Winter peaks challenge for pals helping the homeless in Milton Keynes

Nick Battams and Doru Palanite started their winter challenges on November 18 with an ascent of Helvellyn in the Lake District on the notorious Striding Edge, returning on December 16 to tackle Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak.

During January they aim to summit Snowdon in Wales, and will finish the challenge in Scotland, in February, with a guided ice-climb up the North face of Ben Nevis.

They will take the ‘ledge route’, which at 4,412 feet and anywhere between -8 and -20 degrees, is the highest mountain and the coldest place in the UK.

The two pals want to raise £3,000 which will all go the Hope For The Homeless MK, a support group which collects clothes and food to distribute around the city’s ‘homeless hot-spots’.

Nick and Doru have done fundraisers in the past, included a sponsored sleep-out on the streets, a summer family festival and a midnight walk.

Nick said: “It’s easy to forget those less fortunate and it’s actually this time of year and through to February when the winter is at its worst, that the homeless need the most support.

“We decided to embrace the cold weather and the danger of the mountains to symbolise the lives they live, with no shelter from the weather and how one wrong turn can change everything. So the mountain challenge was set, getting bigger, colder and more dangerous as we go.”

Visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/the-only-way-is-up