It becomes clear that a trial run is needed

Having attended the Future Leaders Walking Course in Snowdonia this July, it became clear to me that to lead such an event as the Three Peaks comes with significant responsibility. A key part is to undertake reconnaissance of the planned routes for each mountain, and to assess the time commitment and fitness demands that climbing these mountains would pose for somebody with McArdle disease.

I planned a trip for a week in September with three friends, two were experienced mountain walkers and all three knew about my condition. A few weeks earlier the challenge might have been sunstroke, but in that week, the challenge was high winds and heavy rainfall!

Building fitness and losing weight

In preparation I increased my attendance at the gym and from 12 August I adopted a vegan ketogenic diet. I’m vegan anyway but my previous experience of a high fat ketogenic diet had shown that it would increase my exercise capacity and allow me to shed some surplus weight which I was keen not to carry up these mountains.

In the couple of weeks leading up to our trip I started to change the focus of the fitness regime away from the gym and towards long hilly hikes. In the last week I completed three 10 mile hikes each, with >400m ascent (finding 400m was quite a challenge in my part of Wiltshire). Each of the walks started with a steep hill, but when I was strictly following a ketogenic diet (70% fat intake, 20% protein and 10% carbs) I seemed to be able to walk up it with minimal effort, without the need to wait for second-wind and with no sign of muscle cramping. 

However, at the 3 hour mark on each walk, and confronted by another big hill, I started to feel quite rough. I initially put this down to dehydration due to the hot weather. Confident of that assessment I ensured that I had electrolyte drinks with me for each of the mountains.

The first peak goes well, despite the weather

The first mountain was Yr Wyddfa – Snowdon – on 18 September. Torrential rain and high winds whistling up the Llanberis Pass put the first day in doubt, but a quick call to Andrew Wakelin offered a solution by changing the planned route from the PyG Track to the Miners Track which would offer more shelter until the wind abated. We reached the summit in very high winds just as the clouds cleared for an amazing view out over to Anglesey and beyond. We descended down the PyG Track and completed the 874m of ascent and descent in 7 hours, only 1.5 hours more than the guide time for a non-McArdle person.

Scafell Pike in wet boots!

Next day we drove up to the Lake District ready for the ascent of Scafell Pike. Wednesday brought more high winds and heavy rain. We had to wade across the flooded Lingmell Gill and then climb the mountain in wet boots. Visibility at the summit was less than 100m with wind gusting up to 110kph / 70mph, but on the way down the clouds cleared and we were offered a beautiful view across the Lake District and enjoyed the warmth of late afternoon sunshine. We completed the 906m of ascent and descent in 6.5 hours, 75 minutes longer than the guide time.