From left, Charles Winward, Angela Leach, Sarah Buxton and Greg Smith celebrate after scaling the United Kingdom’s Scafell Peak, the second

Few would doubt that climbing a mountain is a demanding endeavour. Try climbing three in one day.

“We wanted a physical test and we love the great outdoors, and the Three Peaks Challenge combines those into a very tough challenge,” avid athlete Greg Smith told the Advertiser July 14 from his London home.

On June 19, Smith and a team of his friends climbed three of the United Kingdom’s toughest mountains in just 24 hours for a charity across the pond. The Mikey Czech Foundation, a New Canaan charity, has received $5,000 (as of early July) in donations stemming from the team’s completion of the challenge.

Founded in September of last year in memory of an 11-year-old resident who died from a rare pediatric brain tumor, The Mikey Czech Foundation promotes research specifically for these tumors. In the future, according to founder Stephen Czech, Mikey’s father, the foundation will create a research program of its own. There is currently no drug or remedy to cure the disease. “No one has dedicated specific scientists to finding a cure,” said Czech. “The number (of patients) is way too small.”

Smith, a business associate of Czech’s, first heard of the organization through e-mail updates from his colleague about Mikey’s illness. These updates eventually morphed into the organization’s periodic newsletter which reaches almost 4,000 people. Already planning the climb, Smith and his friends had wanted to do the Three Peaks Challenge to benefit an organization close to their hearts. “We wanted to choose a smaller, very deserving charity,” said Smith. “Mikey has a very inspiring story, and when I showed the rest of the team, it was an obvious choice.”

Mikey’s illness, a rare type of tumor called a DIPG, has no survivors, and in a broader scope, pediatric brain tumors have few survivors. "Of 3,000 children a year diagnosed with a tumor, one third will die within 12 months, one third will die within 24 months, and one third will survive, but will be low functioning,” he said.

The five-member team — including Smith and four colleagues, Angela Leach, Charles Winward, Sarah Buxton and Ros Patemen — prepared for the grueling challenge by practicing compass and map reading and by planning the drive from mountain to mountain. The three mountains in the challenge, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Peak in England and Snowdon in Wales, span a total distance of almost 450 miles down the United Kingdom, requiring a drive from one to the next. Although the literature the team perused to study the climbs advised them to scale the mountains before the actual event, the team jumped right in without doing so.

“It’s more of a challenge to try them all at the same time, and it would’ve taken away from the experience if we had climbed them before,” said Smith. After flying from their native London to Glasgow, they began the challenge at 4 p.m. June 19, a sunny day, at the foot of the nearly 4,500-foot Ben Nevis. As the tallest of the three mountains, Nevis offered two feet of snow, clouds and wind at the top, which the team had to walk through in their summer shorts.

By 4 a.m., after a seven-hour drive that began as soon as they reached the bottom of Ben Nevis, the team began their ascent of the rocky Scafell Peak in the dark, aided by headlamps. After a five-hour climb through the dawn into the cloudy morning, they reached the bottom at noon. A three-hour drive then put them at Snowdon, the final mountain. During the tough ascent and descent through the freezing climate, the team ran into a pair of men completing the challenge without shoes. “We were very humbled (when we saw them),” Smith recalled. The team reached the bottom at 4 p.m., once again in sunshine, completing the challenge in the required 24 hours. A nearby pub hosted the team’s victory celebration.

Each mountain had a drastically different personality, and reaching the top of each was a highlight of the challenge for the team. “The weather, terrain and nature of the climb was different for all three,” Smith said. “Each one seemed like a different challenge.” Smith’s coworkers and friends responded enthusiastically to the team’s choice of charity to benefit with the climb with their sponsorships and donations. “We’re delighted with their response, it’s truly excellent,” Smith said. “People are still very interested in the charity even after the event.”

Through the Three Peaks Challenge and other fund-raising efforts such as the annual "Moms for Mikey" event, bake and clothing sales, and private donations, the Mikey Czech Foundation has raised $500,000 of its $6 million goal to date. “It’s overwhelming that people are so touched all over the world by Mikey’s story,” said Mr. Czech. Even as they scaled mountains halfway around the world from Mikey’s home, the climbers kept his inspiring story in mind with each step.

“We started in glorious sunshine, but we then passed through clouds, rain, snow, and wind,” he said. “When we reached the bottom of Snowdon and finished the challenge, the sun came out, and we all felt like Mikey was there.” To learn more about The Mikey Czech Foundation’s upcoming events or to make a donation, visit www.mikeyczech.org.