Yorkshire Three Peaks
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:59 am
Finally got round to having a go at doing the Yorkshire big three in one go. An early start from Preston at 6.15am saw us arrive in Horton to begin the walk at 7.20am.
Fast progress to the top of Pen-y-ghent with plenty of fresh snow about and at this point clear skies.
At this point the weather turned with a wintry shower bringing heavy hail as we made the difficult and long trek towards Ribblehead in increasingly muddy conditions. It did pass though....
Eventually Ribblehead came in to view as did our route up Whernside. To avoid the crowds and to regain height quicker we decided on the direct route up from Winterscales. I'd done this before and found it to be manageable if a bit boggy which it was today although the final steep pull up to Whernside was a bit of a scramble in the snowy conditions. There was plenty of snow on the summit but the views were good and it appeared that we wouldn't get any more showers from that point which was a bonus.
We took the more traditional Bruntscar route down Whersnide which was slippy and muddy today until we reached the road at Chapel le Dale.
From here it was a pleasant walk to the bottom of the ridge of Ingleborough where a steep but easy pull gained the ridge before a final uphill to the summit plateau.
Now all that was left was the six miles back to Horton on a lovely easily graded path until some limestone paving was reached where it was easier to walk on the limestone than walk on the boggy path below. Eventually Horton came in to view and the car was reached after 7hr and 57mins of walking in mostly good conditions.