Welsh Three Peaks Challenge: Pen y Fan, Cadair Idris, Mount Snowdon - Can I Do It In Under 12 Hours?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- The Welsh Three Peaks challenge is a hiking challenge which requires you to summit and descend the three iconic Welsh mountains. These are:
1. Pen y Fan in Brecon Beacons
2. Cadair Idris in South Snowdonia
3. Mount Snowdon in North Snowdonia
Having taken on the National Three Peaks Challenge in August 2021, I wanted to challenge myself again and decided the Welsh Three Peaks would fit the bill. Despite much searching online, I couldn’t find out what the actual time limit was for this challenge. Some places said 12 hours and others said 24 hours.
The day before the challenge, I set off to Wales early one evening and stayed in a Premier Inn 30 minutes away from the Brecon Beacons. After an early alarm, I got in my car and headed off for a crazy and tiring day of hiking taking on this challenge.
My top tips for taking on this challenge:
- Start early. It’s much better to start early and have the leisure of daylight later on in the day if you need it, than to be rushing around frantically because you don’t want to be climbing in the dark. I started at 5.55am from Brecon Beacons.
- Organise all the travel locations beforehand. With two hotels and three mountain carparks to travel to throughout the challenge, I organised all of the postcodes beforehand. This made life so much easier, as all I needed to do was get up the postcode list from my phone and plug it into my sat nav to swiftly drive to the next part of the challenge. I have included the postcode locations of all the carparks for each mountain I used at the end of the video.
- Check parking locations beforehand. Whilst it was pretty easy to park at Pen y Fan and Cadair Idris, I ran into trouble at Mount Snowdon in the Pen y Pass carpark (Miners and Pyg paths). I was told that I needed to book parking before hand, and that my only option was to park 3 miles down the road in a park and ride or farmer’s field and get a bus or taxi up. This added about 15 minutes onto my total time and stressed me out. Don’t make my mistake; check and pay for parking in the main carpark beforehand.
- Bring a decent kit list. Climbing three tall mountains one after the other requires a good amount of kit, both in terms of staple kit and emergency kit. I’ll post a total kit list below so you can see what I used, and I’d highly recommend anyone else to bring a similar kit list.
- Check the weather. Conditions on these mountains can vary massively from one day to the next and change lots over the course of one day. Check the weather forecast before heading off to take on the challenge and only climb if it’s safe to do so. There will always be another time to try the challenge.
Strava efforts (no idea why the ‘moving time’ is different to the actual times:
Pen y Fan - / strava
Cadair Idris - / strava
Mount Snowdon - / strava
Brecon Beacons Horseshoe Ridge video - • Hiking The Brecon Beac...
Follow me on Strava - / strava
Follow me on Instagram - @craigbarden1
Kit list used during the challenge:
Backpack - amzn.to/3xl9hK1
10,00mm waterproof coat - amzn.to/3PVqlO1
Other more lightweight coat - amzn.to/3tghMUg
Shoes (road running shoes because I forgot my trail shoes) - amzn.to/3avNW7w
Base layer - amzn.to/3zjKlUG
First aid kit - amzn.to/3NY7n7F
Portable charger - amzn.to/3avzaOl
Ben Parkes hat - benparkes.com/collections/mer...
Phone holder for car - amzn.to/3tiQ4WR
Music from Epidemic Sounds - www.epidemicsound.com
Timestamps:
0:00 - Journey to Pen y Fan
0:10 - Pen y Fan ascent
03:31 - Pen y Fan descent
05:15 - Journey to Cadair Idris
06:02 - Cadair Idris ascent
10:15 - Cadair Idris descent
12:41 - Journey to Mount Snowdon
13:08 - Mount Snowdon ascent
17:34 - Mount Snowdon descent
19:33 - Conclusion and debrief
#welshthreepeaks #penyfan #cadairidris #mountsnowdon
Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that the channel may receive a small commission for any purchases made after you click on one of these links. This is at no extra cost to you, and it will be a way to support the channel. Thank you :)
Keep to your full time job
Fair play mate. Great effort and very well done.
Cheers, Phil. It was a great challenge to take on and I'd highly recommend it to anyone!
Well done on the challenge and nice video mate. Don't blame you for getting back down Snowdon instead of waiting in that queue. Looked mega busy up there.
Cheers Mark! It was a great challenge, highly recommended. Never seen Snowdon that packed before, it was so busy and there was actually quite a few queues coming up the Miner's Track in tight spots which added some time on. Lovely weather though so can't complain!
Clicked like before even watching, great content keep it going
Cheers Michael, will do!
Great effort, only time I’ve been to the summit of snowdon was in the complete black of night on the 3rd September this year when I did the national 3 peaks challenge. There was a small queue at the trig point at 4:45am!!.
Congrats for your three peaks challenge! Wow, a queue at 4.45am sounds incredible. Some very dedicated hikers 🙏
Sheeesh, what a view! Hope the algo blesses you my dude. Keep up the cool views, insights on the locations, and what not. Cheers!
Thanks for the kind words! The views were pretty amazing for sure, highly recommended!
Brilliant video
Thank you!
Fair play😉
😉
Strong effort. Looks like a decent challenge tbf. Which hydration vest are you using and would you recommend buying? TIA
Thanks fella. It was a top challenge and I'd recommend it, good laugh. I have only ever used (and used in the video) the Salomon Advanced Skin 12 vest backpack. I use this for all my long distance running, trail running and hiking efforts, and think it is a fantastic bit of kit.
ive got to be honest im not waiting in that que, im defo running passed everyone touching the top and getting a quick selfie. what they going to do? call the mountain police. looks like you picked a belting day for views mate
Hahaha, the mountain police
😂 The views were lovely for all the mountains, a rare occurence for me as the sights are usually covered by thick mist and cloud!