Burghead Sub-Aqua Club to take on the Three Lakes Challenge for the RNLI

Burghead Sub-Aqua Club are set to take on the Three Lakes Challenge over the last weekend of July.

The challenge pioneered by Monty Halls and Andy Torbet is the diving world's take on the Three Peaks Challenge - the idea to dive the UK's three highest lakes in under 24 hours. All dive kit must be carried by each individual to the lakes, which in total is a 36 km hike over mountain terrain.

Much like the challenge's hiking counterpart, Three Lakes consists of diving the three highest altitude lakes in Scotland, England and Wales and Burghead's team are setting themselves a target of knocking off at least two hours of Andy and Monty’s time of 23 hours and 10 minutes!

The dive team, consisting of Kenny Munro (50), Matt Buckley (48), Rob Pozzi (45) claim:

We are definitely not the youngest team to have attempted this challenge but we’re confident we will be the fastest!

Photo by Burghead Sub-Aqua Club

Challenging terrains and altitude dives

The Burghead team (L-R) Kenny Munro, Matt Buckley and Rob Pozzi will begin the challenge on the afternoon of 26th July in Scotland and aim to finish just after lunch on Saturday.

The lakes are located at heights between 650m and 996m (2133 ft and 3268ft), but the challenge is more than just the altitude diving. Due to the remote locations of the lakes, the team will also have to hike around 40 km (25 miles) over steep rough ground carrying their own diving kit with no external assistance and driving around 700km (435 miles) between the lakes.

The team are attempting to complete this challenge over a weekend starting in Scotland and travelling next to the Lake District and finally to Snowdonia in Wales. At present they are training hard and preparing to cope with the extremely arduous terrain and weather conditions that they will be encountering.

What is the Three Lake Challenge?

In a similar principle to the Three Peaks Challenge, the Three Lakes Challenge is to dive the three highest altitude lakes on the British mainland in the fastest time possible.

Loch Coire an Lochan, Cairngorms - alt. 996 metres

The Little Loch in the Corrie, sits on the North West slope of Breariach, Britain’s third highest mountain after Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui. The loch lies approximately 13km from the nearest road and there is no access path meaning the first task of the challenge will be this hike.

Red Tarn, Lake District - alt. 718 metres

Red Tarn sits on the Western side of Helvellyn, the third highest English mountain after its Lake District contemporaries Scafell Pike and Sca Fell. The tarn is reached by a small path, though is still approximately 3.5km from the nearest road.

Ffynnon Lloer, North Wales - alt. 650 metres

Ffynnon Lloer, the source of the Monn, is a llyn in the Carneddau mountain range in Snowdonia. It lies beneath the peaks of Pen yr Ole Wen and Afon Lloer, 1.5km from the road and can be reached by a path. 

 The Burghead team are completing the challenge for charity and the money raised will be split equally between the RNLI and contributing towards a new dive boat for the club.

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