Complete Self Protection By Al Peasland

Peak Bagging CHALLENGE		Return to Articles
This week’s article is as much a thank you as it is a Complete Self Protection piece. I write it whilst still nursing sore feet and a slightly loose thumb nail, the reasons for which have conjured up many wild and wonderful offerings from my friends. Sadly, the reality is far more mundane – but more about that later. The sore feet are a result of having being invited and welcomed onto a 3 day Peak Bagging Challenge in our very own Lake District. For those not familiar with hill walking and climbing, Peak Bagging is a common term for successfully summiting a hill, and ideally, making a successful descent in order to tell the tale to your grandkids. The challenge was a privately organised event, to take part over 3 days and aiming to bag 11 of the 25 highest peaks in the Lake District National Park. As the crow flies, the distances might not sound that great, 9 miles on the Friday, 13 miles on the Sat and 7 miles on the Sunday, followed by a nice 5 hour drive home, but the changes in gradient made it a much greater distance and far more arduous. So as a novice hill walker, had I not participated in a warm up event a couple of months earlier, I may have entered into the challenge with a lot less anticipation than I actually did. To cut a very long weekend and even longer story short, I would just like to say a massive congratulations to everyone in the team who successfully completed the whole event and made the weekend fun even through the adversity of horrid weather and aching legs. The determination of everyone, to complete the event and raise money for the extremely worthy cause of the British Heart Foundation was impressive and a pleasure to be part of. A huge thank you to Stuart for organising the event, the routes, the accommodation, the quizzes (although I have to say I was disappointed to not hear any Phil Collins in the music round) and everything else that went in to making the event run so smoothly. Thanks also to Lou for being 'mum' to us all and feeding us all up after a particularly tough and cold day on the Friday. The first day saw us meet around late morning in the beautiful surroundings of Wasdale Head. After introductions we all huddled for a team photograph and I think it’s safe to say that we were all a little oblivious of what we’ve let ourselves in for.

What followed was around 7 hours of up and down, clambering over rocks, scrambling up hillsides and sliding down scree. Scree being a totally new word for me and basically meaning loose rocks and shale – which we found makes for a fun descent and ties in nicely with my newly found skiing prowess. (See my Back to Basics article for more details on that one). It was a tumble on the scree and a neat little break-fall into some rather solid rocks that resulted in my thumb and thumb nail going their separate ways. Obviously, it goes without saying that this was all kept quietly to myself, except for a trembly bottom lip moment when I asked Lou to “check out the blood under my thumb nail”. So friends, sorry to disappoint all those who have already offered their own version of events as to why I may have spent 3 days away from home, and come back with sore feet and a sore thumb! We completed both of our Peaks in good time, even with a minor navigational hiccup that saw us clambering across the side of Great Gable looking for the path down. All part of the process and adds a little fun to the event.

Saturday saw us up early, and after a very healthy breakfast, in keeping with the theme of the charity event, ie, the British Heart Foundation.

Another team photo was called and this time, with already stiff legs and aching feet, we were all a little less eager to get our walking boots on.

We set off on a familiar route, one that a few of us had already partly covered in a trial walk weeks before. Sun Tzu says, “Know your enemy and you may never fear the outcome of a thousand battles”. That may be true, but sometimes it’s perhaps better to be totally oblivious to what you’re about to face. I say that a little tongue in cheek, but knowing how tough the start of the route was going to be, made the excitement of completing another 8 peaks a little less vibrant. I think I’d have preferred to have been in the dark on this occasion. However, without much fuss or excitement we managed to successfully summit another 8 of the highest peaks in the UK in a great time of around 9 hours, with only one small casualty. Jean, suffering a badly twisted ankle on the route down prompted us all to jump into mountain rescue mode and dive for our first aid kits to see what we could do to resolve the situation. Personally, I feel my suggestion of helping her with her rucksack, and then not actually having to be the one to carry it down, was a stroke of genius on my part. Thankfully, we all made it back safely, and Jean was able to head home, so no major damage was done.
Wearing your cap in Gangsta Rappa style is a National Park requirement apparently!

So now, onto my other reason for this week’s article. Sunday morning arrived and we were all feeling a little tired, lacking sleep and comfy shoes; with sore and stiffening legs amongst all of the other aches from 2 days and 10 peaks bagged. We had a short drive to the start point for the final day which was to be a long drag up to Blencathra, navigating some lovely scenery, a waterfall, and beautiful Tarn and, for some, a particularly hazardous climb along a rocky ridge known as Sharp Edge. Its name says it all, as do the accident statistics that, thankfully, Fiona forwarded on to me this week (after) the weekend’s climbing. At this point I have to say a huge congratulations to everyone who made it along that part of the route and in particular, a well deserved pat on the back to Richard who faced his fears to climb along half of it, and to then add a further climb to his route by being sensible, listening to his intuition and doing the right thing of turning around to follow the other party up the opposite side of the tarn. I was most impressed with his drive and tenacity with what was a very tough climb on very tired legs. Well done mate.

It was during the start of day 3 that we all noticed a slight quiet amongst the group. Clearly everyone was tired and feeling the effects of the previous two days. Most were probably now keen to get this over with and head home for a hot bath and sleep in a familiar bed; I know I was. It was then that I realised, the clue was in the title of the event. A peak bagging CHALLENGE. This is what a challenge is all about. It Has to be tough, it Has to be uncomfortable and it Has to be..... wait for it...... Challenging! If it wasn’t challenging, there wouldn’t be many people interested in donating money to the charity in support of our efforts. After all, I don’t see many people queuing up to sponsor my morning drive to work, for example, so it has to be difficult. And, it was the first two days of the walk that made day 3 so difficult. In reality, that is what those first 2 days were for. To make day 3 more of a challenge. I liken this to any area of my training where I am aiming to push myself in order to achieve any form of growth. Let’s say we’re in the gym, working the weights, trying to grow muscle. We all know that to grow muscle we must first break it down, and this is what the Burning feeling we get is doing. Consequently, until we reach the point where it starts to burn and feel uncomfortable, we haven’t really achieved anything, and certainly won’t have effected much growth. So, good weight trainers will engineer their workout in order to get to the Burn as quickly as possible. More importantly still, they will then try to stay In the burn for as long as possible, because they know this is where the growth is. Lets also look at running as another example. When I begin a run, I know it’s not until I am feeling tired, out of breath and wobbly legged that I am starting to really push my limits and extend my range, speed, fitness and mental endurance further. If, every time my run became uncomfortable, I stopped, then tomorrow’s run would be exactly the same. I would not grow physically or mentally. So I have to push through this discomfort and stay in it for as long as I can, that way I improve. Pushing through this requires will power, and so we not only start to develop our physical bodies to have more endurance, more strength and more power, but we also grow the most important muscle of all – our mental muscle.

So back to our walk, our first 2 days were the reps we do before the burn. They were the miles we run before we start to struggle. Day 3 was the day where we immersed ourselves in the burn and the discomfort. Day 3 was where we really started to grow, and Day 3 was where we added Challenge to a Peak Bagging Event. The final group picture shows a very happy team, having completed all 11 peaks we set out to complete.

Thank you to everyone who supported us with their generous donations. Charities such as the BHF do amazing work and constantly need our support.
Stay Safe and Have Fun Al x
More articles to be uploaded soon