02/07/2025
Well, I don’t often write up a report on our events, but I feel what we did this weekend deserved something.
It’s a long post, but it is worth reading!! 😊
Back in July I received an email from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air ambulance (HIOWAA). I had done a few events for them before, so they wanted some advice and information for a potential challenge. One of their former patients, Dale, wanted to summit Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon.
The larger part of that challenge was that Dale is paralysed from the waist down after he was run over, and he would need to complete this challenge in a wheelchair.
I have had a few challenging trips to the summit of Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon, including guiding a blind man to the summit, but my only experience of anything similar, with a participant in a wheelchair, was on a DofE expedition many years ago, but that was on quite easy terrain so was not really an accurate comparison.
After an initial discussion with HIOWAA I was put in touch with Dale, and in September we had a conference call about the challenge.
Since his life changing event Dale has faced many challenges, and every one of them has been overcome, because of his determination, motivation, strength and the support of his family and friends. He recently completed the London Marathon, so I knew he was mentally and physically strong.
Immediately I knew this challenge was possible. Dale was inspirational. And I wanted to be a part of it.
I had little idea of how we would do it, what it would involve, what issues we may have, how we would get through those unknown issues. I had lots of unknowns, lots of unanswered questions, and I knew there would be things we had not anticipated, because we had not done this before.
But that didn’t give me any real cause for concern. I gained strength and confidence from Dale, and I knew it would be possible, somehow.
We decided we needed a practice day. But the only option we had, living where we do, was Butser Hill. A grassy kind of lump with a modest height of 271m. It wasn’t really going to give us a great idea of how things would work on Yr Wyddfa, but it was a chance to see Dale’s offroad wheelchair, and to try out a few methods of how we could attach straps to it, to help us with the tricky uphill rocky terrain, large rocky steps, loose rocks, and the step ascent and descent sections we would encounter on Yr Wyddfa. It was a great day, and we came away with lots of useful information and ideas. But we still had unanswered questions, and we knew there would be times we would have to adapt dynamically on the big day.
I was unsure of what our pace would be going up and coming down. I gave a best estimate, but I had no past experience of a wheelchair on Yr Wyddfa to base that on. We had some plans in place, but we knew we would need to adapt and to learn as we went once on the mountain.
The day arrived. Thankfully the heatwave we had been experiencing in the South was not going to quite the same in North Wales. The forecast was for some cloud, rain and wind. We met the team at around 7:30 am, with a view to an 8am start. It was the first time we had met most of the other team members, although we knew a couple of them from the practice day. We had Vicky, Paul, Joe, Stefan, and Tom, Rachel and John who are all from HIOWAA. We also had me, Chris, and Brodie the dog. If you have been on any of our recent events you may know Chris and Brodie.
As soon as we set off, it was obvious we had an incredible group of people, all coming together, to make this challenge possible, with Dale as the hub of it all.
Dales’ wheelchair has pedals, that you use with your arms, which provide propulsion. It’s a rugged wheelchair, and with Dale was putting in the kind of work I have only ever seen in Olympic Rowing on the Television, in addition to giving it some ridiculous core strength to keep the chair on track and balanced. With some assistance pushing and pulling in turns from the rest of the team, we made some serious progress. When we hit terrain that was not possible to navigate this way, we knew we would have to lift Dale and the wheelchair over these rocky obstacles.
But getting over obstacles is something Dale has had to do.
It was cloudy, but it was very warm and muggy, and we all had a serious sweat going on. I was hoping that when we gained altitude, we would get exposed to more wind, as there was hardly even a breeze to cool us down at this point.
When we passed other people heading to the summit, or heading down after an early summit, they were amazed by Dale’s effort, spirit and determination. Some of them gave us cash donations right there on the mountain. We had cards to hand out to others with a QR code to read about Dale’s Yr Wyddfa challenge and details on how to donate. Everyone was wishing us well, giving us encouragement, and keen to get online and donate, or donate there and then. It’s easy sometimes in this complex world to forget how wonderful and warm and generous most people are. That doesn’t make the news, but it should.
