Ben Rinnes walkers battle the weather in memory of young ones
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE charity walkers bidding to complete 20 back to back ascents of Moray's highest peak, Ben Rinnes, have been making good progress.
At tea-time on Sunday they had completed number 13 and were preparing to walk through the night to hit 20 by Monday morning.
Cameron Mackintosh, Gary Ewen, Peter Duggie, John Norman and John Mccruden set off on Saturday morning.
Sadly, illness saw the two Johns drop out at different stages of the walk, leaving the other three going strong on Sunday morning.
The charity effort looks like raising in excess of £20,000 for Logan's Fund, a Moray-based charity which operates UK-wide to support children with cancer and their families.
Cameron, chairman of the fund, spoke to The Northern Scot after completing the 13th ascent of the 2760 feet mountain just before 5pm on Sunday.
"The weather has thrown everything at us both yesterday, last night and today as well," he said.
"The heat didn't really cause us too many problems on Saturday as we were pretty fresh. My biggest fears were rain which we got.
"It rained and we changed our clothes and then we set off again, and it rained again and when we came back down we changed our clothes, and then it rained again. Three times in a row we got hit with different rain storms and we were going through clothes.
"Luckily the people at the house down the road were drying my clothes for me. They took them away and dried them and took them back this morning, so I had fresh clothes.
"We got lightning storms as well. There were a few crackles on the hill but it moved over quite quickly."
"Today we have had headwinds coming down off the hill on to you, which has been difficult and just saps your energy."
Each leg of the challenge is in memory of a young person who lost their battle with the disease and got their "angel wings".
Many family members joined the climbers for the different legs, including Christopher and Angela Main, the parents of Logan, who set the fund up in his memory.
Cameron said the support from other walkers had been invaluable.
"There have been a few folk joined us and done walks with us. Two or three of the families have joined us.
"We have had amazing support, people coming and taking water up to the top for us, The Little Lunchbox in Elgin came and dropped off a huge buffet for us, other people have been turning up with food.
"The people down the road gave us access to their house for drying our clothes and changing our water if we needed it.
"People have been giving us donations on the hill, random people, so that has been brilliant."
John Norman started to feel unwell into the seventh ascent and after the eighth one he had to pull out.
John Mccruden was there until the early hours of Sunday but woke up exhausted and unable to continue.
"We have all piled in the hours but he was the guy who really trained so he will be devastated. We are gutted for both of them because it would have been good for everybody to finish it together."
Gary is a distillery warehouse supervisor and his employers, the Edrington Group, supported by the Robertson Trust, have pledged to triple the amount up to £5000.
http://everydayhero.co.uk/event/benrinnestwenty19
