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The Yorkshire Three Peaks - second time around
Back when we had been preparing for the National Three peaks one of the girls at work, Amna, had wanted to come with us. We'd taken her with us on the Pen yr Ole Wen training trip but though she'd made it she was a bit on the slow side and rather brutally but honestly Jas had told her that she wouldn't make it round the N3P outing and would just mess it up for us as well. Consequently she hadn't taken part in June but since then, to make it up to her, Jas had suggested she could have a bash at the Yorkshire Three Peaks instead. He asked everybody along and we ended up with 11 of us happy to go up to Yorkshire and give it a go. These were: myself, Jaswant Golan, Martin Devlin, Andrew Cross, Amna Bukhari, Louise Compton, Graham Hale, Cathy Wiggins (Graham's partner), Roy Brightwell, Jeremy Waldren and Godfrey Skinner.
We went up on the Friday in four cars - Martin, Jeremy & Godfrey; me, Roy & Jas; Andrew, Amna & Louise; and Graham & Cathy. It was a fairly unpleasant drive up, via the A1 this time, with loads of traffic. Fortunately Jas was still on my insurance and did the driving when the traffic slowed us down as the continual clutch work in jams tends to aggravate my knee. We got to the Dalesbridge campsite near Austwick at about 6.30 and were the first of our group to arrive. The place was just off the A65 and had a good number of tents on the site but our party were staying in two 6-berth bunkhouses. Jas, Martin, Roy, Jeremy, Godfrey and myself in one of them, the others in the second.
In the evening we walked along to the Gamecock Inn, in Austwick, for a meal. Quite nice as I recall. The morrow morning we got up quite early, breakfasted from the food that Jeremy and Godfrey had brought, joined the others and drove to Horton-in-Ribblesdale. After slipping our clock-in details under the door of the Pen-y-Ghent café we set off under uncertain skies at 07:13, following the same route as last year.
Light cloud was encountered as we neared the top of Pen-y-Ghent but we got there without any difficulties by 08:33.
After a brief rest we bashed on and as we descended out of the cloud the day brightened up and things were looking good. This time we did a slight dog-leg detour round the boggy stretch but after that it was the same old long slog as last year. As we progressed the girls started to feel the pressure a bit and by the time we reached Ribblehead (about 11.50) a rest was in order. We all sat on the grass near the road junction, had a bite to eat and discussed the next step.
It was at this point that Jeremy raised the option of taking the short route up Whernside, the very steep route which had been vetoed on the previous trip and which has become generally less well-used over recent years. I had tentatively suggested it in the planning stages, and indeed had voted for it last year, but the majority each time had been against it. Now I think Jeremy and Godfrey were worried that the girls were holding us up and endangering their chances of a sub-12 hours finish. They suggested that the group could split, one group tackling the short & hard route, the other group, to include the girls, taking the long but easier route.
Well I was up for it and so were Roy, Martin and Andrew so including Jeremy and Godfrey that made 6 of us in the Goforit group and 5 (Amna, Louise, Cathy, Graham and Jas) in the Goasfaraswecan group. To be fair Graham went with them mostly to support his girlfriend and Jas because he had undertaken to do his best to get the girls round. After a quick pause for a necessary emptying of my bowels in the nearby pub's toilet the Goforits assembled and set off, passing underneath the viaduct. The route was straightforward and soon led us to the base of the short, wall-like final ascent to the ridge. It was indeed steep but I was still feeling quite good and got up it quite quickly and the others too followed on without much delay. Once on the ridge we just had to turn right and make our way a short distance to the top (13.38).
We waited a while but there was no sign of the other group and only rather patchy phone communication from which we gathered that they were still plodding up and would be a while yet. We decided to carry on and let them do their own thing. Down Whernside we trooped in fine order, pausing at the bottom by a farm to have an ice-cream.
From there it was an easy walk towards the last peak, Ingleborough. This stretch is far less boggy than the first leg and it was nice, easy walking with the weather fine and sunny. Eventually we got to the base of Ingleborough's northern flank and clambered up the steep, cliff-like hillside. Roy and Andrew were starting to flag a bit by now. At the top of that stretch we regrouped then walked the final half mile to the summit which we must have reached at about 16.50. By now we had heard that the other group, having reached the top of Whernside, had decided to call it a day and would see us back at the campsite. In our group Jeremy, Godfrey and Martin were in pretty good shape and keen to leg it for the finishing post as fast as they could go. I felt ok too but Roy and Andrew were starting to slow down.
We all set off towards Horton along the easy downhill track, a gentle gradient and not overly boggy. Quite soon we began to string out though and I felt I should stay with the slower two as they had less experience of navigating and hadn't done the route before. The lead group quickly disappeared from view while Andrew, Roy and I ambled along after them. It's about 5 miles back to Horton and both Andrew and Roy were finding it tough by now. Andrew had some knee problems and was also increasingly desperate to find somewhere to relieve his bowels. As we inched our way slowly along time was ticking on, however, and I started to get a bit concerned that we might not make the 12 hours. I already had my certificate from last year so I wasn't overly bothered about that personally but I thought it would be a shame if Andrew and Roy missed out by a few minutes so I tried to pick up the pace and point out the danger to them. Both responded well to the call and soon we were in sight of Horton. It's a bit strung out though and I still didn't think we could relax. We reached the railway line, strode along the street and got to the café at 18.58 - finished with 15 minutes to spare. Pint mugs of tea and congratulations all round. Martin, Jeremy and Godfrey had finished quite a bit earlier for they had set a cracking pace on the final leg. Meanwhile the other group had got down Whernside safely, although the girls were fairly done in, and they had rung for a taxi to take them all back to the café. They hadn't waited though and were now back at the campsite. We all went back to the Gamecock that night, had a good meal and a few pints then drove back the next day. A good trip. | |||||||||||||
