6 Reasons to Choose a Local 3 Peaks Challenge
The National Three Peaks Challenge is one of the UK’s most popular and well-known mountain challenges. It involves scaling each of the highest peaks in Wales, Scotland and England – Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike. And participants usually choose to do it all within 24 hours.
While the National Three Peaks is a fantastic challenge, it is not without problems. Recognising the drawbacks, many people now opt to do a local three peaks challenge instead. In this article, we provide six compelling reasons why you should consider a local challenge.
But, before we start, we want to caveat this article by clarifying that we are not anti-National Three Peaks Challenge. RAW Adventures helps groups organise and execute the challenge, and we have had many positive experiences and good times doing so. But, as an organisation that wants to promote sustainable practices, we are interested in exploring environmentally friendly alternatives, too.
1. Looking after the environment
The National Three Peaks Challenge is not as kind on the environment as a local challenge. It typically involves around 11 hours of car or minibus travel and a lot of motorway driving. That is an awful lot of easily avoided emissions.
Then there is the impact large numbers of sizable groups have on the mountain environment itself. Historically, there have been issues with litter on the mountainside. Trail degradation is also an issue, as participants feel they are in a race against the clock and begin ascending or descending with little thought for the environment around them.
A local three peaks challenge is far more environmentally friendly and it is not unreasonable to think you could complete one without using any private transport whatsoever. At the same time, local peaks tend to receive fewer visitors, so your challenge will not contribute to even more traffic on the more popular national peaks.
2. Respecting local communities
The communities around nationally popular mountains have a complex relationship with the visitors who arrive en masse in the summer season. They understand the large number of visitors stimulates the local economy and provides a livelihood for many residents.
But they also have to deal with the downside. Litter, traffic congestion, noise and sometimes anti-social behaviour. National Three Peaks Challenge participants present a unique set of problems.
Due to the time restrictions on the challenge, participants often arrive and depart very early in the morning or late at night. The sound of big groups emptying from their bus and getting all the gear ready is not very welcome at these times. Time-pressed participants are also bussed to the foot of each climb. As a result, they don’t always have the opportunity to spend money with local businesses while they are there.
Local challenges sidestep this issue entirely. As you are choosing your own peaks, it won’t be a regular occurrence and residents won’t already be fed up with the noise. Choosing different peaks also lets you spread the love around. There are plenty of beautiful towns and villages out there that deserve your attention, as well as your holiday spend!
3. It’s more enjoyable
It may not go down well with fans of the challenge, but we think a strong case can be made that the National Three Peaks isn’t actually all that fun. 11 hours on the motorway? That’s not many people’s idea of a wonderful outdoor adventure.
Yes, it’s a big physical challenge and completing the National Three Peaks is rewarding. But if you want to maximise the fun involved in your challenge, we think you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere. A local challenge that sees you spend more time on the mountainside and less time travelling between peaks is surely the way to go.
4. There are so many places to explore
Obviously, we love Yr Wyddfa. And Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike aren’t bad either. But they are just three peaks among many. Here in Eryri alone, there are plenty of lesser-known peaks that are wonderfully special and deserve more attention. Across the country, there are hundreds.
A local three peaks challenge gives you the opportunity to explore somewhere you may not know particularly well. Somewhere away from the tourist trail that you may not otherwise have visited.
As an Eryri-based organisation, we will always encourage people to come to the area and experience the wonder of Yr Wyddfa. But we’re not going to pretend that it’s the only place you can have a good time outdoors. Sometimes, exploring your local countryside is just as magical.
5. It’s all in the planning
The National Three Peaks Challenge schedule is fairly rigid and well-established. The routes, transport logistics and timings are all sorted and you can just grab them offline or sign up for a supported challenge and let someone take care of the whole thing for you. It’s easy.
However, if you are anything like us, you would happily give up a fair chunk of that ease to have a hand in the challenge planning. Is there anything more satisfying than unfolding an OS map, spreading it across the table and realising just how much there is to explore?
For us, planning a hike, trip or challenge is all part of the fun. It makes it unique and personally meaningful. When you invest more into something, you get more out. And that’s true for mountain challenges, too. Spend time designing your own and you will love it even more.
6. The “highest” and the “furthest” aren’t all that matter
At some point, anyone who enjoys the mountain environment through the prism of sport or physical challenge (plenty of people enjoy it for other reasons) will have been guilty of getting obsessed with the numbers and data.
Scaling the highest peak. Most metres of elevation gained. Longest distance covered. Fastest 10 km. It is understandable. Often, it is how we measure performance and improvement. But there is also something in many of us that wants to push to the limits.
The National Three Peaks Challenge falls into this category. It’s each country’s highest peak. Nothing but the fact they are very tall connects them.
Creating a local three peaks challenge allows you to shift the emphasis away from all those highest, hardest, furthest superlatives and make it about something else. You might walk three peaks with a historical theme or take it slower so you can fit in some sketching or photography along the way. You may want to choose three peaks you can bivvy on and do the challenge over as many days.
Designing your own challenge gives you much more freedom and allows you to shape your adventure to reflect how the mountains excite and engage you.
Mountain challenges with RAW
At RAW Adventures, we help organise several excellent mountain challenges in Eryri. As well as the National Three Peaks Challenge, we have the Welsh 3000s, Snowdonia Slate Trail and Climb Snowdon challenges to consider. Further afield, we plan the Welsh Three Peaks and Yorkshire Three Peaks challenges, too. If you are considering the National Three Peaks, we have written a guide to tackling the event sustainably.
We can also help you organise other group challenge ideas in the Eryri area and around the UK. So if you have an idea and want our help, contact the RAW team to discuss your next challenge.
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