At the weekend (18^th July) two intrepid Forth Ports’ managers successfully climbed five mountains in under 15 hours in the Scottish Highlands to raise money for charity. Peter Ward, Senior Asset Manager based at the Port of Tilbury, London and Derek McGlashan, Group Safety, Health and Environment Manager based in Grangemouth climbed 5 of the 6 highest mountains in UK in one day at the Cairngorm mountain range.Peter and Derek have raised £1500 for the charity FEAT which raises awareness to research and prevent Sepsis. Sepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by the body overreacting to infection & kills 37,000 people in the UK each year.

Talking about the challenge Derek McGlashan said: “At 5am on Saturday we left Aviemore in the Scottish highlands, setting off just after 5.30am. It was very windy and it was not long before we were in the cloud with very little visibility; at times, just standing was challenging.  We reached the summit of Braeriach at 9.30am. After Sgor an Lochain Uaine, Cairn Toul and a number of unnamed peaks, we started our long and knee jarring descent into the Lairig Ghru, eventually dropping below the cloud level until near the top of Ben Macdui.  Half an hour after leaving the top of Ben Macdui, the cloud lifted and we had great views of what we had spent most of the day climbing on the other side of the valley and easy navigation for our last top: Cairn Gorm itself.  A direct descent down Coire Cas then took us back to the car and respite from the wind.Overall, the route took us 14½ hours (including stops) which is not bad for 24 miles and over 9000 feet of ascent, given the wind (according to the weather station at Cairn Gorm) was never below 45mph all day, and at times was almost 60mph! Despite the weather we saw a considerable amount of wildlife; deer, ground nesting birds and mountain hare. On behalf of Peter and myself I want to thank everyone who has been onto the FEAT website and a BIG thank you in particular to those who have sponsored us. The money raised will go along way to promoting the campaign.”

FEAT Chair, Pam Heap said, “We were absolutely delighted to hear that Derek and Peter had decided to raise funds for FEAT through their Big Climb.  It was an amazing effort from both of them, particularly given the typically changeable Scottish mountain weather.  Not only have they raised a significant amount of money to help us with our research grant programme, FEATURES Awards, but also raised awareness of sepsis which itself is a great achievement. A big thanks to both you and Forth Ports for your support.”

The mountains that Derek and Peter successfully climbed are:

• Ben Macdui 1309m (second highest in Britain);
• Braeriach 1296m (third highest in Britain);
• Cairn Toul 1291m (fourth highest in Britain);
• Sgor an Lochain Uaine 1258m (fifth highest in Britain);
• Cairn Gorm 1245m (sixth highest in Britain)

For more information about FEAT or to donate please go to http://www.featuk.org.uk/. Or to donate and ‘Sock it to Sepsis’ – please go to https://www.justgiving.com/Derek-McGlashan2/