Big thanks to everyone who contributed to my birthday present of a weekend away in the Yorkshire Dales to do the 3 peaks challenge. We had a lovely time and to spare me the pain of telling everyone about it individually I thought I’d write about it here instead.
We completed the gruelling 25 mile trek including 1,672 metres ascent in just under 9 hours. The target time is 12 hours so we did pretty well. If you can’t be bothered reading then scroll straight to the bottom for a gallery of our photos from the walk.
We set off from Liverpool at 5pm on Friday and arrived in Horton-in-Ribblesdale just before 9pm. The journey was uneventful apart from a mad dash up the platform at Leeds station just as the guard was blowing the whistle for the last train to Horton to depart… yikes! Fortunately we made it, just, otherwise it would have been a weekend in Leeds.
Arriving at the hotel we got our keys, threw our stuff in the room and went to grab some food downstairs. The bar was packed and there was nowhere to sit so we were directed to the “dining room” which looked like it had been taken directly from a Little Britain sketch. If you were being kind you could describe it as quaint but in reality it was just odd: pink walls, green tables, red chairs, brown carpet, curtains from 1970, hundreds of awful paintings on the wall, and most bizarrely a few dozen nodding dogs on top of a piano watching us eat!
Claire had tomato soup which had come straight from a packet and was accompanied by the cheapest doughiest white bread roll you’ve ever seen. I ordered chicken and chips and was given a deep-fried hunk of chicken with some grey chips that looked like they had been cooked in fat that was as old as the pub. I wouldn’t mind if it had been cheap but the prices made you feel you should be getting at least some half-decent “pub grub”.
At least it gave us something to moan about!
Next morning we got up for breakfast which unsurprisingly was also pretty dreadful. Apparently they think that a “continental breakfast” is a choice of stale cereals. No fruit, nothing. The cooked breakfast was just about edible.
We left the hotel just after 9am and wandered to the local shop to grab some water and to get a butty from the cafe down the road. With our provisions taken care of we started the walk at about 9:20am. Our plan was to do the walk “backwards” going clockwise from Horton: up Ingleborough then Whernside then to Ribblehead where we would decide whether to complete the final leg up Pen-y-ghent or take the train back to the hotel.
The first hour or so was just a long haul towards Ingleborough. The weather was dry but overcast and foggy so we couldn’t really see much. Climbing Ingleborough from this side was relatively easy and we made it to the top in less than 2 hours. Quite a steep descent led us down then we headed north towards Whernside. The cloud and fog was more patchy lower down and we rewarded with some of our first views of Ribblehead viaduct. I imagine it’s quite nice round there when you can actually see something!
The ascent up Whernside was direct but gentle except for one short section where the path became steep and difficult. An easy walk up the broad and gentle ridge brought us to the top of Whernside only 2 hours after the previous summit. Still the weather on the tops was very foggy and we couldn’t see anything. We stopped here for lunch and then headed down towards Ribblehead. During this descent we met some 200 or so other walkers who were headed upwards – I’ve never seen so many people on a mountain!
It seemed to take forever but eventually we made it past the viaduct and into Ribblehead where we stopped again for a quick drink. By this time we had done 14 miles in less than 5 hours and we were both pretty knackered. The thought of walking again in the morning didn’t seem appealing and we really wanted to do the challenge in one day so we decided to continue towards Pen-y-ghent. Besides, I wanted to get back to watch the football on Sunday evening.
The next section from Ribblehead to Pen-y-ghent was an absolute killer. It wasn’t steep, just a long slog, but we had been able to see Pen-y-ghent ever since descending Whernside and it was demoralising because it never seemed to get any closer. To make things worse the ground underfoot was boggy and energy draining to walk on. After 2 1/2 hours we finally reached the bottom of Pen-y-ghent from where it was a short but difficult and energy sapping ascent to the top. We made it to the top at about 5:20pm. Hooray!
A very steep initial descent from Pen-y-ghent gave way to a gentle footpath and then just a short hop across a few fields and back into Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Feet in absolute agony and aching all over we were glad to be back. A short rest and shower then, figuring that the food couldn’t be any worse, we walked to the other pub in the village for some well-deserved dinner. They didn’t disappoint providing us with monster portions of top quality grub for a fair price. Yum yum!
You can view all our pictures (with commentary) below. Feel free to leave a comment!
