It’s almost time for the BDP team to tackle the National Three Peaks Challenge, and with that in mind the team have been training hard. Consultants Santiago Suárez and Vanessa Leiper provide an insight into how they’ve been preparing for the challenge and why they’re taking it on.
If you would like to show your support for the team undertaking the National Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for SANDS Lothian, please do so via the Just Giving page. To read more about the challenge and our chosen charity, click here.
Santiago, an experienced mountain hiker shares his thoughts on why he is taking on the Three Peaks.
Why? Because it’s a challenge. As consultants that’s what we do: we challenge ourselves to reach higher levels, to overcome difficulties and to achieve our goals. Whether this is at work, helping our clients achieve their goals or climbing mountains and raising money for a worthy charity as SANDS Lothians.
I’ve always been keen on mountain hiking: I walked in the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and Guadarrama in Spain, and Serra da Estrela and Serra de Sintra in Portugal. However, years of computer work had put me on the wrong side of the scale, so this is a good opportunity to test myself, to get me back on track and to reconnect with this passion.
It has been a few hard months of training for the challenge, with several munros climbed and lots of hours at the gym. Am I ready? Are we ready? We are a team, and teams succeed!
Vanessa has not taken the task ahead lightly, below is her training schedule in the lead up to the 6th – 7th July…
- Dumyat – Completed within 1.5 hours.
- Ben A’an – Completed within 2 hours
- Ben Ledi – Completed 6.2 miles within 4 hours, weather up the top was really, foggy and I couldn’t see two feet in front of me lol
- Ben Lomond – I’ve completed this twice. The first time I did this, we climbed the hardest route and it was 25 degrees, gorgeous views from the top and managed to complete this in 5.5 hours. My second attempt at the easier route, the weather conditions was severe, heavy rain and blizzard weather at the top – prepared for any conditions now!
- Ben Venue – Completed less than 4 hours.
- Ben Cleuch – Completed within 3 hours.
- Earlier this month completed Ben Cleuch on the Friday, Ben Lomond on the Saturday and Ben Ledi on the Sunday.
- Last weekend, Ben Cleuch again on the Friday, Ben Lui on Saturday and Ben Ledi again on the Sunday.
Fair to say, Vanessa is ready for this weekend!
We will be posting updates on the team’s progress throughout the challenge Friday 6th to Saturday 7th. Follow BDP on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to see how they’re getting on.
