The Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge

It was about a 5 minute walk through the village to the start of the trail from where I parked, people were starting with Ingleborough, it’s entirely up to you as it’s a circular loop.

Pen-Y-Ghent was pretty straight forward, nice and steady and had summitted around an hour after starting.

You then descend and carry on the trek until Whernside. This part of the walk is defo a slog, I think it was around 15km of walking, so it defo takes it’s toll.

The ascent up Whernside is enjoyable though, nice and steady with no dramatic verticals.

This is where I had my first stop off as I wanted to plod on through the first few hours as best as I could, but I defo needed a re-fuel at this point. Think I stopped for about 15 minutes.

Nice big steps for descending Whernside, you then head towards some farms and there’s a little shop you can take a break at, grab a drink and do your business if required. I had another 10 minutes here, lashed a load of water over my head and carried on.

I was defo feeling it heading towards Ingleborough and the zigzags up were pretty steep, take your time though and you’ll be good. The final push got me to the top of Ingleborough which was like a plateau, giant flat surface with a trig point.

You then descend back down the same path but I took a right which then took me back towards Horton. This also felt like an age as it was just a long walk through rocky terrain when you’re already knackered.

What I didn’t realise until on top of Ingleborough though was how fucking fast I had been going thus far, I wanted to go quick to challenge myself, but I was on for around 8 hours once back at the car.

Unfortunately as I was getting nearer to Horton I realised I wouldn’t quite do the sub 8 hours, I had my big bulky Columbia walking boots on this day too as the low rise ones had given up a few weeks back, so any chance of jogging the last few kms was a no go.

I was half tempted to run, but in the end I just enjoyed the nice fast paced walk back. 8 hours 11 minutes in the end though, I’ll take that.

Back at the carpark, it was time for another swill of my face, neck and back and a change of t shirt before the 2 hour drive back.

I was up, there, finished and back home within around 12 hours so I was very happy with that. 

Maybe sub 8 next time, maybe even a bit of trail running, who knows.

There’s plenty of groups that organise this and the 12 hours with a good few breaks and plenty of water is very doable.

Jo managed to smash it herself with some work colleagues a few weeks later.

Highly recommended though, a belter.