Three Peaks Tour (thanks to 'race')

[tvrbob]

I see an interesting budding here thanks to 'race'. Will this work?

Plan a 'peaks' tour. Ben nevis, scarfell pike and snowdon with many regional start/finish places. Different regions then join the tour as it passes through their area. Then as the route passes back past your own start/finish you can peel off and return to your home.

Simple in theory and probably simple in practice. Lets put the bones of a plan together and if it looks OK we could then launch the idea in 'events/meetings/travel'.

If successful this could be worthy of a PH rather than a PHer lable.

>>> Edited by tvrbob on Friday 19th March 13:02

[tvrbob]

This, with a return leg along the east coast



http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/richieev/tp/drive.htm

[tvrbob]

Checkpoints, that's an interesting idea though it does add a layer of complexity. That would make it a series of timed runs set to be reasonably easy to achieve without the need to speed but hard enough that bad route planning or getting lost will cause you to be late.

Now either people volunteer to time check or we find some way that people can prove they were where they said they were and when that was. Perhaps VAT receipts from specific petrol stations (would that be infallible? Would it really matter anyway?). Or we could find some friendly eating establishments where the patron signs and time stamps the drivers card.

[tvrbob]

Looks something like this. Each leg has 20 mins added for eating etc.

Newcastle on Tyne
233 miles 5 hours 15 mins
Fort William
239 miles 5 hours 15 mins
Scarfell Pike
173 miles 4 hours 05 mins
Snowdonia
250 miles 5 hours 15 mins
Newcastle on Tyne

Each runner chooses which leg they want to add 8 hours sleep onto.

My only problem with this is that it doesn't reach far enough south where the majority of our community live.

[tvrbob]

rods said:

Sounds good to me too Bob,but is it a race or a tour?

I think it has to be a tour. A race would be too risky.

[tvrbob]

Byff said:

Who needs sleep? Two man teams, shared driving....

There's an idea. May make it difficult for some people though if they have no second insured driver.

Byff said:

...If the first waypoint is at a petrol station, the time stamp on it is your starting time, then fill up again when your complete and thats your finish time...

As long as the challenge is to complete in a set time. Trying for fastest times would cause naughty behaviour and we can't have that.

[tvrbob]

gemini said:

...so based on mileage....

So Ted would secretly know the right answer. We all then declare how many miles we did and Ted declares a winner.

gemini said:

...I quite fancy getting together at stop offs (social)...

This is back to where we started. I like this idea. Picking up regions as we go past and dropping them off we the circuit completes for each region. Then we could easily pick stopping places for food and chat. If we do this we get more cars together on the road.

[tvrbob]

Something like this

So to do the loop and let every region complete the full circuit then the plan has to go round twice. (well just short of twice actually)

Tour starts with the Yorkshire region in the Leeds area early, say 08:00.

Drives north east to Newcastle picking up NE-PHers at 10:00.

Off to the boarders picking up the Scottish region somewhere central southern Scotland ~ 12:00 and have lunch.

Do Ben Nevis ~ 15:00 and a chat then off to Cumbria.

Meet North West / Cumbria area people ~ 21:00 and eat again before heading past Scarfell Pike and then south down the west coast.

Pick up the Wales contingent ~ 02:00. Off to Snowdon. Candle lit supper on the slopes then north east to Leeds.

Drop off Leeds team at ~ 07:00 with bacon butties at Chim_girl's. (hope she's watching this thread)

Off to Newcastle to drop off NE-PHers 10:00.

To the boarders to drop off the Scottish team 12:00. Lunch and off to Ben Nevis for 15:00 and a chat.

Down country to Cumbria and drop off North West / Cumbria area people ~ 21:00. Eat and then past Scarfell Pike and the remaining people go south down the north west coast and home.

900 mile round trip in 24 hours with day time, dusk, night time and dawn driving.

Le trois mont 24 hour (OK my French sucks)

>> Edited by tvrbob on Saturday 20th March 10:01

[tvrbob]

chim_girl said:

tvrbob said: Drop off Leeds team at ~ 07:00 with bacon butties at Chim_girl's. (hope she's watching this thread)

I've just posted this in 'events/meetings/travel' to see how much general interest there is. On that post I removed the suggestion that bacon butties were on the menu. Didn't wan't to drop you in it.

[tvrbob]

dexy said:

.....i may have a little surprise if it goes ahead ....

Would that be the new Chimaera you've been promising yourself or have you bought a hotdog van and you plan to follow us around and keep us nourished?

[tvrbob]

'T'uscan Speed Six
'T'uscan Racer
'T'350C
'T'350T
'T'440
'T'amora
Griffi't'h
to name but a few

Or perhaps a complete change
'TT'
G'T'I

>> Edited by tvrbob on Tuesday 23 March 12:25

[tvrbob]

I thought this should be an early Saturday morning start during the spring/summer months. As long as there's 30ish cars confirmed then it'd be worth going the extra mile and putting proper effort into the organising.

As for timed stages I think we'd be on very dodgy ground. It is definitely not allowed. I guess 'least miles' would be OK but then again this is a cruise (convoy) so we should all clock up the same number. Any legal ideas of how to create competition would be gratefully received

[tvrbob]

dexy said:

.....or is it the front .

Now that's just mean. Me thinks you're throwing a curved ball there me lad. Trying to throw us off the scent.

[tvrbob]

There are seven cars that I would say were definite and I've had interest from a further eight. From my perspective, considering the amount of organising required for this, there is little chance of this working as a PH event. I do think the NEPHers will have a go at it though. I gave it every chance by posting on all relevant forums. I imagine that 24 hrs and 900 miles was a bit too much for many people. If I had thirty solid sign-ups then I'd be willing to go the extra mile and make this happen. That said, if and when the NEPHers organise this, everyone will be welcome.

[tvrbob]

Charging is always a good way to lock people in so planning is made easier. Cost neutral from my point of view, the money raised could be used for prizes, |I COMPLETED THE PHers THREE PEAK TOUR '04| window stickers, quality route maps and documents, chim_girl's bacon butty fund, etc.

I was aiming for sometime around the longest day, 21st June, so the weekend of 19th/20th June would work. Looking at the PH calendar there isn't much else happening then so that weekend remains a strong possibility.

Before this can work I need a contact that can help me find parking space at each of the peaks, Scottish, Cumbrian and Welsh support is a must. I can do all other planning. I was planning Shell garages at 150 - 200 mile intervals or failing that we'll have to make do with inferior fuel, assuming most cars will do 200+ on a tank.


>> Edited by tvrbob on Monday 19th April 17:02

[tvrbob]

skinner said:

Sorry, possible numpty question coming up........

Not numpty at all, for an event this big I need to have helpers at each peak. I put out a request and was offered help for Snowdon by Stephen Chaplin but nobody offered for Ben Nevis or Scarfell. As a result I don't have enough local knowledge to put a 'proper' plan together. Something like this will take many hours of planning and the take-up just isn't there to warrant that effort. Obviously I'd love to do this and it could still happen as a NE Region event because these folk know me therefore any flaws in the plan would be forgiven. A smaller group has more chance of being able to make it up as we go along. Perhaps by bringing this thread back to the top we may see a resurgence of interest.