AN avid golfer, who plays at Harleyford in Marlow, swapped his golf clubs for hiking boots recently when he took part in the Three Peaks Zero.

John Heller, 63, was part of one of three teams and cars which took part, which were Tesla Model S’. His team consisted of himself, Richard Kenning, 65, James Kenning, 34 and Peter Lowe, 65.

Heller explained: “The Three Peaks Zero is based on a well-known climbing / endurance event called the Three Peaks Challenge, which involves climbing the highest mountains in each of the countries of mainland Britain (Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Mount Snowdon in Wales) within 24 hours. 

“The twist in Three Peaks Zero was that all transport between the locations had to be in all-electric, such as zero emission, vehicles. This had never been done before.”

Heller added: “We did not manage to break 24 hours but three of us completed the ascent and descent of all three mountains in just over 30 hours. As the main driver, Richard opted out of climbing Scafell in order to get some sleep before the long drive to Snowdon.”

The first task for Heller and his team was climbing Ben Nevis in the dark in the early hours of last Saturday morning, completing the ascent and descent in just over five hours before the gruelling test of climbing Scafell Pike.

Once again they completed their journey up and down Scafell Pike in darkness before driving to Mount Snowdon where they began their climb in the pouring rain before reaching the bottom at 12.40pm on Sunday, 30 hours and 35 minutes after their first footsteps on Ben Nevis.

Incredibly, after Heller’s trekking, he went onto win the Seniors’ October Medal just a couple of days after his last step on Snowdon.