Challenge completed. On 15th September the team at tilt hiked, biked and paddled their way across the Yorkshire Dales in order to raise money for the Youth Adventure Trust.
The Youth Adventure Trust use outdoor adventure to empower young people to fulfil their potential and lead positive lives in the future. They work to build resilience, develop confidence and learn skills that will last a lifetime, helping them to face the challenge in their lives.
Each year they organise a fundraising event called the Hike Bike Paddle, where teams from across the country come together to pit themselves against the elements, and raise money for the charity in the process.
With 19km of Dales ahead of us, the teams assembled at 4:30am in the morning and set off on rolling starts every 10 minutes. Trekking off into the blackness of the night was both exhilarating and nerve-racking – testing our map reading skills to the limit.
A mix of terrains from rolling dales through to through what felt like near vertical scrambles up mountains made for challenging work … but all persevered and got the job done.
Tilt completed the hike in 3 hours 26 min, taking a very respectable 3rd place in the hike section.
We thought this would be the easy bit. Oh how wrong we were. The team were in good spirits as they set off on the 49km bike route. Little did we know that our journey would see us ride a total elevation gain of 5500ft.
The Dales were swiftly renamed the ‘land of ups and no downs’, as around each corner stood another brutal hill to grind up … before descending once again down into the belly of the Dales – only then to ride back up the other side. The heroic teams endured this rinse and repeat cycle for 5-8 hours, with the tilt team coming in a little over the 7 hour mark.
Returning to base after nearly 10.5 hours of hiking and riding, the teams slid into their wetsuits, jumped aboard a mega SUP and stuck out on the last 2km of the challenge.
We had a secret weapon. Renato, one of tilts developers, is an enthusiastic rower. His weekends and lunch breaks are spend paddling down the River Thames, so this was his time to shine. A quick briefing on paddle technique and the importance of timing from Renato paid dividends as we paddled our way to another respectable 3rd place out of 19 teams.
The whole experience was a a challenge of both physical and mental resilience. Focusing on the great work the Youth Adventure Trust are doing and the positive impact they are having on many young lives inspired us during our darkest moments of the challenge of the day, providing mental fuel to keep our weary legs moving.
Would we do it again? Hell yes. We came together, supported each other and worked as a team to navigate the many challenges we faced. We came out the other end exhausted but with admiration and respect for what each and every one of us, and the other teams had achieved.
The icing on the cake was that you lot – our friends, family, colleagues and clients helped us to raise a whopping £2693. Combined across all teams they raised nearly £39,000. That’s a lot of positive impact to be had right there.
See you next year Youth Adventure Trust
If you want to find out more about the trust then check out their video below.
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