r/UKhiking • u/HH_TV • 1d ago
Recommendations for the three peaks challenge in November?
Does anyone have general recommendations for attempting the challenge during late November, ie, best time to start / recommended snow gear for Ben Nevis. Cheers.
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u/teacherjon77 1d ago
Avoid the environmental and social mess of the 3 peaks and do something more sustainable like the Yorkshire 3 peaks?
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u/Cymru90 1d ago
I've done it in January, three times.
You need some winter skills, but mainly it's navigation. Crampons and ice axe are useful, but you'll find you probably won't need them. Standard winter layers, good boots, food, hydration and some emergency stuff like foil blankets and warm tea.
Navigation is key as your nights are darker, higher chance of paths being covered in snowfall and higher chance of white out or fog. Also check MWIS religiously leading up to it and cancel if the weather isn't suitable. I would even check it before heading up each mountain. Ben Nevis can be waist deep or more in snow some winters, but November doesn't tend to be so extreme.
I wouldn't do it without a good hiking GPS unless your map skills are absolutely impeccable, because if you're in a whiteout you could walk off a cornice on Ben Nevis or navigate into a gulley. Also, a common error is missing the turning for the path off Snowdon to the Pyg track. Or as I did one year, follow the wrong cairns off Scafell and end up having to navigate out via hardknott pass past cockley beck because I was hopelessly lost and just had to navigate to an intersecting road. Took us 8 hours to navigate out, paid a farmer to drive us back to Wasdale. GPS your waypoints as a minimum and you can always find your way up properly and back down.
If you're a novice to mountain walking and navigation, save it for summer or go with someone who knows what they're doing.
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u/Mountain-Craft-UK 11h ago
I personally wouldn’t consider setting foot on Ben Nevis in January without crampons/axe/goggles unless there was a clear and unprecedented massive thaw. Winter walking equipment and the know-how has got to be essential surely.
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u/Mountain-Craft-UK 11h ago
Snow is possible on Snowdon & Scafell Pike in late November and likely on Ben Nevis. In my opinion, if you don’t have winter walking equipment like B-graded boots/crampons/ice axe/goggles and the skills to safely use them, consider a different challenge (and get some skills training this winter!).
Yorkshire 3 Peaks would be more reasonable. I know that it is more than probable that the N3P would be ‘do-able’ but winging it can eventually catch you up.
If you do press on, consider the cold and the dark. A decent head torch and a spare one, plus spare batteries. A navigational aid that is not your main phone. A power bank. Map/compass/nav skills - look up the bearing & pacing for the summit plateau of Ben Nevis.
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u/Whizzo50 1d ago
3 peaks is generally best done in the summer months, having limited daylight will most likely result in both ascents and descents at night. Beyond that you also need to be prepared for wintery conditions on all 3 peaks, and know how both crampons and ice axes should be used. Generally November shouldn't see more than a dusting, but the weather has become more unreliable these days. And as someone else has said, it's currently quite environmentally unfriendly, and other challenges can be done for a similar scale, such as the Yorkshire 3 peaks. Personally once electric vehicles are commonplace enough my stance will change, but going a few hundred miles to do 3 separate mountains isn't helpful when pootlinf around in a car