Taking on the Three Peaks Challenge is an exciting adventure, but careful preparation is essential to make your experience safe, enjoyable, and beneficial for the places you visit. This page provides general guidance for all three mountains.
For official, up-to-date local advice, please visit the pages for each area:
- Yr Wyddfa (Eryri National Park Authority)
- Scafell Pike (Lake District National Park Authority)
- Ben Nevis (Nevis Partnership)
Safety advice
Before you ascend, ask yourself these three questions:
- Am I confident I have the knowledge and skills for the day?
- Do I know what the weather will be like? Check local forecasts.
- Do I have the right gear?
If you are uncertain of your ability or the weather, then please reconsider your options. For full guidance, visit the Adventure Smart UK website.
Before your challenge
Careful planning helps make your experience safer, more enjoyable, and less impactful on the environment and local communities. Consider:
- Choosing your dates carefully. Avoid busy periods such as bank holidays, school holidays, and weekends. Mid-week trips often allow for a calmer experience.
- Spreading the challenge over multiple days. This allows more time to enjoy each area, supports local businesses, and reduces pressure on roads, paths, and communities.
- Planning your routes and kit. Each mountain has official routes and guidance — see the official pages for each mountain within this site. For full details on the equipment you need, visit our Kit list page.
- Preparing physically and mentally. The challenge involves significant ascent and descent, varied terrain, and changing weather conditions.
- Checking local parking, transport and accommodation options. Staying locally can reduce travel, increase enjoyment, and support communities.
During your challenge
While climbing the mountains, keep safety, other people, local communities and the environment in mind. Key points to consider include:
- Respect the environment and communities. Stick to established paths to reduce erosion and protect fragile habitats. Be considerate of residents, landowners, farmers, and other mountain users at all times. When moving through residential areas, especially at night, keep noise and headtorch use to a minimum.
- Take all litter home and dispose of it responsibly. All waste, including food scraps and organic waste (e.g. tea bags, fruit peel, tissues), must be carried off the mountains and taken home for proper disposal. Litter left behind after some Three Peaks challenges places a significant financial burden on local authorities and land managers and causes lasting damage to these environments. Leave nothing behind.
- Toilet facilities are not generally available on the mountains. Use facilities before you start.
- Consider other visitors. Give way on paths and be mindful of noise (and lights if hiking during night-time).
What to do in an emergency
Call 999 and ask for police and the mountain rescue team. They will ask for the following details on the call:
- Your location
- Your name, sex and age
- Nature of your emergency or injuries
- Number of people in your group (if applicable)
- Your mobile phone number
If you have hearing or speech needs, you can text the emergency services, but you will need to register in advance. Text the word ‘register’ to 999 and follow the instructions.
More information is available on the Adventure Smart website.
After your challenge
After completing your challenge, consider ways to give back and support the areas you visited:
- Make a donation to the parks or local conservation projects.
- Consider staying longer in the area to enjoy more time locally, support businesses, and take part in volunteer opportunities.
Each area provides information on donations and volunteering:
Yr Wyddfa: Eryri National Park Authority
Donate to Eryri National Park & Volunteer in Eryri
Scafell Pike: Lake District National Park Authority
Make a donation – Lake District National Park & Volunteering – Lake District National Park
Ben Nevis: Nevis Landscape Partership
Donate | Nevis Landscape Partnership & Volunteering | Nevis Landscape Partnership