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teams, 26 marshals, 4 mountains, 4 countries, a TV crew and
a staggering £376,358.00 pledged for Wooden Spoon projects
throughout the UK and Ireland, all in 48 hours!
Whilst the rest of the UK basked in glorious sunshine, Fort
William looked distinctly grey on Thursday morning and the
organisers were left wondering if there was a God! But, as
the teams registered the cloud slowly lifted and there were
near perfect climbing conditions on the Ben – not too
hot, not too cold and just a little damp occasionally.
Charles
Kennedy MP arrived at the Ben to welcome the first
teams home – and from then on the challenge motored!...….
The teams had obviously trained hard this year with a fastest
time of 7 hours 40 minutes and the slowest team completing
all four mountains in 16 hours 29 minutes – nearly 2
hours quicker than 2005.
Credential Climbers scaled all 4406ft of
Ben Nevis in 5 Hours 22 minutes. An overnight drive to the
lake district saw the team arrive in the early hours of the
morning in time to grab an hours sleep before the 6.00am start
at Helvellyn, the 3117ft climb took 2 hours 44 minutes.
With Half the challenge completed Snowdon was to be the 2nd
climb of the day. Foggy weather did not dampen the spirits
and 3 hours and 45 minutes later Snowdon became the 3rd mountain
to be covered.
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With
aching legs and sore feet the team took the overnight ferry
to Dublin. Following a 5 hour drive to Killarney the team
set off in driving rain to climb Carantoohill
in 4 hours 30 minutes and crossed the finish line with great
relief and a huge sense of achievement having raised £10,000
in pledges.
From
left to right : Rebecca Creeny (P.A.), Andy Hinton (Chairman),
Steve Patterson (Divisional Director), Alistair Cooper (Finance
Director).
In total the event raised £376,358
for the Wooden Spoon charity supporting mentally, physically
and socially disadvantaged children and young people. Spoon
has committed to over £11 million in spending for
projects for children and young people. It has organised
over 1,500 events and had 20,000 ties worn by its loyal
members and supporters. Hardworking staff and volunteers
have achieved all of this since the birth of the charity.
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