Dean Brindley from Cheshire has described how he pushed a 37lb Raleigh Chopper bike to the top of Wales’s highest mountain for charity.
The advertising agency copywriter said the trip up Snowdon “was like heaving a shopping trolley up a never-ending staircase”.
Dean said: “To celebrate 30 years of Stephen Talbot Advertising, we decided to organise a number of crazy activities and in doing so raise money for St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice.
“My challenge was to get my 30-year-old Raleigh Chopper bike to the 3,560ft summit of Snowdon without hitching a lift on the mountain train.”
Starting at the Pen-y-Pass cafe car park, Dean pushed along the Miner’s Track to the summit.
“Apart from the initial mile to Llyn Llydaw, the whole route was really, really hard work,” he said. “The scree slope above Lyn Glaslyn was a particularly tricky scramble and the zig-zags were just one big hard slog.”
Once he’d reached the top, Dean grabbed a quick snack at the café before beginning to make his way back down.
Instead of an epic downhill, he faced even more pushing due to the steep gradient and the number of people walking up, and the final six-mile slog up the LlanberisPass was particularly hard work.
Onlookers had photos taken with him, and a French couple apparently suggested that the British prime minister should give him a medal for his efforts.
“I was really shattered at the end,” Dean said. “But it was a tremendous experience and it’s good to know I’d raised money for a worthwhile cause.”
