Well, back to work, and the cold weather kit has been officially drawn from the stores. With more snow on the way, we are heading out to Snowdonia on Monday to tackle what promises to be an interesting winter.

In the words of Billy Connelly "There is no such thing as bad weather only inappropriate clothing!". That guy should know, he is from Greenock the capital of Rain!

 

More Prison work on the way, lots of really cool strategic alliances have been formed over the last 12 months that are now opening lots of doors and our reputation for being that little bit different is starting to stretch around the UK… t's all good as I sit in a warm office wanting to be on a cold mountain, yes I do have issues!

Hello troops, just a quick update on out winter planning. We have had an incredibly busy year. This year we again, ran several National 3 Peaks, right upto a snowy November on Ben Nevis on the mountain hardened warriors from Smart Storage!

We have also formed fantastic strategic alliances this year with Business Focus, the North West Development Agency's Lead programme and, of course, of course continued our ongoing work with our corporate clients.

December and January is time for a quick de-service of kit (and instructors, new knees, hips and Gortex) before we launch back into our work with the UK prison service on the 11th January.

2010 will see he start of Go Commando's Island Survival Challenge, this will make 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here' look like 'Wish You Were Here'!

Jon Wyles and his team at Smart Storage completed the National 3 Peaks - in November! But that didnt put them off and they're all still here to tell the story... so in the words of Jon:

"Smart Storage did the Three Peaks Challenge over last weekend.

We arrived in Fort William on Friday evening after a delightful seven hour drive in the mini bus! Hopefully you heard us on the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 live from a lay-by in the middle of nowhere in Scotland.  

We were up a 3.40am on Saturday and at the foot of Ben Nevis at 4.45am. We walked up in the dark and into the snow on the top and then back down as the dawn broke, spectacular! All done by 10am.

Then off to Scafell in the Lakes another delightful 6 hours in the minibus.  

We started Scafell at 5pm in the wind rain and dark. We walk to about 30 minutes from the top only to be hit by the beginnings of some severe weather and an electrical storm. The decision was taken that it was too dangerous to make the summit with 55mph winds reported as well. So we turned round getting back to the bottom by 9pm.

Then another 5 hours in the minibus to Snowdon. The smell of wet feet and clothes starting to take over! We reached Snowdon at 2am Sunday morning only to be confronted by cloud cover down to the car park. We sat in the minibus until 4.30am before the cloud lifted sufficiently to start the climb.  

Completely exhausted we set out in the dark and rain and went for it, reaching the summit at around 7.30am. After a brief celebration at the top we headed down to the joy of a further 2 hours in the mini bus back to the Wirral.  

Thank you to all who contributed in donations and sponsorship. But also thanks to all who made this possible. Greg and Tim from Go Commando www.go–commando.co.uk who guided us up and down handed out a few motivational chats and encouragement along the way, as well hundreds of jelly babies to keep the sugar levels up! Vicky our wonderful minibus driver. All those who did the walk and those who kept the business open and operating over the weekend, swapped shifts or worked additional hours. All family and friends who helped on the domestic front to enable those who took part to be away from home over the weekend. This was very much a team effort and without all these contributions we would not have been able to make the weekend the success it was.

Although we are still collecting the sponsorship we expect to have raised £5000 for North West Cancer Research Fund. Thanks again for those who have contributed, for those who intended to but haven’t quite got round to it yet here is your opportunity. The link to my Just Giving page is below and all contributions large or small are greatly appreciated.

http://www.justgiving.com/Jon-Wyles-Smart-Storage/

There is a five Peak Challenge including the two highest peaks in Northern and Southern Ireland and that could be the plan for next year!!!

