Two students at St John’s in Marlborough have successfully completed the challenging Three Peak Challenge in less than 24 hours, in difficult weather conditions, all in aid of the new sports facilities at St John’s.
Jack Amos, 15 and Lucas Schreiber, 14, climbed the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales on Saturday and Sunday, accompanied by their fathers John Amos and Charlie Schreiber, and by Memphis the dog, and successfully completed the challenge in under 24 hours.
Driven by Jack’s Mum, the expedition started early on Saturday morning, reaching Scotland’s highest peak, Ben Nevis in time to begin walking at 5.25pm.
“We managed to complete the Ben Nevis climb in 4 hours, 45 minutes, 15 minutes ahead of our target of five hours, and immediately got back into the car, where we could get changed, eat and sleep while we were driven to Scafell in the Lake District” explained Lucas and Jack.
“The next leg of the challenge was the worst. We set off at 4.40am and the weather was awful, with 70mph winds, and cold rain, but we managed to get to the summit and back in 3 hours 30 minutes, much faster than our 4 hour target”.
The next leg of the journey into Wales gave the team another chance to rest, ready for the final challenge of Snowdon. The weather had improved by this time and the team beat their target time by ten minutes, finishing in 3 hours, 50 minutes. By this time it was 5pm on Sunday and the challenge had taken just 25 minutes short of 24 hours, during which time the boys had walked some 25 miles.
Having completed the Challenge, Jack and Lucas are hoping to raise £1,000 for the new All-Weather Pitch at St John’s, and have already reached their £500 target on Just Giving.
The boys were both back in school on Monday morning, tired but delighted to have achieved their goal. They explained their reasons for choosing to support St John’s.
“We believe this facility will benefit both St Johns and the local community and hope people will donate a small sum of money that will help build the facility. Once this facility is complete it will make a huge impact at sport both within St Johns and Marlborough so please, dig deep, and support our cause”.
Anyone wanting to sponsor them can donate online at: www.justgiving.com/lucas-and-jack or can donate by mobile phone (to donate £5 text LJCC97 £5 to 70070).
Alternatively, anyone wanting to donate by cheque should contact Kate Hunter at St John’s on 01672 519575 for more information.
This is the second challenge set up recently in aid of St John’s. Teacher Tom Nicholls is setting off at the start of the school’s summer break to cycle 900 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats. He is also asking for online donations via Just Giving: www.justgiving.com/TomNicholls12
