3 Peaks Challenge - 15/16th July 2006

We did it - 3 Peaks in 23 hours and 31 mins!

2006-07-18T12:42:00.000Z

On one of the hottest weekends this year Team Syngenta successfully completed the 3 Peaks Challenge. It was an awesome achievement for us all personally and it is still sinking in!

Jim, Teresa, Noman, Fil, Paul, Farooq and Phil

Ben Nevis summit 1344m
Ascent/descent 5 hours 12 mins

Scafell Pike summit 978m
Ascent/descent 4 hours 13 mins

Snowdon summit 1085m
Ascent/descent 4 hours 6 mins

It was by no means an easy feat as our blisters, sprains, aches, pains and fatigue will show! Of the 10 teams that took part only two teams did it in less than 24 hours and of those two we were the quickest by a fair margin. This was down to our unbelievable team work, organisational skills and determination. A special mention has to go to our drivers and base camp team of Teresa and Jim Povey - without them driving us to the 3 mountains, organising our kit, accommodation, food and water we simply would not have achieved our challenge.

We would like to thank all of you who have supported us, donated, bought ice creams and raffle tickets and helped us raise over £5200 for the National Deaf Children's Society.

3 Peaks Raffle

2006-07-13T09:09:00.000Z

Thursday 13th July 2006
Thanks to the generosity of family, friends, and colleagues we managed to sell loads of raffle tickets for our grand raffle!

Lorraine (our independent adjudicator) picking the winners

1st Prize - hp digital camera won by Judith

2nd Prize - ipod nano won by Gemma

3rd Prize - signed England shirt won by Nigel

Final training walks

2006-07-13T08:53:00.000Z

Thursday 6th July 2006 - Kinder Part 3
The final training run for the team (minus Noman who was still feeling the effects of the Snowdon walk). We headed back to Kinder Scout and really pushed ourselves and did it in 2 hours 45mins - taking 45 mins off our previous best

Sunday 3rd July 2006 - Snowdon
On a blisteringly hot day Phil, Noman and Mike headed up Mount Snowdon. They followed one of the hardest routes up and the views at the top were well worth it

Micro Direct donates £1000!

2006-07-03T08:09:00.002Z

Micro Direct have pulled out all the stops and have donated a massive £1000 to Team Syngenta. We can't thank the guys at Micro Direct enough for their generosity!

This donation takes us a big step towards our £5000 target.

Full team outing at Kinder Scout

2006-06-30T08:21:00.000Z

Weds 28th June 2006
Our first outing as a full team took us back to Kinder Scout.
The weather was perfect - warm and sunny with a cooling breeze.
We set off after work and arrived at around 5.30pm and finished
just after 9pm.

L-R Noman, Phil, Fil, Paul and Farooq

A tough start!

Getting our poles sorted..

View of Kinder Reservoir

Sorting out Paul's rucksack

Noman points the way forward

Tea break!

Phil checking out the view

Fil on a hill

Top of the world!

Mountain climbing in Trefyn, Wales

2006-06-27T08:33:00.000Z

Sunday 25th June 2006
It was an early start for us - we set off from Manchester at 8.30am to go to Trefyn in Snowdonia National Park Our mountain guide Mike had a challenging route planned for us. Little did we know waht was in store for us...

The team (Fil, Phil and Mike)

The side profile of our
route up Trefyn. Truly awesome!

Mike giving a team talk
"Whatever you do, don't look down!"

Phil hanging on for dear life

Some massive rocks

The guys taking a well
deserved break on half way up

Lunch with a mountain goat
(on the left!)

"Peanut butter!"

These two rocks are known as Adam and Eve.
Legend has it is if you jump over them you will get married
within 5 years. Listen out for them wedding bells!

In total it took us 5 hours - the route was a mix of scrambling, climbing and walking. It was a truly great experience!

Afterwards we found a pub in Bangor and watched England beat Ecuador 1-0 in the World Cup. Beckham with a trademark free-kick!

