Best gifts for someone who completed the national three peaks challenge

Summit Stones National Three Peaks Challenge Gift Set

Best Gifts for Someone Who Has Completed the National Three Peaks

Completing the National Three Peaks is the sort of achievement that stays with you long after your legs have stopped aching. Whether someone tackled Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa as part of the 24-hour challenge or completed the three mountains separately, there is a lot wrapped up in those summits: months of preparation, early starts, questionable weather, tired legs and, hopefully, some incredible views along the way.

If you’re looking for a gift for someone who has completed the National Three Peaks, it makes sense to choose something connected to the actual achievement rather than another generic piece of hiking gear. Boots wear out, water bottles disappear into cupboards and most keen hikers already own more outdoor equipment than they know what to do with. A good Three Peaks gift should bring them back to the mountains themselves.

1. A 3D model of the National Three Peaks

This is exactly why we started making our National Three Peaks models at Summit Stones.

There is something completely different about seeing the shape of a mountain in three dimensions rather than looking at its name printed on a mug or a T-shirt. The ridges, slopes and contours that make each mountain recognisable become part of the piece, and if you’ve actually stood on that summit, they mean considerably more than they would to anybody else.

Our National Three Peaks set brings together Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) as individual 3D topographic mountain models. They’re designed as a keepsake of the places themselves, so somebody who has completed all three can have a physical reminder of the challenge at home.

They’re also a good option if you’re buying for someone who is difficult to buy for, particularly the sort of person who would rather spend their weekend halfway up a mountain than wandering around the shops.

2. A framed map of their Three Peaks route

If you know when they completed the challenge, a personalised map can make a really thoughtful gift. You could mark each of the three summits, add the date they completed them and include their finishing time if they did the traditional challenge.

For somebody who recorded the trip on Strava or another GPS app, you could also use their actual routes. That makes the finished piece much more personal than a standard Three Peaks poster, particularly if their challenge involved any memorable detours.

And let’s be realistic, there is usually at least one memorable detour.

Something made from their photographs

Most people come home from a big hike with hundreds of photographs and then proceed to leave approximately 297 of them sitting in their camera roll forever.

Turning those pictures into something physical is a lovely way of preserving the experience. A small photo book works particularly well for the Three Peaks because you can dedicate a section to each mountain, including photographs from the journey between them and all the less glamorous bits that are often the funniest to look back on.

If you’re making one for somebody else, don’t limit yourself to perfect summit photographs either. The windswept, exhausted and slightly ridiculous pictures usually tell the better story.

3. A National Three Peaks display

If they’ve collected something from each summit, you can turn those little souvenirs into a proper display.

Maps, photographs, patches, event numbers, medals and even train or parking tickets can become surprisingly meaningful once they’re associated with a particular trip. A shadow box containing a few of those things alongside the date of the challenge makes a completely unique gift.

You could also combine photographs or memorabilia with a 3D model of each mountain, creating a display around the three places rather than simply the challenge logo.

4. A personalised hiking journal

For someone who finished the Three Peaks and immediately started talking about which mountain they’re climbing next, a hiking journal is probably going to get some use.

Rather than choosing a completely generic notebook, look for one that gives them space to record the mountain, route, distance, elevation, weather and a few memories from the day. Over time it becomes a record of everywhere they’ve walked, and the Three Peaks can take their rightful place near the beginning.

You could make the first entry yourself with the date they completed the challenge, which adds a nice personal touch without turning it into something overly sentimental.

5. A gift for their next mountain

Completing the National Three Peaks has an unfortunate side effect: it tends to create ideas.

Once you’ve climbed three of Britain’s best-known mountains, there is suddenly a very large map full of other ones waiting for you.

If you know where they’re planning to go next, something connected to that trip can make a brilliant present. It could be a guidebook, accommodation, a contribution towards travel, new hiking equipment they actually need or even an experience somewhere they’ve been talking about.

For someone working their way through the UK’s mountains, you could also gradually build a collection of models representing the summits they’ve completed. That’s something we’re particularly interested in developing at Summit Stones as we add more mountains to the range.

Why the Three Peaks makes such a good keepsake

The National Three Peaks are very different mountains. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the UK at 1,345 metres. Scafell Pike, at 978 metres, is England’s highest, while Yr Wyddfa reaches 1,085 metres and is the highest mountain in Wales.

Together, though, they’ve become one of the most recognisable mountain challenges in Britain. For people who complete them, the achievement isn’t really represented by three numbers on a height chart. They’ll remember particular sections of the routes, what the weather was doing, who they climbed with and how they felt when they finally reached each summit.

That’s what makes a physical reminder of the mountains such a good gift. It isn’t just something with National Three Peaks written on it; it represents three actual places that somebody worked very hard to reach.

Made for people who love the mountains

Summit Stones started with a simple idea: some places deserve more than being left in your camera roll.

We create 3D printed topographic mountain models that turn the landscape itself into a keepsake. Our National Three Peaks collection features Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa, capturing the distinctive terrain of each mountain in miniature.

Whether you’re buying one as a congratulations gift, remembering your own Three Peaks challenge or simply collecting the mountains you’ve climbed, the idea is the same: you get to bring a little piece of the summit home with you.