{YES! Again!}

It’s no secret of my willingness to tackle Ribblesdale’s  arduous and infamous twenty five (or thereabouts) mile and three peak challenge over the mountains of Pen-Y-Ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside (in ascending order of height).

I attempted it in 2010 and abandoned at Ribblehead owing to lack of preparation and fitness (For a late spring day the weather was atrocious!). Since then I have vowed to do it on a number of times as part of a group but nothing has materialised. Eventually, have rounded up the same group of hardy volunteers whom took part with me in 2010 and coerced them into committing to a date in June 2012.

Now having already completely made a  pig’s ear of my last attempt, I am getting really serious for this attempt and have planned a number of training routes – as I did in 2009/10. I have already been a none-smoker now for the last fifteen weeks, have stopped eating the skin off roasted chickens and am beginning to  (finally) take my health seriously. This time however the idea will not be to set myself ridiculous tasks such as going up and down Pendle twice in the same walk! (I did it, but my word did my feet suffer the day after!) This time I am picking achievable targets.

And they are:

1. The Circuit of Pendle Hill

   

   Valley between the giants...

   From Barley visitor centre
   I shall walk up Cross Lane and then down into Newchurch-in-Pendle passing by Witches Galore and Saint Mary’s Parish Church. Then I’ll head along the peaceful and scenic Wellhead Road, over the unbelievably steep Saddler’s Height and then  through the eerie yet captivating Fell Wood. Now having descended the tiny steps that lead to the bridge which will take me over Lower Ogden Reservoir,I shall start to make my way uphill by passing Upper Ogden Reservoir to reach the bottom of Boar Clough. Then it’s onwards and upwords to the summit at Big End. Next I shall turn 270 degrees head back towards Boar Clough but turn off left in order to take the grit-stone path back down to the base of the Barley Steps at the back of Pendle House but avoiding the steps (I hate those bloody steps!). From here it is a gentle stroll back to Barley visitor centre via Ing Head and Ing Ends.

   Distance = about six and three quarter miles. I aim to do this on Sunday January 29th.
   
   View Pendle Hill Tour on 30th Oct 2011 in a larger map

2. Rambling around Rivington

   

   The Edges and Winter Hill

   This one starts at the Rivington Hall Barn car park but oddly enough Rivington Pike is the last summit covered on this seven peak stride where good weather is essential! I will head off down Sheep House Lane towards Parsons’ Bullough Road over Alance Bridge and onto Moor Road. This now becomes a bit of a long drag as for the next mile and an half as we head up then downhill towards White Coppice ultimately turning right through a large gate just outside of the hamlet. The path now leads us along a sheep-filled common for some distance before filtering off left for the ridiculously tough stretch which will lead up towards Great Hill (our first summit!) via DrinkWaters and a few deserted farms.

   The path by now has become far more gentle as we reach the summit of Great Hill with its’ impressive stone shelter the views open up in all directions. For now it is a twenty minute march downhill towards Redmonds and then up Spitlers’ Edge (our second and third summits). Here is where the good weather factor comes into play as the descent of Spitlers is a tricky affair where the going after a good downpour is just awful! After the Spitlers slide I’ll cross the Belmont Road towards Hordern Stoops whilst cringing at the prospect of the climb ahead of me…until I turn passed the difficult and steep trek that is the northern face of Winter Hill and turn right towards Rivington once more. After a few hundred yards another turn off on the left hand side appears, I’ll go through the gate here heading slightly uphill and passing yet another left turn which if followed would take me steeply up towards Winter Hill. The next left hand turn-off is the one to take as this will lead us to our fourth summit of the day, the oddly named “Noon Hill”, then following a more or less due west line on to the trig point at Winter Hill – our fifth summit and the apex of the walk in all sense of the word!

   From here the end is in sight, but for the most part that dry weather which we so require is going to be an asset! The walk straight down “Winter Hill” road is not in any way a challenge, the crossing of the peat moorland in order to cut across Crooked Edge Hill and to Two Lads (our sixth summit!) is at best, messy, at worst one could possibly sink to one’s knees here if the weather has been bad enough. The descent is a brief and bumpy one following the path that naturally opens out in front of me and leading me to a tiny flight of sandstone steps with the Rivington / Blemont Dog Hotel on my right hand side. Turn right here and wind one’s way up another instance of Belmont Road. The going underfoot from here and for the next few hundred yards is somewhat hard, cruel would be a better description as essentially we are walking on a road that is a mixture of cobbles and sandstone. Eventually after heading slightly uphill a right hand turn-off over Brown Hill (not on our summit list as it is rather indefinable!) will lead us to the bottom of the final climb up the northern aspect of Rivington Pike. This is by far and away the steepest ascent on the walk (because we didn’t do Winter Hill from the north!) and I would imagine that after a few days of rain that this route up the pike could teeter towards treacherous – but still more enjoyable than the multitude of steps 180 degrees around the hill that we shall be descending after stopping atop the pike to admire the spectacular 180 panorama. At the bottom  of the steps cross the same Rivington / Belmont Road that has accompanied us at varying points throughout the day, keeping the toilet block on your right hand side, drop down the multitude of paths that ultimately lead one out at varying points on the lane to the car park or at the back of Rivington Barn Hall.

