UK Everest Challenge – 2 guys, 5 days, 10 peaks

Here at CheapTents.com, we love it when people share their stories, write reviews, pass on outdoor industry news for us to then share, and what not, but we also like to raise the profile of outdoor sports athletes for sponsorship purposes and even for their charitable causes.  For this reason, make sure you contact us for more information.

Guys that did this just last week, are now featuring on our blog, and we will be following their progress over the coming year.  And we couldn’t be more happy to support them! Here’s what they’re getting up to…

The UK Everest Challenge email

As an outdoor shop we like a whole lot of outdoor sports, mountain scenery and the associated activities with the wilderness, camping and of course a big challenge.  So, when an email from Darren Edwards, part of the UK Everest Challenge, landed in our inbox, we thought why not, and anyway, it’s for chaarity!

We decided to help promote Darren’s and Bryn’s efforts because of their organisation to succeed…they were very well motivated, knew how to achieve their goals, what they would have to put themsevles through, why they were doing it and were clearly very focussed:

Transforming our bodies in to running, scrambling and hiking endurance
machines in only ten months time is a daily challenge all on its own
[I’ve lost 2 stone in two months as it is!!].

Everest is a long way away

Have you ever wanted to climb Everest?  Thought it’s a long way to go for an 8,848m (29,029 ft) climb, when there’s a whole lot of mountains in the UK already…add a few of those together and you could bag quite a few thousand metres of mountain anyway!  Well Darren and Bryn had just this very thought!  they are focusing themselves on taking on some of the toughest routes, highest peaks and spread right across the England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The peak of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters (29,029 ft) above sea level and is one of the worlds most breathtaking regions. Climbing Everest takes many thousands of pounds in permits, training, equipment, insurance and travelling expenses. There’s a great article here, about the cost of an Everest climb.

So would it not make more sense to give all the money to charity rather than spend it on climbing the greatest peak? and this is where the idea for a UK based Everest Charity Challenge was born.

This makes a whole lot of sense to us, and hopefully it does to you too.  But what does the challenge entail?

So what exactly is the UK Everest Challenge?

2 guys: Darren Edwards and Bryn Posey

2 packs: 25kg backpacks

5 days: in just 265 days time!

10 peaks: see the list below

Darren and Bryn will be doing this mammoth trek up-and-down 10 peaks, with a 1 man support ‘team’, to take the 3 Peaks Challenge one step further, by taking on some of the UK’s largest peaks in just 5 days.  This means a whole lot of travel , trekking and motivation to take on such a mean feat!

UK Everest Challenge: The Mountains

The UK obviously doesn’t have an Everest laying about but it does have some of the most breath-taking scenery available anywhere in the world (in my humble opinion anyway!).

These are the mountains that Darren and bryn are going to climb to raise money for their charities…

Mountain	Country	Height m.	Height ft.
Slieve Donard	N.Ireland	849	2,786
Ben Nevis	Scotland	1344	4,406
Ben MacDui	Scotland	1309	4,295
Scafell Pike	England	978	3,209
Skiddaw	England	931	3,054
Man of Coniston	England	803	2,634
Helvellyn	England	950	3,117
Snowdon	Wales	1085	3,560
Cadair Idirs	Wales	893	2,930
Pen y Fan	Wales	886	2,907
	TOTAL	10,028 m	32,898 ft

So that means 4 in the Lakes, 2 in Snowdonia, 1 in Brecon Beacons, 2 in Scotland and 1 in Northern Ireland…even traveling between all these places would be a massive achievement in such little time!

The hard work and motivation in their preparations

Darren and Bryn are clearly very motivated in their efforts to help raise money for their charities, and are making multiple sacrifices, and it’s really difficult to sum-up their motivation better than through this statement:

Where every other word mentioned in the news seems to be about ‘credit crunch’ or once again drumming it in to us that we all need to ‘tightening up our financial belts’, it probably feels the wrong climate to raise money for any worthy causes. But if we all thought like that nothing would ever get done!

Personally I’ve done some house keeping of my own to help me fund this challenge, less beer, less hair cuts and I’m buying a bike to save on my travel bills, this small, but growing list goes on.

Both Bryn and myself are passionately committed to our charity challenge. It will be very rewarding come the end of August 2009, when we look back over our achievements and the money we’ll be able to give to charity. I guess we’ll have a warm, humble but proud feeling inside, that only comes from when you really push yourself to do something for others far less fortunate than yourself.

Darren Edwards

Personally, I think their dedication to their goals is what will make them succeed in spectacular fashion.

The UK Everest Challenge Charities

The charities that have been selected for this challenge are by no means ‘randomly selected’, they have been chosen on the grounds that they are both personal to Darren and Bryn and also far-reaching in regards to the money that they hope to raise…£8,848 (or more!).  by supporting the UK Everest Challenge, you will be supporting:

…certainly worthy of such an incredible effort.

Support UK EC

It’s all the little things people do that make a difference, so maybe you could forward this link to other people that you know who might be interested in supporting these guys, or maybe post about it on your blog or website and proudly wear the “I’m supporting the UK Everest Challenge” badge on your website…anything you can do to support these guys would be appreciated.

If you would like to support the UK Everest Challenge by making a donation, follow the link through to their site for more details.  And don’t forget to stay tuned for ongoing updates from the UK Everest Challenge team on the run up to the events!

Share

We love it when people share their interests and contribute, if you would like to feature on the CheapTents.com blog, then please feel free to contact us, or share your comments below…