Sunrise success as our triumphant trekkers reach summit
It was sunrise success at the weekend, as 30 intrepid trekkers took on the ultimate challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon at night to reach the summit for sunrise.
The Sunrise Snowdon Trek is the first challenge in the 2022 Sunrise Series programme and participants certainly scaled up, by following our usual Sunrise Walk format of starting the walk in the early hours to raise money for the families we support – with a slight added element that our tremendous trekkers would be walking up a mountain at night!
Alexa Dizon, our Head of Challenge Events at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices tells us more about the momentous (or should that be mountainous?) challenge.
“Having been glued to the weather reports all week and seeing the images from our Corporate supporters, Fourfront Group, who took on the challenge on the Friday morning, our team approached Saturday morning with an air of trepidation.
“Emma, who is Challenge Events Fundraiser, and I, were hoping we were going to get ‘that’ sunrise after a pretty foggy and wet trek back in September last year.
“Our bus met the team from Tempest Resourcing just after 2am and after some final kit checks and briefing from the fantastic Simon at SVL Adventures, we were off up the Pyg track. Head torches and glow sticks lit the way as our Sunrise Trekkers started the ascent. It was a stunningly clear night, the sky littered with stars and the odd shooting star almost giving us a knowing wink as we climbed higher into the dark, the path lit only by our bobbing heads.
“About an hour from the summit, one of the guides halted us and pointed out the moonrise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the moonrise and as it changed from a deep red to orange and the outline of the landscape around us started to appear, we knew we were in for something special.
“Tired and with achy legs, it was finally light enough to turn the torches off and take in our surroundings. We reached the summit 15 minutes before sunrise and were advised to wrap up as the wind at the top was chilly. We took our team photos and sheltered from the wind, thinking that the pretty sky was the sunrise and we had missed it somehow when all of a sudden this huge pink sphere appeared on the horizon. We had two bereaved families joining us to take on the challenge, and we took a moment to remember Oliver and Ted as the sun rose slowly.”
Fellow trekkers shared their thoughts on this ‘one for the bucket-list’ experience, which has raised just shy of £17,000 so far.
“A fantastic experience, only heightened by the knowledge that it was raising vital funds for such a great cause.”
Superb experience, fabulous charity, really fab people, so well organised.”
“Amazing, loved getting to know our group an hear all their stories, guides were brilliant and organisation was great. Views and weather was a bonus!”
“Great challenge, tiring but view at the summit is worth it. Amazing experience.”
“A wonderful life experience with a lovely group of people who supported each other every step of the way.”
A special thank you to SVL Adventure for guiding everyone up and down safely and gogutsi for providing the minibus transport there and back.
Have our super sunrisers inspired you? Why not sign up for the September Sunrise Snowdon Trek? Or for a walk that’s a little more horizontal join us at our Sunrise Walks in Richmond or Guildford this summer.