   The distance is anywhere between 10 and 13 miles according to Google Maps and I aim to do this on Sunday the 26th of February 2012.

   
   View All Around Anderton in a larger map

3. Pen-y-Ghent to Ribblehead and back

   

   Pen Y Ghent

   Well, seeing as this was effectively the walk that I did when I aborted the main three peaks walk in May 2010 then it seemed like a poignant conclusion for my preparation of the 2012 three peaks walk. (Although in honesty I will probably be walking most weekends if only locally; in-between the end of this walk and the event itself in June.)The walk starts at the overflow car park just off the B6479 around the back of the Crown Inn Hotel. I shall head towards the Pen-y-ghent Café, cross the road and head off uphill towards Brackenbottom farm. Over the stile and into very steep terrain that is occasionally broken up by some easy scrambling over limestone. After a mile and an half (or thereabouts) and a number of steps and stiles the path joins with the Pennine Way as it meanders up the south west face of Pen-y-Ghent. There are two notable steep sections during the climb up to the summit but the last five hundred yards is a delightful parade up to the ordnance survey column.

   Over the stile we go and hopefully the drop down the side of Pen-y-ghent won’t involve me falling over as it has on the previous two occasions! When the Pennine Way path forks off to the left to head back into Horton I shall bear right and head in the general direction of the mosses (Red and Black Dub). For the next six miles it will be a mixture of slippery grass over limestone, undulating mounds, occasional good quality grit-stone paths and the almost ever-present mud, always lurking and waiting to splatter me in highly visible places!

   The walk back will be a much less arduous task – albeit a far less scenic one as far as my immediate environment goes. At what has become known to be as “The Fourth Peak” – an hot food and beverages van that is parked at Ribblehead on bank holidays and weekends, I shall turn around and pretty much head back to where I came from via the B-road back into Horton In Ribblesdale.

   If however, my feet,legs and back are feeling fine then I won’t do this and instead will turn the walk into a four peak challenge as I head off towards Park Fell in order to climb this fell, traverse Simon Fell and then the easier route up Ingleborough before doing another about turn and heading off over Simon Breast Fell and Sulber Nick back into Horton In Ribblesdale. Some might say that if you are going to go to those lengths then surely wouldn’t it be just as well to do the 3-peaks walk in proper? They would have a point, but for me the messing about to get up Whernside is far greater than the expenditure of energy that it will take to get up Park Fell (which is not as high as say Pendle Hill) and across Simon Fell (which is up a slope so slight that it borders on insignificant!). The aim of the practice or training walks is to achieve the achievable – not to set myself silly goals and for me to attempt all three peaks at the end of March (when I plan on attempting all three at once). In summing, I will be walking up and down Pen-y-ghent and onto Ribblehead then back in Horton in Ribblesdale via a scenic and strenuous route or via tarmac and concrete roadside pavements.

   The date for this walk should be: Sunday the 25th of March, 2012

The perceptive reader would probably assume that I never completed the full challenge, and he’d be right. Sorry folks, this is something of an anti climax but owing to bad clothing choices – one football shirt and one cheap rainproof jacket, terrible weather conditions – oh how it rained relentlessly; and general state of ill-preperation, I got as far as Ribblehead and then caught the train back to Horton in Ribblesdale – looking rather worse for wear!

The walk itself started off bad for me as my worst fears were realised within ten minutes of the start. I had feared that my colleagues would set off at a blistering pace – blistering doesn’t even begin to describe it, there was simply no way that I could keep up and by Brackenbottom Farm I was lagging. By the time that I had reached the infamous 1900′ section (where the saxifrages decorate each late spring) I was on my own. A very kind-hearted colleague did keep holding back for me…then obviously he would set off again as soon as I caught up to him…how I remember now with a wry smile the countless times that I did this to Chris (my fianceé) on Pendle Hill, Catbells and Whernside last summer. Irony is a bitch when it comes back upon you!

It rained for most of the day and when the rain did subside the temperature dropped. I slipped and had my entire right hand side mud-kissed before we had even reached any of the two main moss sections: Red Moss and the notorious Black Dub Moss that as luck would have it were relatively incident free…for us. After some eight miles I decided to shed some excess, useless burdens – my Go-Outdoors walking poles. I had never attempted a walk using two poles prior to this day yet for some reason thought that two poles would give me an edge…maybe coming downhill – no, going uphill – no, on the flat – a resounding no! Thus the poles may now still reside on the right hand side of the road on the B6479 about 100 yards south of the “Fourth Peak” – the beverage and hot snacks van that parks in this vicinity on major three peak days.

