James and I arrive at Horton-in-Ribblesdale at around 7.30am. The weather looked good, overcast, but signs
of blue sky. The Yorkshire
Three Peaks Challenge is very popular and there were a lot of people parking
up, setting off, and being organised into groups. This is the biggest walk I have attempted since rupturing my achillies tendon back in October 2015. James, and myself, got our boots on and
started packing our back-packs: Rain coat, spare socks, lunch, snacks, and
plasters. It was then that I realised I
had forgotten to pack a water bottle – opps.
James, shared his water supply with me, but clearly not enough for the
whole day. The village café was shut, so that didn’t save me either. We registered our start time 7.46 am and
posted it through the café door and off we went!
The first peak is Pen-y-Ghent, one of my favourite Dales
walks. We both felt good and found ourselves
going at a moderate pace on the steep side of the peak. The scrabble was fun, but so busy that it was hard
to pick your way through. It was good to
get to the summit (at about 8.50 am). It
was cloudy and so not much of a view, so we didn’t hang around at the top; we began the descent. James sometimes
suffers with his joints and he found descending more of a problem than
climbing. None-the-less we continued at
a good pace. The sun was out and all felt
good. It’s a long walk between
Pen-y-ghent and Whernside. The views of
Ribblehead viaduct were fantastic. We took a
short break for some food and water, and a change of socks before
Ribblehead. Changing socks gives the
feet extra life (thanks for the tip Fin).
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| Summit of Pen-y-ghent |
The climb up Whernside is long as it loops around and we
were largely stuck in single-file for large portions of it.
James finds this frustrating and so does
quite a bit of overtaking.
I had a
little less energy so tended to trail a bit – my excuse is that I’ve had a
virus (cold/flu) for almost three weeks.
However, I didn’t let him get to far ahead.
The path is flagged and this caused quite a
bit of impact on my knees in particular.
James found a dirty stream and suggested filling our water bottles, I
decided we were not high enough up! As we got closer to the ridge the rain started; raincoats
went on.
Along with the rain, wind, (and
sweat build up) it became cold.
At
that point I wished I’d packed gloves.
At the peak the rain was driving harder and I could barely feel my hands
– not really what you imagine on the 20
th May.
We reached the summit of Whernside at about
12.55 pm.
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| Summit of Whernside - never noticed the dog at the time! |
I put a hoodie on under my
raincoat.
James had his raincoat and
woolly hat on.
I was slightly regretting
being in shorts.
We started to descend and had a break about after about 15 minutes.
We were looking for a little shelter from the wind.
The hillside was now very slippery and
countless people were falling onto their bottoms.
I nearly did involuntary splits in the mud.
At this point, my left knee started to give
some pain.
This really concerned me, but
I didn’t want to think or talk too much about it.
Thankfully as the path levelled out the pain
eased.
Between Whernside and
Ingleborough is Philpin Farm, which has a campsite and, more importantly, a
snack bar.
We both bought water and
Lucozade Sport.
This was a huge moral
boost.
We continued on without
stopping.
We thought we might see my
wife and kids near the pub before our ascent up Ingleborough, but there was no
sign of them.
Walking up was a relief to
the legs compared to walking down (for a while).
Ingleborough has a steep climb before
reaching the ridge.
We had a short break
before the climb, change of socks (back to originals) and then we were
off.
Mountain goat James once again took
off and was finding his own route passed the slower walkers.
I grit my teeth and kicked also.
Once going it gave some pleasure to scramble
up.
I remembered hearing a helper from an
organised group saying, “Just 10 minutes of Hell, then 20 minutes of easy
gradient.”
This drove me on.
At the ridge we could see all the way to the
sea to the West.
Then the cloud cover
got intense.
As we approached the summit
it was only possible to see about 5-10 m in front.
Like sheep, we followed each other to the top
(3.44pm).
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| James at the summit of Ingleborough |
 |
| Me at the summit of Ingleborough |
By now, we realised that we had a small chance of making it
down to Horton before the café shut.
We
wanted to register our time, and more importantly drink the infamous pint of
tea.
We felt good.
Steep steps were troubling me, but shallow
gradients were no problem.
As we got
closer we were even attempted to jog sections (I doubt we looked elegant).
We arrived at the café at 5.23pm, so a total
time of 9 hours and 37 minutes.
We were
very pleased with this time as we originally aimed for <11 hours.
We meet with my wife and children, drank a well
earned pint and headed home. It was a fully enjoyable experience and a look forward to
more walking adventure in the future.
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| Enjoying a pint of tea in Horton-in-Ribblesdale Cafe (5.26pm ;-) |
