The journey to Fort William is spectacular indeed- through Rannoch Moor with the magnificent Bauchille Etive Mor dominant as you drive through Glencoe, and then onto Fort William, a small inland port, utterly dominated by the imposing figure of Ben Nevis in the background. Food packed and staff briefing done and we then set on our way to climb Ben Nevis.

The views on the way up were amazing and the weather was slightly inconsistent (it is Scotland, after all!). At the start of the climb the weather was beautiful and you could see far into the mountains then the further up we went up the mountain the weather changed and in came the mist.

But that was not going to stop 'celebs plus one' we pushed on and before you knew it we had reached the summit of the mountain.

Reaching our first Munro summit was absolutely awesome and then heading back down and completing the climb in 6 hours. What's really nice about mountaineering is that success is so measureable. You either summit or you don't! We all felt very proud and just chuffed to have conquered our mountain, and the biggest one in the British Isles at that….all downhill from here, unless, of course, you're actually going uphill!
Me and Phil sharing a snack at our first summit.

Mindful of the chilling statistic that 71% of all mountaineering accidents happen on the decent, we then headed back down, fortunately in one piece, and got changed ready to depart for Mt Hellvellyn.

After enduring a long 3 hour drive through the night from Scotland to North England we finally arrived at Threlkeld Cricket Club and we grabbed another 2 hours of much needed shut eye before we got ready for our next climb and I have to say this was my favourite ascent. We kept being told that this would be a short and sharp climb and that is exactly what it was- I think mountaineers call it a 'direct route'!

We set off at 5.30am and literally from the start the climb was steep. I genuinely felt that I would not be able to complete this climb as it was pretty much hard from the start.

But once we got started, we managed to get into a rhythm and actually the climb was a good challenge. Well it was good up until the point when we literally got hit by 40mph winds at the top of the mountain! I don't think Phil's drag Co-efficient was particularly good, so he was possibly struggling more than I! We literally couldn't see further than 10 metres in front of us and when we eventually made it to the top I seriously thought we were going to get blown off the mountain. Then it was a quick decent and back to the car and the ever-attentive Charles.

Once we reaching the bottom after 2.5 hours there was not much time to rest before we departed for Mt Snowdon.

After another 3.5 hour drive by our formula 1 driver Charles we eventually arrived at our Travelodge in Wales, followed by a brief TV break and then departed for Mt Snowdon.

Now this was a mountain! It started off pretty gentle and then bang!- It hit us. The wind and the rain and the steepness of the rocks were so severe I seriously thought I was not going to be able to complete this mountain just because of the sheer difficulty of the climb.

I am not an expert climber but I really did struggle with this one. I thought Hellvellyn was bad at the summit but this was 10 times worst with aggressive winds.


Conditions werent the best at the Hellvellyn summit!

What was even more amazing was that we struggled against the winds to get to the top and when we got there the first thing we saw was a sheep nibbling away on some grass…..how do they do it?!

The only thing that got me through the climb was the sweets we got from the marshals at each check point- most welcome- a badly needed sugar surge!

Completing this climb was amazing only purely because it was seriously hard and it really took every bit of courage I had to complete this mountain. What made this climb even more amazing was that our whole team me, Mandy and Phil completed the mountain in a good time- in about 3.5hrs.

We then headed back to the hotel for a bit of shut eye, and boy oh boy, I hit the pillow and bang…..

After an early arrival in Ireland we then had a long 4 hour drive to Mt Caranouthill and then, finally we reached our final leg of the challenge.

This mountain had an extremely long approach up to the start of the mountain and then we reached this mountain face called the Devil's Ladder. As it says on the tin can it was truly a hell of a ladder. We pretty much rock climbed it up- and I thought this was a walking gig!

Once clearing the ladder it was then a straight run to the summit but coming down was a little bit more fun as Devils ladder became Devils slide and we literally slide on our bums all the way down.

Then the final run/walk into the finish line was amazing. We did it in 4 hours and we completed the 4 peaks challenge in 48 hours in total.

The most emotional night I have ever been a part of. It first started off with a great speech by Mr Phil Vickery who brought tears to everyone's eyes in the room. I have heard players say they'd run through brick walls for Vicks and when you do something like this with him you totally get why.

Then all the awards were given out and yes team 'celebs plus one' got an award for having a winning time climbing up Mt Snowdon and then, the rest of the night people danced and were merry! Well, after all that work, we needed to let our hair down a little! The icing on the cake of the evening was finding out that we had raised £106,163.22 for the charity, a huge sum.

I'd like to say in closing, thanks to all at Wooden Spoon for having me. This sort of challenge is fun in itself, but when you look at the money we've raised then it puts it all into context.

My Team L to R: Charles, Me, Mandy and Phil.

Great weekend, great company, great fun!

Speak soon

Maggie Alphonsi