3 peaks, 3 charities and a hell of a lot of miles in between.

The Challenge: 11th-17th May (or until we finish!)

You’ve all heard of the 3 Peaks right, but what about on mountain bikes? A pretty savage challenge but something both of us always had on our biking ‘wish list’. A bit of lockdown research and the idea seemed out of the question after realising one of the peaks (Scafell Pike) doesn’t allow bikes on the mountain…

Undeterred (arguably more determined), and on a mission to find an alternative to the traditional 3 peaks, we came up with a lakes detour that included Helvellyn instead of Scafell Pike. Hellvellyn is the highest mountain in England with byways that permit bikes (at 27m lower than Scafell Pike it’s the 3rd highest mountain in England overall).

Not content with mountain biking up and down Ben Nevis, Helvellyn and Snowdon as challenge enough in itself, we’ll be road biking between each mountain.

Over 700KM and 8500m of climbing and an estimated time of 7 days on the bikes in total (Pretty scary when you write out those numbers).

The main inspiration for this challenge comes in the form of 3 wonderful causes that need your help. Please read on to understand why we are compelled to put our minds and bodies to the test in this way.

We appreciate times are tough so we appreciate hugely your donations or support of any kind.

The Charities:

Ben Nevis: Casey Newton Recovery fund (https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-casey-following-spinal-trauma)

Helvellyn: Calmzone https://www.thecalmzone.net/

Snowdon: England and Wales Mountain Rescue https://wwwstaging.mountain.rescue.org.uk/fact_file/fact-file-1-faqs-about-us/

If you would like to donate to a specific cause- please add a note on your donation.

Ben Nevis: Casey Newton’s Recovery fund

The main catalyst for wanting to take on such a big challenge for charity comes in the form of our good friend and riding pal, Casey Newton. Experiencing a life altering injury in April 2021 whilst riding her mountain bike, Casey’s initial prognosis was admittedly bleak, with a crushed spinal cord, broken ribs and spine, Casey was paralysed and told she would never walk again, and her life would drastically change. Since her Injury, Casey has been a beacon of realness, strength, positivity and compassion not to mention smashing her recovery but it’s a long road ahead. One comment from Casey that had really struck a chord with us in the early days of her injury to Katie was “Being disabled is expensive”. With your help, Casey can have consistent access to Physio, working towards a personal goal of hers to walk with her splints. As well as relieving some of the financial pressure to the insurmountable lifestyle changes and costs required.

Helvellyn: Calmzone

Some of our best riding pals are men and its fair to say, especially in the mountain biking and action sports worlds, the conversation about Men’s mental health can sometimes get neglected. After the past two years of uncertainty and general stress, it’s no surprise there is a lot of people feeling frankly, shit. Calmzone primarily supports men with a 365 days of the year phoneline to Campaign Against Living Miserably. 125 lives are lost every week in the UK to suicide, 75% are male, Calmzone exist to change this by provoking conversation, running life-saving services and bring people together so they can get the help needed. Charities like this rely so heavily on donations, volunteers and supporters in all forms. Two thirds of the MTB community are made up of men, so let’s show our support.

Snowdon: Mountain Rescue England and Wales

MREW acts as a coordinating body, representing the interests of mountain rescue with the statutory bodies, the Coastguard and at government level.

MREW actively raises funds which are used to maintain the organisation and support the central provision of training, key items of rescue equipment, relevant insurance policies, publications and marketing initiatives which benefit all the teams based regionally.

“You never know when you might need it”, words we’ve uttered many a time when setting out on a big adventure. We always hope we never have to encounter them, but we are incredibly fortunate that in the UK we are supported by Mountain Rescue services, predominantly staffed by volunteers, 355 days a year 24 hours a day. Given there is always a level of risk when enjoying outdoor sports and mountainous areas, we felt it appropriate to include MREW as a focus area for this challenge.

The Riders:

Katie: A relative newbie to the sport and VERY much a newbie to road biking (at the point of writing this, I’ve only ever ridden a MTB and a gravel bike- cue me shitting myself cornering on road wheels any day soon). I love bikes, I really love bikes actually. They’ve introduced me to some awesome friends and places and its somewhere I go to escape, smile and challenge myself.

Fun fact: Never ridden more than 80km in one go (at time of writing this) Sorry Liz!

Liz: Liz has been riding bikes on and off since childhood and always embracing any opportunity to be outdoors in nature. Having raced Gravity Enduro since 2017, she rose through the ranks supported by varying brands and finished the 2019 season 6th overall in the UK in her category. Motivated to go bigger in 2020 she enlisted the help of a coach - Adel from Shaka Lifestyle Coaching - and soon became a stronger and fitter rider. Unfortunately, Covid scuppered plans to take her racing internationally and so she mixed things up dabbling with gravel bikes and XC, winning a solo 24hr race during the summer. This was the beginning of a new angle of riding for Liz, a love for the uncomfortable longer endurance challenges which is exactly what she’s excited for about the Alt. Three Peaks!

The Coach:

Adel: The long suffering coach to both of us! But much much more than this.

With over 10 years of experience in personal coaching and high performance. Adel is a former professional athlete with national and world titles from early to mid 2010’s, having competed and succeeded in Ironman and short course triathlon, endurance events such as 24hr races and excelled in many sporting professions. There are very few sports that Adel has not had direct experience in at a competitive level, everything from Speed Skating to Pedal Car Racing, Bikini competitions to boxing. Now she has us!

BRING IT ON!