We’re showing our support to a Keswick family, who have organised a 10 in 10 Challenge to raise awareness of Multiple Sclerosis, by sponsoring the event.
This year’s event will take place on Saturday 23rd June 2012 where 150 walkers will head up the first peak – Causey Pike followed by Sail, Crag Hill, Wandope, Whiteless Pike, High Snockrigg, Robinson, Dale Head, High Spy and Maiden Moor.
Yvonne Booth decided to organise the Ten Mountains in Ten Hours challenge after her husband, Duncan, was diagnosed with MS in June 2010. Before MS struck, Duncan Booth was a very keen climber and alpinist but since his illness has affected his balance he has swapped climbing mountains for more aquatic pursuits of open water swimming and sculling.
Not wishing to be left out of the 10 in 10 challenge, Duncan recently sculled up and down Derwentwater throughout the night for 10 hours. You can read about the challenge, in his own words below.
Feeling a little tired after my ten hours of sculling. It all went to plan. I checked out the weather forecast for Tues night and saw 4mph wind at midnight dropping away to 1mph by 5 am. This was enough for me to decide that it was on. I spent the morning trying to arrange all helpers and safety boat, then i thought it would be best if i got a bit of a sleep before departure. Unfortunately it was hard to sleep as I kept going over everything in my head.
I jumped out of bed at 5pm and started making final preparations. Before I knew it we were all assembled at the lake ready to go and being waved off by a mixture of friends, pupils and parents. I started to scull at 9pm. the lake just got calmer and flatter as the time went by. The first couple of lengths of Derwentwater were good, plenty of light, warm , with flat water. As it got darker and darker it became more difficult as I had to navigate by the lights from hotels and houses around the edge of the lake, and I struggled to see my oars which was quite important. I lost my safety team, and could see their lights going in circles. It turned out that they had lost sight of me and were all over the place trying to find me! I thought I may have to rescue them! The time just seemed to fly by and I had soon crossed the equivalent of the English Channel. I just managed to keep on sculling , all the time nearing my ten hour objective and clocking up more Km’s.
The middle of Derwentwater is a lonely place to be when alone in the dark, the geese kept me company, as did a few deer who showed up at first light in the reeds at the edge of the lake. The darkness certainly got to me and when dawn started to appear with the first hints of light my mood was lifted enormously. The sun rose and soon I was sculling in the sun, sunglasses back on! Only 3 or 4 more hours to go. I was tracking my progress on a garmin GPS device, interestingly I sped up towards the end, as it got lighter.
More changes to the support team, and I was soon on my last lap. This went OK until the wind got up and made the lakes surface ruffled and bumpy, I summoned up a bit of concentration so as not to capsize so close to the end.
I was soon back in the isthmus bay, from where I had begun 9 hours and 57 minutes ago.
It was great to see my mum and dad and others from earlier support who had come down to cheer me on. Challenge complete, what next??
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