It was minus four degrees but dry near the top of Ben Nevis when local couple Jess and Luke Tranter undertook their “challenging” climb of the highest mountain in the UK on Friday (Aug 4), to raise funds for Riverside Pre-school.
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All three of the Ash Tree Road couple’s children have attended the pre-school on Manor Farm Road, and they said on their crowdfunding page “the care and love that they have received is incredible!”.
Their third is just going into her final year there, and they “wanted to say thanks in as big a way as possible!”
“Like everyone [the pre-school is] finding these times challenging financially, so as a thank you to them for the incredible work they do we are climbing Ben Nevis in order to raise funds for them.”
The pair drove for eleven hours, to make their ascent on Friday.
“The climb was challenging, we climbed Snowdon in May last year which was tough but good,” Jess told bitternepark.info.
“Snowdon is 1085m above sea level but now after looking back on what we tracked we only climbed 762 due to the car park being up the mountain already [whereas] Ben Nevis is 1385 and the car park is sea level so you climb the full elevation.”
“It took us 6 1/2 hours to get up and 4 1/2 to get back down.”
She said they have been “overwhelmed by support” with donations and good wishes flooding in to their JustGiving page before and after the climb.
“Such a wonderful thing to do! I know you’ll absolutely ace it,” commented The Griffins on the page in the lead up, while Sam said: “My eldest thrived at Riverside. Such a nurturing place. I can’t wait for my youngest to start in September”.
And Alan Cooper added: “Good luck and thanks to all the amazing Riverside staff for giving our children such a wonderful pre-school experience.”
After the successful climb, supporter Siân Smith commented: “Such an incredible challenge to fundraise for pre school. Must have been stunning scenery climbing up.”
The original target of £250 was later raised to £450, and £515 has been promised at the time of writing.
The crowdfunder is still open and you can contribute here.
Writing on their Facebook page, Riverside Pre-school commented: "Congratulations to Jess and Luke on their epic climb of Ben Nevin on Friday!