Team’s mountainous 100-hour challenge

WE may not have Everest, the Alps or the Pyrenees, but climbing Ireland’s highest 26 mountains is no small feat — especially if you’re going to do it in less than 100 hours.

That’s what a group of 12 climbers plan to do when they climb a mountain in every county in Ireland over the course of four days and four hours.

In total, they add up to a 10,000 metre hike and will require 25 miles of running and climbing every day to complete.

And all with the little help of Fig Rolls, Jaffa Cakes and Corn Flakes, the “mountain man’s core diet.”

Climber Ian McKeever said: “We’ll be eating every two hours. Corn Flakes are the most easily absorbed carbohydrates, and we’ll also be having brown bread and honey and dinners of tuna and rice.”

The only female participant, Laura Shilling, said there aren’t too many advantages to the challenge but eating as many Jaffa Cakes as she wants without getting fat will be one of them.

In fact the climbers are expected to lose between a half a stone and a stone over the four days.

Ms Shilling has already competed in marathons, but said this will be her biggest challenge yet: “I guess being female, at first I was afraid I might not be able to keep up and was hoping that there might be at least one other female on board.”

The team will get up every morning to start running at 4am. They will finish at 11pm with an iced bath, to draw the lactic acid from their muscles.

But, according to Mr McKeever, “the hardest thing will be keeping the team together and make sure that no-one over-does it and burns out”.

They will begin on Carrountohill Mountain in Co Kerry at 8:30am on June 21, finishing on Mount Errigal in Donegal at 10:30am on Sunday, June 25 if all goes to plan.

They are hoping to raise €100,000 from their hard work for Sophia Housing and the Irish Osteoporosis Society.

Two Australians already undertook the challenge three years ago and completed it in 168 hours.

The “100 hour challenge” later this month is just one of a number of challenges, sponsored by Ulster Bank, which will take place in the run up to the ultimate world record attempt by one of the participants.

Mr McKeever, a radio presenter in his thirties, will take up an even bigger challenge early next year, when he attempts to climb each of the continent’s highest peaks in 180 days, beginning in the Antarctic at Christmas.