A FATHER and son duo will climb the three highest mountains in Britain this week – in memory of a family member who died while attempting the same challenge fifty years ago.
Jeremy Bird and his 17-year-old son Paddy plan to scale Mount Snowdon in Wales on June 13, Scafell Pike in Cumbria the following day and Ben Nevis in Scotland on June 15.
Based in Sligo, where Jeremy is Head of Science at IT Sligo, the 60-year-old set himself the gruelling task – which involves 11,000 feet of climbing – in honour of his brother Paddy, who died while attempting the very same challenge on the same dates in 1966.
Both Jeremy and Paddy were born and raised in Finchley, north London, to parents from Loughrea in Co. Galway and Suffolk in England.
Paddy Bird died scaling Scafell Pike in 1966Paddy, a straight A student who went to the University of Birmingham in 1965 to study chemistry, decided to take the three peaks challenge at the end of his first year.
He set about the daunting climbs with a friend, Kevin Prendergast, to raise money for charities as part of RAG week
“When Paddy took on the challenge my mother feared all the driving involved,” Jeremy explained, “but we never thought that they could get in trouble on the mountains in the summer.
“We were so wrong. They completed Snowdon on June 13, 1966 and drove straight to Scafell that late afternoon. Paddy and Kevin went up Scafell at 4pm in runners and t-shirts and were never seen alive again.”
The students’ bodies were found by the mountain rescue team the following morning, on June 14.
Both had twisted ankles and were incorrectly dressed for the bitter conditions they encountered on the mountain, Jeremy explains.
“They must have sat down with exhaustion after the weather closed in and they’d became lost and drifted off to sleep, finally dying from hypothermia,” he added.
This week Jeremy hopes to complete the climb in memory of his beloved brother, with the help of his son Paddy, who will also undertake the climb, and the support of wife Dorothy and their two other children Kitty and Charlie back home in Sligo.
“My son Paddy and I have decided we are going to repeat the entire three peaks climb and finish it - if we can and my knee survives,” Jeremy said.
“I’m not young, so there are no guarantees, as there is 11,000 feet of climbing involved,” he added, “but we are going to stick to their routes where possible and aim to be on Scafell early on June 14, at the exact location where Paddy’s body was found – LambsfootDub - to remember my beautiful brother.
“I know the location because I went and met the man who found his body from the mountain rescue team about seven years ago.”
Jeremy, who still has the compass and maps that Paddy and Kevin used on the day they died in 1966, moved to Ireland in 1985.
