Clock is ticking as county climbers reach for the peaks

READ it carefully. Today, 15 teams bid to scale the highest peak in each of the 32 counties in 100 hours or less.

The event is sponsored by Bayer Ltd Ireland and overseen by former seven summits world record holder, Ian McKeever.

The monies raised go to charities such as the Aids Partnership with Africa and the Sophia Housing project. Each team must raise in excess of €4,000 and pay their own costs during the week. One of the teams, Go Explore, consisting of Norma O’Driscoll, Roy Collins, Darragh Quinn, Pádraig O’Keeffe, have been preparing diligently for the mental and physical endurance test since Christmas. Collins and Quinn are no strangers to such daring trips with experience in West Africa, Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal, South East Asia, and Peru. Their summer holidays last year consisted of a 12,000 miles trip in a Land Rover, named The Lady Oscar, from Tipperary to Dakar climbing 10 mountains along the way, to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and Info Nepal.