Claret mountaineers raise more than £7,500 for work of Northampton Town Community Trust

In July, the Claret Mountaineers were back for a third instalment to climb England’s highest peak, Scafell Pike standing at 978m high (3,209ft). They set off from Sixfields 26 strong, to the Lake District after great send off from all the Community Trust staff and challenge sponsors who joined forces to support the cause.

The group started the climb at 9:15am in overcast weather with a moderate breeze. Scafell Pike is a mountain known for its steepness and the group were instantly faced with a tricky challenge. As the group got closer and closer to their goal of reaching the summit they were greeted with chilling winds and some light rain but at 2pm they all safely reached the top.

The tougher task was the journey down the steep slopes made of a terrain comprising of just rock, the weather turned worse with heavier rain making it a slippery descent combined with wind making life even tougher. By 5pm all climbers were safely down and back at the hostel with a warm cup of tea and group meal to celebrate the success of the third fundraiser weekend.

Having raised over £7,551 for this year’s challenge, supported by local businesses Piroto Labelling, James and James Fulfilment, DFA Law, Commsave Credit Union, MPC group and Active Ants, the group are looking the build on their success next year.

Head of the Claret Mountaineers Akshay Mistry said: “This is has been one of the hardest challenges to date, dealing with the steepness of the mountain and the change of weather conditions on the way down of rain and wind. We had some new recruits join us, some of which hadn’t climbed a mountain before which made it challenging but also fun way to get to know one another.”

Since the inaugural 2021 Snowdon challenge, the group has raised over £27,000 going towards the setup and delivery of new projects and funding the delivery of existing Disability, health & wellbeing programmes and supporting the ongoing growth of the women’s and girls’ department and Walking Football Club.

From the money raised this year we are looking to carry on the funding of the multi disability football club to pay for the costs of the facilities and coaches, to carry on the delivery of Fit Cobblers as a free programme for another year, to set up the Claret Walkers project which will be a new subsidiary of the Claret Mountaineers group and help part fund some of the costs for the women’s and girls’ programme.

The Claret Mountaineers has been a steadily growing group with more participants joining year by year. The attention now turns towards the 2024 challenge with details soon to be released.For more information please contact [email protected]