Embley had ambitions to take part in this year’s Ten Tors, a youth hill walking challenge across the Ten Tors in Dartmoor covering 35, 45 or 55 miles in 24 hours. But due to the popularity of the event and the school’s proximity to Dartmoor, our application was unsuccessful. So, in the Embley way, we weren’t going to be defeated and went on to create our own Embley Tors – a mountain challenge that led to 14 students conquering the UK’s three highest peaks over three days.
With possibilities including the National Three Peaks, Yorkshire Three Peaks and Welsh 3000s, the students chose the Scottish Three Peaks, with the added advantage of our Outdoor Education team offering the nationally recognised Mountain Training Hill Skills award to all students who took part.
The summits of Braeriach (1,296m), Ben Macdui (1,309m) and Ben Nevis (1,345m) was their target, without GPS and only pure navigational skills to rely on, ably assisted by our mountain leaders. While Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in the UK, Braeriach and Ben Macdui provided their own unique tests, being two of the largest and remote mountains with few paths.
Training was progressive, over several months with weekends and wild camping in the New Forest before moving onto cold and snowy Dartmoor. From struggling to complete 12km in the New Forest, to walking 29km in a day, and 34 miles in a weekend with over 3000ft of elevation, the students’ achievements were not to be understated, but the final challenge was Scotland.
Students were given check points and at each point they radioed in, letting the leaders know they had arrived and asking for the next point. They showed what it means to be independent on a mountain, deciding where to go, how to get there and how to be safe. At Ben Macdui, they created a plan to deload, easing themselves up the second highest mountain in the UK before heading back down towards Lurchers Crag. On the way, we educated them on the geological aspects, and the flora and fauna of the Cairngorms, leading to discussions about the environment and ecology. After 10.5 hours walking, the camp that night was remote with a spectacular view of the Northern Lights.
Braeriach was a different kettle of fish. The team had more of a time constraint to get to Fort William for food, and so the race was on. The steady incline was in sharp contrast to the steep elevation of the day before and the students showed just how well they could manage. With panoramic views of the highlands in Spring, nothing could be much better and the awe of the students was phenomenal.
Ben Nevis required a 7am start with a narrow window to reach the summit before storms set in. The weather was on their side. ‘The Ben’ has only 33 days of cloud free summit time, but after a short period of time, the clouds parted and the students could see Tower Ridge, long and steep in the foreground, they could see Aonach Mor and the CMD arete.
Throughout Embley Tors, the team embraced the leave no trace policy. This is a value and principle of the outdoors and unfortunately, many on Ben Nevis don’t do this. Our students however, do. They took the rubbish bags from their ruck sacks and picked up any rubbish they could find on the summit before making their way down. This was our way of giving back, and keeping our mountains clean.
Within three days the Scottish Three Peaks had been summited, seven Munros in total. But more importantly, something had changed within the students. They were confident, determined, resilient and benefited from an experience that they would remember forever. They didn’t conquer the mountains, they conquered themselves.
