After walking Ingleborough a few weeks back and getting caught in a blizzard, we thought we would give Whernside a go this week
Forecast for the day was dry, but possible sleet/snow from 12.30 onward. Given the forecast, I thought it could be busy early on so planned to arrive at 9am
Just like to appologise to the 19 year old golf gti driver, who I stopped suddenly in front of to grab a picture of Ingleborough, honestly if I knew that you where only
6" from my tow bar for the last mile or so, I would of put my hazards on....honest
Worth the royal salute from a kid
The road leading to the Ribble viaduct, in front of White Scar caves was treacherous, it was literally like an ice rink.
We made in one piece to the road side parking at around 8.45am, thankfully there was only one other car parked up.
View from the parking area with our task for the day. Looks like the views from the summit will be none existant
We took a bit of a wide berth from the main path, so I could snap the viaduct head on. Got a bit snap happy knowing there wouldn't be much photo opportunities
later on
Some pictures just scream to be taken, viaduct with Ingleborough behind
And again from a bit further on
Our route was to follow the train track, past Blea Moor signal box and Force Gill Waterfall
After passing the signal box and reaching the small railway bridge, I was fascinated by the diversion of the river away from the rail line.
I had not come across anything like this in my walks so far, but I guess its quite common
Rail Line
The diversion
Just after the river diversion, I spotted Force Gill. With no real route to get closer, I went a bit Bear Grylls to get a closer look
After returning to the path I decided to get the micro spikes on, as the path was getting a quite bit icier and visibility was dropping.
My mate whipped a pair out of his bag...£5.99 from fleaBay
, they may look similar, but he will soon learn otherwise.
On reaching the first stile, visibility was not good and the temperature dropped
After reaching the top of the image above, visibility was around 20'. In the distance, we could just make out 2 figures just standing there, as we got closer
it was a middle aged man with his daughter late teens early 20's. I asked had they given up and decided to turn back, surprisingly he said no and explained how he had walked the
hill a few weeks back, but wasn't too sure which way to go. With the snow and poor visibility, the path was gone and they had veered off a few times and ended up waist deep.
I asked why they hadn't turned around, to which he said that they were doing the 3 Yorkshire Peaks in June and wanted to visit the top.
After questioning his sanity and not being able to talk them out of it, they accompanied us to the summit.
The summit is here somewhere?
Here?
There it is
After a short stop we asked if they wanted to carry on with us. They declined and wanted to retrace their steps for an easier decent.
Another few different groups had arrived on the summit by this time, arriving from the opposite direction and after quick chat with one of them explaining what had happened
they agreed to keep an eye on them as the descended.
As we began our decent, I wasn't sure if we were going the right way... GPS says we where fine, but fresh snow when a couple of groups had met us on the summit
coming from this direction?
I think we will have to climb over this stile
You go first while a take a picture of the break in the cloud
It was at this point my mates first microspike snapped
, his other was soon to follow
As we descended further, some of the views we where deprived of began to appear. I sat in the snow and had 'moment'
Pen-y-Ghent
Ingleborough
I could of sat here for hours, but the [censored] cheeks where going numb and the foretasted sleet/rain clouds had started to arrive
Looking back to Whernside
I was amazed by the sheer amount of walkers that where now passing us en route to the summit. Do these people not watch the forecast?
The rain/sleet had started and the temperature dropped again. Although we where deprived of some views, we totally enjoyed the day.
As we reached the viaduct for the final time, we crossed paths with the father and daughter again, who made it back in one piece
Route for the day was 13.8K, 3hrs 45mins