In summing am I disappointed to have not completed the full challenge? Once again a resounding “YES” but at the same time I am not embittered, I vow to do the walk again next year – in August when even the wet weather should still be warm, and, there WILL be less of me there at that distant time. I have re-uptaken my urban walking with renewed vigour having clocked up 45 miles in the last three weeks – and this will be profoundly improved upon with the addition of another urban walk during the week and one rural walk at weekend. Further to this, I will try my best to visit the gymn at least once per week in order to do some treadmill miles (always the easiest miles) and with some good fortune I hope to get out and about on my bicycle at least once per week . I am hardly going to be in the house at all this summer!

I’m nearly there! recently I have done a bit of urban walking and my shins have felt like someone has used starch on them after only a mile or so. This can be the very start of a down spiral towards failure. It HAS to be combatted! This coming Saturday (weather permiting) I aim to do something about it by driving over to North Yorkshire and doing FOUR peaks.

No, I haven’t taken leave of my senses. I am not going to do all three and then one more for measure, I plan on doing the following:

The route is to go from the B6255 at Chapel le Dale, over Souther Scales to the top of Ingleborough, turn-around, come back down to Simon fell via the west ridge, up and over Park Fell, head for Ribblehead and join the three peaks route up and over Whernside. Then we would hit the B6255 again at Chapel le Dale.

From other walker’s blogs I gather that this route is something akin to 14.5 miles – my longest walk since being a little kid and those seemingly endless hikes over the Howgills that my headmaster used to inflict upon us on a yearly basis. So in a nutshell I am going to give myself NINE hours. If I can do this in that length of time then I think that in a month’s time I will be able to do the whole 25 mile, Yorkshire Three in-between twelve to fourteen hours. And that will be good enough for me…until next year when I shall do the whole thing in reverse starting at H.I.R and ascending Ingleborough first!

A few months after we had ascended Whernside and I bid a regrettable farewell to the area, I happend to mention at work my willingness to do the full challenge…but with others that I knew with me. For someone at my current physically declined level I sumised that I would be taking leave of my senses to do the walk alone. With others around me (whom I already knew) we would be able to spur each other on, plus it would be nice social occasion where we could discover a bit more about each other and ourselves (as anyone ascending Ingleborough from Chapel le Dale will concur, you find a lot out about yourself when first confronting “The Wall“.

I asked two of my colleagues at work if they both fancied coming along with me and to my astonishment they both agreed. I was to be further surprised the next day when I had sent my e-mail to the entire department and ultimately there were fourteen positives! Since then the number has dropped down again to 13 which might be perceived as the start of the bad omens – save for the fact that one team member has roped in her husband and sister – so no tridecaphobia as of yet!

At the time of this post I must admit to be somewhat apprehensive – I have not even begun serious training for what will be an extremely strenuous challenge – this is in part owing to ill health (two colds in January) and lethargy. Very shortly I will begin power walking around the neighbourhood, I don’t have a problem with the hills themselves as they hold no surprises for me and to be honest…none of them are as tough as Pendle Hill!

At the same time I would happily attempt the route at a fortnight’s notice, anything to be back in North Yorkshire would be fantastic. There are many things that I am looking forward to about the walk; the sense of comrardary and team bonding, the sense of trepidation on the morning of the walk, the (hopefully) sense of unbridled achievement upon successful completion and finally the main one for me: the views of Pendle Hill, Cross Fell and on a clear day even little old Parlick from atop of all three mountains. It’s going to be fantastic!

As a spin off from this event, we thought that it might be a great idea to do the whole thing in aid of Mountain Rescue of England and Wales. To sponsor us please visit the following site: http://www.justgiving.com/itservicesdoes3peaks

Ever since Dave Hill of the band A-Pencil showed me an Ordnance Survey map featuring Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough I had wanted to climb these wonderful sounding hills. And as of May 2009 I have become mildly(?) obsessed with them. In June 2009 my fiancée and I ascended Pen-y-Ghent and I loved it. Three further visits to the Chapel le Dale area (on one of which the mist was so thick that the upper half of Ingleborough appeared to be lost so we didn’t even attempt it!) and we had ‘bagged’ the trio!

What started off as an observation on Pen-y-Ghent transformed into a ‘thing’ on Ingleborough and into a downright obsession after Whernside – we had observed the “Three Peakers”. Although scornful of them at first by the time I had completed Whernside I had made my mind up that I too would become a “Three Peaker”. What is a “Three Peaker”? I assume you’re wondering.

Read on >>>

The café runs an antique clocking machine upon which Three Peakers are able to ‘clock out and in’ for proof of their success or failure. The upside of this in contrast to the tie-flicking ability afforded to successful completions is that this offers a checklist for those walkers still out on the mountains at the end of the day. It is said that if a walker clocks out but has not clocked in some considerable time later the staff at the café will make efforts to contact the relevent authorities in order to track down the missing persons.