Climbing Mountains For Caravan

Simon Dunn has just returned from the Lake District, climbing mountains in support of ‘Caravan’....

I have worked with the Thames Valley committee since 2000 and have become involved in all types of fundraising activities. These are all very demanding, some in the preparation, some in the execution.

I remember the first time I climbed three peaks, Snowdon, Sca-Fell Pike and Ben Nevis all in under 24 hours. I had heard of the challenge but did not appreciate the physical reality of it.

Set for raising some cash as sponsorship, we departed flat and leafy Berkshire to mountainous North Wales in June 2000 to conquer the peaks as described. The challenge starts at 9am and the plan is to reach the top of Ben Bevis at 9am the following day. I managed to do all that, but could hardly walk by the end of it!

So, we did it again in 2002, however in 2004 we went for something a bit tougher, The Caledonian Challenge, 54 miles nonstop from Ben Nevis to Loch Lomond, the latter took a month to recover from.

On 5th and 6th July 2008, we did the three highest peaks of England, Sca-Fell Pike, Sca-Fell and Hellvellyn all over 3,000 footers a lot of scree and scramble climbing. It was a more sedentary pace, 2 Sca-Fells (71/2 hours) on the 5th and Hellvellyn (4 hours) on 6th.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Simon.