Scaling the heights

An early start was needed on the morning of Saturday 22^nd August for the intrepid band of “mountaineers” preparing to attack the famous Yorkshire 3 Peaks of Pen-y-Ghent (694m), Whernside (736m) and Ingelborough (723m). 2015's Simon Carves Engineering Charity Challenge was going to take stamina, strength and no small measure of humour to get through.

The path ahead

Ready to go

24 miles, over 5000ft of ascent and descent and somewhere in the region of 10 to 14 hours’ worth of wandering.  7am found us ready to go, outside the Pen-y-Ghent café in Horton – 9 humans, 1 dog and 1 lucky teddy.

With the café being essentially at the foot of Pen-y-Ghent it is not long before you are heading up towards the first summit of the day.  Most of the route is pretty open until you reach the final “nose” where a bit of a tight scramble is required.

Decent time was made and the first pork pie of the day was keenly enjoyed ahead of the planned schedule – which wasn’t to last unfortunately (neither the pork pie nor the schedule in fact!)

1 down, 2 to go 

Looking back to Pen-y-Ghent

A lengthy descent off Pen-y-Ghent is then followed by a 6-7 mile wander across the relatively low terrain in the direction of the biggest of the three peaks – Whernside.  

The draw of the big one in the distance kept us going and we made decent time to the cafe by the Ribblehead viaduct. 

A quick bit of fuel was taken on (and a change of shirt for some) before the challenge restarted.

Ribblehead viaduct with Whernside
in the background

A “saves on shoe leather” shortcut approach was taken up Whernside. Knocked 2 miles off the journey but the final ascent added a few years onto most! 

Finally, the mist cleared and the views back into the Ribble Valley were worth the aches and pains that were starting to appear.

Down Whernside

A tough descent of Whernside follows. Slippy, steep and rocky this is not one to be rushed and not one that should be taken lightly (Scott’s missing chunk of arm is testament to this)!

Still it wasn’t long before we managed to find flat ground and take on some more refreshment supplied by our support crew (the ever-patient Elaine Holland).

Whernside had unfortunately taken its toll though and we were down to eight humans (dog and teddy still doing fine) with Steve’s knee forcing him toward the pub.

Ready to go for #3

Quick change of shirt again (and of course a selfie with the lucky teddy) as we contemplated wehat was left. Ingleborough - flat, foreboding and somewhere up there amongst the mist. 

With one last big uphill push ahead of us (and time starting to run out in terms of getting round in the light) we took a big deep breath and started up. 

The final peak looms

The gap between Whernside and Ingleborough is a good deal shorter then the gap between Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside so before we knew it, we were heading up again. The climb is steady but heavy legs and minds start to kick in at this point.

Now pushed for time and with the weather closing in, the group had become more “business-like” as we tried to hit the top of Ingleborough within 12 hours of starting.

Eventually, 11 hours and 43 minutes after leaving the Pen-y-Ghent cafe; 8 exhausted humans, one still enthusiastic dog and a slightly damp teddy made the final climb up to the top of peak #3.

Three down, none to go

Much relief was evident amongst the group, until we realised that we still had about 4 miles to travel to get back to the café! 

Wind, rain and darkness were really closing in now as we began the drop off Ingleborough, it was going to be a race against time to get back before the worst set in.

We didn’t get any photos on the final drag back to Horton. It got wet, windy and dark very quickly and, in fact, the last few miles were completed in a thunderstorm with the lightning providing the useful function of showing us where the path actually was.

Despite a minor encounter with a few lost cows who were guarding a gate we needed to go through, plus James following someone who didn’t actually know where she was going, we all managed to return to “base camp” just over 14 hours after originally setting out. Bed was finally reached after a 21 hour day, but it was worth every ache and pain.

A fantastic £569 has been raised for LUPUS UK online (plus somewhere in the region of £150 worth offline donations which haven’t been accounted for yet), well exceeding our original £500 target.

If you want to get involved and help boost our numbers further then please head to the dedicated website https://www.justgiving.com/SCELY3PC.

I'd thoroughly recommend giving this a go if you have a weekend spare. The views are fantastic and the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction is second-to-none. Next time we'll sneak under the 12 hours needed to "officially" complete the challenge.

It is good to have goals.

Till next time,

DT