Last Sunday Jeff and I took on a Whernside and Ingleborough double whilst Paul and Debbie sunned themselves in Dubai (Envious? Me?). I think they had the better deal weather wise.

We parked up just outside the Ribbleshead viaduct and set off around 9.30 in over cast and breezy conditions. Initially heading north westerly following the train line before turning to begin the climb up to Whernside’s ridge. By this point we were in the mist and drizzle so out come the waterproofs. At this point I realise my Gortex over-trousers are at home – big time fail!  Around 11.30am we make a quick stop at the summit wind shelter where I grab a cup of tea and an energy bar and then we’re off along the ridge and then down the valley where we stop to adjust kit and snaffle down a sandwich.

It’s now windy and really raining – cold on the face as I try to reduce the presented surface area by receding well into my coat’s hood. We cross just north of Chaple-le-Dale and begin our way up towards Inglebrough.  Once over the fells and past some pretty impressive looking pot holes we climb back into the mist and up a very steep and wet path of rock steps up to the north easterly side of set of Inglebourgh upper slopes. From there it’s a short climb to the south east to reach the summit trig point and the welcome respite of the wind shelter where we finish the last of our hot drinks.

By this point my lower half is saturated and I’m cold so I’m glad to get moving again. The next hour or so we move north easterly along the upper slopes of Inglebourgh, across Southern Scales Fell and Park fell before descending down to pick up the road back to Ribblehead.

In an effort to conserve battery life I rather smartly stuck my phone into aeroplane mode forgetting that this also disables the GPS. This means that I didn’t record any climb stats for this hike but Jeff estimated our route to be around the 14miles mark. We finished the route at around 4.30pm which is fairly respectable time. If we kept that kind of pace up we should be able to nail the Yorkshire 3 peaks under the 12 hour mark – a challenge I’d like to attempt but perhaps save for after the Kili trip as I don’t seem to be getting any takers from the rest of the team just yet. Not too many more weekends on the hills as we leave for Tanzania in 30 days’ time!