After our practice day we knew we would need harnesses and attachments for helping to control the wheelchair, and to provide additional uphill pull, and downhill safety and security. We also knew there would be occasions we would have to carry. Our first few carries were successful, and we managed to get up over the large rocky steps, but they were also not too co-ordinated. With each lift, we improved our style, our method and our communication. Soon enough we were lifting in perfect unison when it was required. Our pace was so good up to the halfway house that I was in danger of looking like I had no clue about the timings of reaching the summit of Yr Wyddfa! Which was in fact true for this particular challenge. However, I knew the second half of the ascent would give us more rugged terrain and that it would slow our progress. We did add in a few rest stops as we were ahead of schedule, and they were a much-needed chance to recover and cool down, and gel more as a team over coffee and chat. We slowed our pace a little bit as we knew we had to retain fuel and energy for the whole day. The second half was certainly trickier than the first, and there were more opportunities to show off our now perfected carries, as Dale powered on with his no stop arm pedalling, using what I can only describe as his shoulders of steel. This continued, and continued, one target after another, and soon we were at Bwlch Glas, and not far from our main target of the summit.
A final push up some very awkward terrain, and we were at the steps leading to the summit plateau. Dales’ wife and daughter were due to arrive on the 1pm train, and we had got there with 15 minutes to spare. My timing was not too far after all.
It was important that they were there when Dale made the summit. Not just for Dale and his family, we all wanted that. We had become part of something very special.
Once they had arrived, we got on to the summit plateau with a mix of Dale’s hard work, and the team lift for the larger steps.
As is usual on a weekend on Yr Wyddfa, there was a bit of a queue to the trig point. The crowd were amazing. They held back while we lifted Dale in his wheelchair, up the precarious steps to the trig point. A wave of applause rang round the summit.
It was emotional, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with something in my eye.
The effort, the determination, the teamwork, all coming together, with some grit and determination, and we were there at the summit.
And now we had to get down!
Most accidents on mountains, any mountain, happen on the descent. People lose focus because the summit has been achieved, tiredness is more prevalent, focus diminishes. This was the bit I was most worried about.
And it was immediate. Because we had to get Dale down from the trig point, and if you’ve been there, you know those rock steps are hard enough to negotiate. There was no safe and practical way to do it with Dale still in the chair, as we had done on the way up the steps. We had a secret weapon. John, the paramedic who saved Dale’s life, is not exactly small. He is in fact, exactly strong. He lifted Dale and carried him down the steps, with the team in front, behind and to the side, for safety and guidance. We then set off for our descent after adding a secure belt to reduce the risk of Dale falling forward out of the chair and adjusting the chairs lean angle to reduce the chances of it tipping forward. None of us knew how difficult the descent would be. It had the potential to be very challenging, we had tried to reduce all the risk we could, but we had not done this before, and I know Dale was as worried about the descent as I was. But it proved to be easier than we thought. For the less steep descent sections we had two people attached to the back of the wheelchair to control descent speed, in conjunction with the brakes on the wheelchair, and we had two people on the front to help with direction and stability. For the steeper sections we needed more people at the rear. At one point we had six people tethered to the rear of the wheelchair utilising various slings and ropes and attachments. This allowed us to make excellent progress. There were still some down lifts needed for the steps with larger drops, but in no time at all we were past the worst of the terrain and the steepest sections, and Dale was putting those shoulders of steel through their paces. The descent proved to be as straightforward as it could have possibly been, and much faster than we anticipated.
And then we were down. A celebratory drink in the beer garden was a great way to finish the challenge.
This was what we call an epic day. It was emotional. It was amazing.
As I said earlier, I had little idea of how we would do it, what it would involve, what issues we may have, how we would get through those unknow issues.
Not knowing how to do something is a poor excuse for not trying and not learning how to do something.
On the day, everything went the best way it possibly could have done.
We took inspiration from Dale, and we did it.
There was potential for things to go wrong. Potential for it not to go as planned. Potential for it to not be successful. But I don’t think anyone of us had those thoughts in our mind. The kind of people that take on this challenge, that are prepared to give it a go, turn up on the day and just try. They are the kind of people to make it work, to make it successful. To overcome the obstacles, just as Dale has done.
So please, read more about Dale here on the link below,
https://www.hiowaa.org/dales-story/
And make a donation here;
https://www.justgiving.com/page/dale-muffett-yr-wyddfa-challenge?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
