Quote Originally Posted by IdiotAbroad View Post
I've done the 3P a few times and live in the Lakes. I also do a lot of Guiding so know all 3 peaks well.

My top tips for you and your pal:
- Get a driver and a comfortable car. You'll spend as much time in the car as on the hill. Don't underestimate how stiff you'll get stepping from a hill in to a car and sitting still for 4hrs. Spend a few mins stretching after each descent, change in to fresh kit, then drive.
- Plan food and drink so that you don'd end up surviving on Burger King and Costa. I've seen people quite peaky/ vomiting due to fuelling with junk food before a climb. Best bet is to eat some time before the next ascent.
- Take the shortest route up each hill. Sounds obvious, but get a drop off at Pen Y Pass for Snowdon, it'll save you a third of the height gain. Ben Nevis is a slog, Scafell Pike is short and sharp.

And now with my mountain rescue hat on: I'm not sure if you have a guide/ are on an event. Either way, get all party members to download OS Locate (it'll give a 6fig grid ref which police/ mountain rescue will want), and ideally OS Maps. Scafell Pike is reasonably easy to become disoriented on the summit area (I've been involved in several searches up there). Please carry a decent head torch, whistle, plentiful spare layers, plentiful food and drink. Ideally some sort of group shelter if you can. It can take c.3hrs to get a stretcher party to the higher parts of these hills if you need a rescue, and that's a long time sat still!

Have a fantastic time. And once you're done, you can plan some more leisurely trips to some other lovely hills in each region!
Thanks for taking the time to give this excellent advice. I’ve done my research and will be taking plentiful supplies of slow release food - not living off Burger King and Costa (as good as that sounds!).

I’ll also be following the kit advice to the letter, have bought a compass, whistle, sitting mat, already have most other stuff like waterproof gear, proper boots, head torch etc but will take your advice on the app and download it.

My pals and I are all in decent shape, and putting in the training hours. We’re doing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks the month before as a practice run too. We’re going on a guided event - the company that arranges it will be leading us and doing the driving.

Cheers for the input👍