Kinder Scout Training Session

2006-06-21T07:37:00.000Z

Saturday 17th June 2006
Until now only Noman had been going into the hills training - he'd already been to Snowdon and Scafell in previous weekends. So Fil (who needed the exercise!) joined him and his mountain guide Mike in a jaunt up Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District.
We got to base camp at 10:30am and went for a 3.5 hour walk taking in various different types of terrain. The weather was sunny and warm with a very welcome light breeze..

Mike and Noman at the first checkpoint

Left: Noman, chillin'
Right: Kinder Reservoir

Left: Noman and Mike at the peak
Right: Noman and Fil at the peak

Fil trying to eat lunch

Ram not taking no for an answer!

Mike showing Fil how to use the poles

Right: Noman and Mike during a pit stop before the final descent

The final descent!

Ice Cream Friday!

2006-06-12T12:27:00.000Z

Friday 9th June 2006

It was a swelteringly hot day so it was a perfect day to have an ice cream sale at work!

Teresa and Fil stocked up on ice creams from Tesco in the morning and work provided us with a proper ice cream freezer.

The team sold ice creams in two sittings in the afternoon (1pm and 3pm). Our 3pm sitting was amazing - when we got to our stall there was a long queue of salivating punters. In the first 9 mins we sold 55 ice creams!! At the end of the day we had made a massive £132 profit.

"Just one Cornetto!"

Salivating punters!

Teresa making sure that the Cornetto's tasted OK!

A generous donation from Consignit UK

2006-06-07T07:33:00.000Z

Many thanks to Consignit UK who have donated £100 and have taken us over the £2500 mark which means we can now go ahead with the challenge!

Our first training session!

2006-06-05T09:26:00.000Z

2nd June 2006

We put on our brand new walking boots and set off to for The Edge - Alderley Edge that is! Not the most taxing of walks but gave us a chance to break in our boots!

Fil scrambling down

Paul halted in his tracks

Farooq assuming the crash position

A very generous donation from AEgis Technologies USA

2006-06-02T09:40:00.000Z

A massive thank you to AEgis Technologies of the USA who have donated £214.21 (or $400). It's a cause that's very close to them personally and they were more than happy to help us.

We've broken through the £2000 mark!

2006-05-22T12:03:00.000Z

A big thanks to Shabana Mirza who's donation took us through the online £2000 mark!

We've broken through the £1500 mark!

2006-03-24T09:04:00.000Z

A big thanks to "Charlie The 6ft Blonde Trainer" who's donation took us through the online £1500 mark!

We've broken through the £1000 mark!

2006-03-14T15:05:00.000Z

A big thanks to Rick Cains who's donation took us through the £1000 mark!

And also a massive thanks to everyone who has donated so far!

We have clothing!

2006-03-13T08:44:00.000Z

ARCO are supplying the team with polo shirts, sweatshirts and caps. A big thank you to them!

We have transport!

2006-03-13T08:40:00.000Z

Avis have kindly donated the use of a 9 seater VW Transporter minibus for the event! A big thank you to them!

Who's in Team Syngenta?

2006-03-08T15:09:00.000Z

Phil Lee
Farooq Durrani
Noman Khan
Teresa & Jim Povey
Phil Ward
Paul Whitmore

What is the 3 Peaks Challenge?

2006-03-07T16:08:00.000Z

The Three Peaks that make up the Challenge are Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales. The Challenge is to conquer them all in 24 hours!

It's an amazing challenge to take part in and by completing the event we'll have climbed 2,709 metres, walked 25 miles, driven over 900 miles and raised vital funds to help remove the barriers facing deaf children and their families in the UK

About our charity:
The National Deaf Children’s Society vision is of a future without barriers for every deaf child. NDCS is the only UK charity solely dedicated to providing support, information and advice for deaf children and young people, their families and professionals working with them.
http://www.ndcs.org.uk/index.html

Your support is very welcome - please visit http://www.justgiving.com/teamsyngenta

It begins here

2006-03-07T15:49:00.000Z

This is the start of our journey to climb the 3 highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours!