Here is a surprising story that appears to have had little coverage. It happened in mid August 2009, the locations:- Scotland, England, and then finally Wales. Two guys performed a mega fund raising event. Despite taking nine months of labour in its planning and training, seven hours in its birth and five days in its execution, these two guys, Darren Edwards and Bryn Posey, have pulled it off! It is a story of two men on a mission. A money raising mission. To help their nominated charities Children with Leukemia, Help for Heroes, Skill Force and NACC – National Association of Colitis and Crohn’s. So what did these two intrepid men do?

Quite simply these two men in five days, visited 10 peaks of mountains, that is over 16,000 metres of ascent and descent. An amazing total of 50 plus miles on foot across England, Scotland and Wales. On 15th August 2009, preparation for the trip commenced. "When I wake up in 7 hours" said Darren, "we begin our long trek from Exeter to our starting point in Scotland. I feel like I did when I was little on Christmas eve... I am excited and all the packing is done, all the worry is over. Now our aim is just to get our bodies around the routes as fast as possible.. it's easy to get wrapped up in all the hype and stress of setting up an event of this type. You drift off planning and training".

The two men headed for Scotland on the 16th August 2009. All the training, pain, sickness, bad days, good days and the respect they have for the amount of work that goes in to charity events, they are now on the road. They can't do anything now but relax, read routes and prep for a 5am start the next morning, when the first run/hike/crawl starts. Ben MacDui is the highest mountain in the Cairngorms of Scotland. It lies on the southern edge of the Cairngorm plateau. It is on the boundary between Aberdeenshire and Moray. Along the way they have collected a number of pieces of important equipment from sponsors like their sleeping system Solo Tents and Sleeping bags, protective bedding and clothing. The ground temperature the previous night meant they woke every few hours to turn to relieve the numbness on one side.

They arrived at the Ski Centre Car park which they had chosen as their starting point of the ascent to Ben Macdui. The stunning views, valleys filled with blankets of clouds flowing over the top in to the re entrants and dissipating as mist. Next day it was the turn if Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK. Ben Nevis was followed by Ben Lomond, Scafell Pike, Skiddaw, Man of Coniston, Helvellyn, Mt. Snowdon, Cadair Idirs, and Pen y Fan.

For more details of this exciting adventure please visit www.ukeverestchallenge.blogspot.com

(Article by Charles Litster)