, and has a very Cockney accent, and in North Wales they are Welsh-speaking and an anti-English element, particularly after the ‘Thatcher years’. It is really strong. Anyway, I remember Jim going in to a service station because one of the break lights had gone out and the guy behind the counter refused to understand him and stared speaking Welsh to him.

“We went in to the exact same filling station the following year and one of us went in with a Northern Irish accent and the guy spoke perfect English to us. So we got our fuel, but Jim couldn’t get a brake light. Just blanked him completely,” recalled Joe.

The team has been fortunate over the years not to fall foul of injury, but there have been many spectacular falls and somersaults trying to descend the mountain. Weather plays a huge part in safety...

“Ben Nevis in particular is so unpredictable. Our event, the A Group, always happens in the third week in June and this year it was about minus three degrees on the top, but we have been up there in blizzards and high winds. In the ten years we have had only two or three where it was pleasant weather when we got to the summit,” he said.

“In 2006 Eamon Gallagher, who has been a constant of the event, competing nine out of the 10 times, got injured very close to the event. The nature of the event made it very difficult for us to get a volunteer because they had heard that much grief from us, so we could not get anybody, so Hannah Shields at short notice came as a guest on the NIFRS team. In that year we were third and that was the first time we won the Veteran category. Hannah is the only female and the only guest competitor we have had. That year was also the year she climbed Everest,” said Joe.

The main aim of the ‘pilgrimage’ is to raise money for the Firefighets’ Benevolent Fund, and to make sure as much money goes to the fund as possible, the team stumps up for all the costs they incur in getting to and competing in the event.

“I think this year cost us £200 each, the entry fee is £400 of which a large chunk goes to the charity. This year we gave them a cheque for £440 and each year between 30 and 50 teams compete, so it is a good fundraiser for the charity.

Thanking everyone over the years for their support he particularly thanked the Fire and Rescue Service for their support in the early years for donating a minibus and fuel, and he also thanked all the sponsors, those who made donations, and all the competitors over the years.