Whernside

Yes folks, its yetanother Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot top. Not far to go now. Nearly finished. Bear with me….
Bruno parked the knipemobile near the tea van at Ribblehead.(Its not fair, I always drive…) I allowed myself to be exploited to the tune of one cup of coffee and one egg butty. They were both very nice.

Most people, I suspect, use the Three Peaks path to get themselves up Whernside. Its a big hill, though and sports a number of routes. This one is a slight but interesting version of the Yorkshire Three Peaks (Y3P) route.

Thus, we followed the railway line (very busy today) to Blea Tunnel and then the Y3P path till it does a sharp left towards the summit. Three Peakers need to get up and down Whernside as quickly as possible. Today, though, me and superdawg were allowed a bit more of a daunder. We continued towards Dentdale on a bridleway called The Craven Way. This uses a band of carb limestone to make progress through the bogs. The result is a path through white and grey boulders on a carpet of  bright green grass, shorn short by the sheep and very easy to walk on. In fact, with the forward views of the Howgill fells, its an absolute bloody delight.

We sauntered along easily , downhill for a bit , to Duncan Syke, a ruin which at one time was considered as a site for an MBA bothy. Then it came time to make the climb up Whernside. This starts at the edge of some enclosures and a soggy path climbs fairly gently uphill. There is no need for a sweat to be broken into on this route.
I left the path after a bit to investigate a shelter with a fine view of Dentdale. Worra grand place for a snooze….

A thin path continues uphill from here, passing two cairns with equally fine views.


After all these fine views, I turned back towards the original path, passing three small tarns on the way. This route would be great for practising your micro-navigation in the hillfog. If it’s foggy and you’ve got your compass, go this way. If it all goes pear –shaped (and it probably will), resort to the simple expedient of walking uphill till you get to the top. Whatever you do, don’t panic and ring your Dad.  Or the police. Or anybody. go uphill till there’s no more uphill to go up. Its an advanced navigation technique, so don’t tell anybody about it. Note: It doesn’t work very well in descent.

I joined the Y3P path again and was soon sitting behind the wall on the summit with my cheese and tomato butty and banana and some coffee. The summit clientele for today seemed to consists substantially of families or Dads and their kids. This exactly is how it should be. Having a whinge about the crowds on top of one of these hills during the summer hols is just silliness. I think its great. As long as everybody enjoys themselves anyway.

Sooo – after a bit, we slouched off for the trying descent towards the Hill Inn. The path is being repaired just now, but the old path works are awkward and a serious trip hazard. You wouldn’t want to trip up on this path. You’d lose your face…. This would be a disadvantage when ordering a foaming pint of Scruttocks Old Dirigible at the pub at the end, and your dog wouldn’t recognise you either and might bite your leg. This would just rub it in. So be careful.
At the bottom, I followed two lasses who seemed to know where they were going and we all ended up back at the Ribblehead tea van. Once again I succumbed to the temptation of a nice hot cuppa and some cake.
All hail to the Tea Van

We did 10 miles and 1700 feet of uphill. I’d recommend this route if you’re just out to bag Whernside. The edge with the cairns has very cracking views indeed.
The finishing end is in sight…….

Great and Little Whernside

Yes folks, its another Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot top, and this time there’s a loyalty bonus - a 600 metre top just because I’m that sort of bloke.
Having successfully put the knipemobile through the MOT without too much fuss, I decided to strike while the iron was hot, as it were, or at least drive whilst the car is working – and went to Kettlewell for the bagging (yet again) of this  damn great lump of a Pennine.

We went up via Dowber Gill – probably the most interesting way, I think. Near the top of the gill, there’s an iron cover on a lump of concrete. Sliding this to one side reveals the shored-up entrance to Providence Pot. It looks scary. It is scary. its a very complicated vertical maze which ends up in Dow Cave, about a mile away. I looked down it and went “Oooer…..!”

A steep path takes the intrepid Whernsider up to Hag Dyke Farm. Hag Dyke farm is a scout hut. Today it was occupied by some of the better quality of yoof, crawling about in the juncus dressed in British Army battledress and covered in green Oil of Ulay face rub. The idea, apparently, was to creep up on Hag Dyke where some older military types were trying to spot them and occasionally sending out spoiler patrols. From the little crag above the house, it was apparent that one group of five were getting very close and the patrol had just walked past them without noticing them. Bless ‘em. What fun.

We progressed to the summit for a turkey and tomato butty, a mars bar and some dribbling (Bruno did the dribbling).

I have to say that it was a bit parky on the top of Great Whernside today. I had to put some layers on. Cloud was touching some nearby fells and the wind was a bit searching.
It was, in fact, a bit autumnish….   
Bugger
An easy walk and some bog trotting brought us along the ridge and up on to Little Whernside where the summit cairn appears not to be on the highest bit. But never mind.

We retreated back to the GW/LW col or bealach and followed the bridleway to Park Rash. The last time I was here, maybe eighteen months ago, this path was a mess, churned up by off-road motor bikes. But it seems to have recovered. Remarkably quick, that……  You could barely tell….
Anyway, at Park Rash there’s added interest from the First Century British (Brigantian) defences – deep ditches and ramparts and so on , and a field full of suckler cows including Beano the Bull. We took a slight detour. Discretion is the better part of being trampled to death by dog-hating moo cows. Bruno agreed. They can get a bit mad, these beasties.

A green lane brought us back to Kettlewell where TGO Challenger Heather Thomas-Smith leapt out from a gang of ice-cream eating girl guides and gave Bruno the bottom of her cone. TGO Challengers have a habit of popping up…..
We did 13 miles and 2200 feet of uphill.
It were grand. I’d do it again.

Great Whernside in the frost

It was minus six degrees somewhere near Richmond this morning as I drove down to Kettlewell. Seems to be shaping up for a wintery winter...

Me and superdawg and my nephew had this little wander around Great Whernside on what seemed to be a very short day. We took a bridleway on the South side of Dowber Gill, a route that I'd never climbed before despite many, many trips up this hill. From the end of the bridleway, we could walk most of the ridge of Gt Whernside to the trig on the top, where there were lots and lots of people with their dawgs. No other super dawgs, though. It was all very frosty and cold and the air was fairly clear - and there was just a little frozen snow around. Some othe r nearby Pennines seem to have had a bit more...

Anyway, we could see the Lake District hills, and steam from various cooling towers somewhere in Yorkshire (not Drax, surely??) and a nuclear-explosion-type cloud over Teeside. I was assured that no such explosion has taken place today, though as many people would have noticed it and, likely, would have reported it to the appropriate authorities.

We came the short, steep and frozen slippery way down the hill and back to Kettlewell via the Park Rash Brigantian earthworks/defences - aka Tor Dyke - all the while putting the world to rights about the benefits of sitting about on the hills listening to skylarks and pipits and stuff - something I must make time for next summer.... the consequence of all this talk is that I failed to take many pics.

Home earlyish cos it went dark again.

Used me birthday gloves....