Thanks again

Jon"

Greg and his trusty sidekick Tim led the Smart Storage team up and down the nations three highest peaks last weekend. There is a reason why not many people tend to do this challenge during the winter months, it mainly being something that goes by the name of SNOW! The waist deep snow made sure everyone appreciated the layers of socks they had on. Jon at Smart Storage said:

"Thanks very much for a fantastic weekend!! Everyone who was involved had a great experience. A few battered and bruised people today, but everyone showed up this morning which is result! I think we have raised around £5k for North West Cancer Research this weekend, which is great."

Clocking up hill time in the UK is the best way to train for altitude. People who have strong legs and lungs from previously doing lots of walking are the people who deal with altitude the best during mountain climbing. Some people will always acclimatise and adjust better, but ultimately its the fitter people who find it easier.

As altitude increases, oxygen in the air decreases - this is what causes sickness. In order to help your body cope the efficiency of your aerobic system need to improve, this can be achieved through lots of cardio exercise which increases the number of red blood cells that deliver oxygen to your muscles.

At Go Commando we reccommend that you slowly increase your time in the UK hills and spend at least one weekend a month on long walks. Its also a good idea to gradually increase the weight of your back pack too. If you cant always get to the hills keep up your aerobic exerise by swimming, spinning or even better see a personal trainer to tailor a specific training program for you, see www.body-solutions.co.uk for more information.

Last weekend all the team at Body Solutiosn got together for a weekend of what can only be described as something that should have featured as a 'Carry on Boating' special! We all dug out our thermal vests, waterproofs and slleping bags and made our way donw to Abersoch to set off for St Tud's island for a weekend of team building fun and frolics.

However, not everything went to plan. It took us about 3 hours to actually get onto the island as we could not get the boat into teh water! When we finally ddi manage this, the boat got stuck in the sand and it took all of our combined strength (plus a few very helpful waves!) and lots of shouting of 'to me, to you' to get it facing in the right direction, however, the boat being in the water was not such great news as we were all still on the beach! So, all the lads braved the cold of the british sea and get very wet loading most of the kit onto the boat, the 'kit' consisted of our sleeping bags, the food, the water and of course me and Charlotte (well, we didnt want to get wet did we?!). I did however get the short straw as i was carried in by Tim, Charloote got fireman lifted by the very tall Simon who easily kept her up and above the ever rising sea water. Tim however though he would dip me in the sea, just for fun which resulted in very wet boots and trousers for the entire weekend. Thanks Tim.

As we approached the island me, Charlotte and Dave braced ourselves for the jump, there was no jetty or sandy beach for us to arrive at, instead we got some moss covered, sharp looking rocks and an order of when to jump. Purely by chance we made it onto the other side, along with two extremely heavy boxes filled with food and utensils, great, me and Charlotte thought, time for a brew while Greg does the second run to the beach. How wrong we were. As Dave had been submerged in water loading things onto the boat he had removed his boots - but had left them on the main land. This meant that Dave could not help out in hauling the two huge boxes up the nettle covered steep hill to the brick building we would be calling home for the night. Lets just say after that task was finished we well deserved the cup of tea and flapjack break :)

Most of the night passed with a blur due to the amount of alcohol consumed we think we all had a good time!! The next day we ate our bacon and egg sandwiches and packed up to return to civilisation. This was where the whole saga started again. In fact we thought we had gotton away with it, the packing had gone fine, we didnt leave anything or anyone on the island and we all got onto the beach safely and (almost) dry. Getting the boat out of the water and onto teh trailer again was the tricky part! The wynch to help pully the boat back onto its traler had been stolen overnight meaning that it took a couple of hours of pure man strength (and a jeep) to to get it on.  A few favours were asked of the locals and a couple of bottle of wine dished out afterwards but thankfully we all made it in one piece to the local pub for a home cooked roast dinner.

Thats just an outline of our shananighans... check out our facebook page to see the pics http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2019897&id=1371056530&ref=mf 

Until next time - over and out!

The next 3 Peaks Challenge will be held 23rd - 25th October with the first training day on 13 September, more training day dates will be coming soon. Call us now to book your place!