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It is nearly twenty years since i last visited the summit of Ingleborough it was on my Duke Of Edinburgh silver award 1991,it was also the second mountain that i had ever climbed,Pen y Ghent being the first the day previously.We were actually meant to climb Whernside as well that same day but being young and devious and somewhat lacking the necessary motivation by the time we had reached the bottom of it we decided upon an easier detour at valley level.
Unbeknown to us however our assessors were waiting at the summit trig on Whernside to make sure our map reading had gone to plan,which in truth it had to be said had gone exactly to plan, we were right where we wanted to be,making our way to the final checkpoint less 4 - 500 m of ascent.
Unfortunately however our very harsh assessors did not accept that we had passed over the top somewhere slightly lower down the summit area and that we had missed one another in the cloud that had enveloped the mountains upper reaches that day and they subsequently failed us.
Fast foward to 2010 and again i have omitted Whernside from my intended route although this time i was disappointed at having to do so,my route which shrank from 27km down to 15km was due in part to slightly thicker snow coverage than i had expected and a time consideration.
After a less than promising start at home which was experiencing rain and extensive cloud cover i was fearing the worst for the day, but travelling up the M6 the rain began to dissapate and some sunlight began to show itself in and out of the fog patches.The weather report for Yorkshire dales basically worked out as horrible and claggy in the morning ,with lots of sunshine in the afternoon.As it turned out the reversing of that forecast would have been more accurate.
I passed through Ingleton on my way to park to buy a map for the area,before carrying onto the Clapham road to park near to Cold Cotes.Start height for the walk was about 260m with only a dusting of snow underfoot,i made good progress upto the area of Boggarts roaring holes (had to include that name somewhere in the report)before the snow started to thicken up and the sweat started to trickle.Escaping from the valley the visibility improved with great views over towards Gragareth and Scales Moor.
- Looking Back,heading up!
- First Glimpse of Ingleborough
- Gragareth
After 50 mins of graft i reached Little Ingleborough which opened up the view of the eastern dales beyond to Pen y Ghent and Fountains Fell and to the last push for the summit,after ploughing through some undisturbed snow for a few minutes i hit what felt like the path and made good time for the summit about a Kilometre away.
- Pen y Ghent
- Looking back toward Little Ingleborough
- Ingleborough Summit
The cloud was starting to overcast the day by the time i reached the top but was staying well above the summits.After a good feed and water at the shelter i was on my way to claim my outlying Hewitt, Simon Fell ,dropping off the NE shoulder there were some fabulous views of the Ribblehead viaduct and of the Limestone pavement more immeadiately below,and good views of Whernside across the valley i carried on and made my way carefully down to the saddle and stretched out towards my next objective passing a few other people heading back towards Ingleborough along the way.The top of Simon Fell gave up the best view of Pen y Ghent i stayed only long enough to get some quick photos before retracing my steps back toward Ingleborough.
- Whernside with Ribblehead viaduct
- The Mighty Simon Fell
Reaching the saddle i turned and headed down the steep north slope towards the Limestone pavement, so steep was it in fact i seriously considered for a few minutes about breaking out the survival bag to sled down ,how grateful i was moments later as i felt all the large boulders beneath my feet that good sense had returned quickly,after a frantic five minutes of falling and sliding i reached the bottom of the slope with all limbs in tact and headed away for a short while on a good path before following a wall on my left hand side until i reached the limestone pavement and ventured onto it ,it was a little slippy with the snow coverage but seemed like playing a giant game of hopscotch crossing the gaps in it, sometimes quite large gaps. In the breaks between the stones i followed animal tracks in my direction of travel in the snow it seems they like to take the easiest line on the hill too,as i contoured with them round the side of Ingleborough.
- Steep Slope down
- Ingleborough and the Limestone Pavement
- Lonely tree
I eventually sidled upto the lonely tree after a good 40 mins of walking, sprouting up from the cracks in the limestone it looks like something out of a horror movie.Shortly after the tree the pavement ended and i descended a short but steep slope down to the main path near to Crina Bottom then turning and heading across fields towards Slatenber and the car taking in the last glimpses of Ingleborough along the way.
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