Asda Yorkshire Three Peaks
The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge is to be completed within 12 hours if you wish to become a member of the 3 Peaks club. It takes place in the Yorkshire Dales National Park whose peaks of Pen-y-ghent (694m/2276 ft), Whernside (736m/2414ft) and Ingleborough (724m/2375ft) dominate the skyline. The Challenge is to complete a circular route of around 25 miles/40 km over these three peaks in under twelve hours. The start and finish are situated in the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
On Friday 20th May 2011, we set off from the cafe in Horton in Ribblesdale at 7.30 am heading for the base of Pen-y-ghent, it took us about an hour to get to the top as it is a steep but quick first hill to climb, with a bit of hands and knees scrambling just before the very top. Due to some foot ware issues Caron was finding it very hard going.
The first check point is at the 10mile marker, we reached this around 12 O'clock, Caron manage to make it to here but had to pull out of the challenge, it was still a huge achievement to make it this far!! Luckily we had lined my Mum and Dad up as a support team, they were in a car driving to each check point with extra food and clothing if we needed it, Caron was able to stay with them as the rest of us set off for the base of Whernside. As we started to climb Whernside the aches and pains were starting to appear. I have to say Whernside seems to be a never ending climb- it is a long, long slog constantly going up!! Once we reached the top it was like, Hallelujah!! but if we thought the going up was hard, coming down was twice as bad. It is a very steep and fast decent, walking poles are a must, even with them my knees were killing me at the bottom. A couple of miles later and we hit the second check point it was now half past three.
At this point the boys (our canine boys that is) had had enough, they had done very well walking a total of 17miles, but they were all looking a bit tired so Dillon, Dante, Seth, Jakey and Sawyer all stayed in the car as Rob, Adam and myself set off for the last hill Ingleborough. First thoughts-Arrrrgggghhh!
This is so very hard on the tired legs and body, it starts off climbing gradually, but then you hit a wall and I mean literally. Half an hour climbing straight up and that's still not at the top, once you do reach the top of the last peak the relief is immense, but there is still a 5 mile walk back down the hill to the finish point. My legs were starting to feel the pain as we headed back down and my knees were saying no more please.
This is so very hard on the tired legs and body, it starts off climbing gradually, but then you hit a wall and I mean literally. Half an hour climbing straight up and that's still not at the top, once you do reach the top of the last peak the relief is immense, but there is still a 5 mile walk back down the hill to the finish point. My legs were starting to feel the pain as we headed back down and my knees were saying no more please.
We all made it to the finish line at 2 minutes past 6. We were all shattered but the sense of achievement more than compensated!
We headed back to Caron and Adam's house for the night, ordered 5 pizzas 3 garlic breads with tomato a very large kabab and got 2 extra pizzas free, it was like they knew how hungry we all were!
As you may have gathered it is a very long hard and gruelling walk. If you take out the time we stopped for food we were walking for 10 hours none stop. However we are doing it all again on 2nd July for Marie Curie, but there are also a lot of other charities who organise the Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge, so if anybody fancies giving it a go then we heartily recommend it, whether it's for charity or just for yourself.
A big well done to all who participated, and a huge big thank you to all the sponsors too
Caroline and Team Chester
A big well done to all who participated, and a huge big thank you to all the sponsors too
Caroline and Team Chester
