This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite walks
. Starting and finishing at Ribblehead, it takes in two of the Y3P peaks, plus Simon Fell and Park Fell. Walked with Shaun Lee, with whom I have tramped several hundreds of miles in the last 3 years.
Travelled up from Grimsby early Monday and we were off and walking by 8.40am, on an absolutely glorious day. Perfect viability, hardly any wind, and pleasantly warm. From Ribblehead to the summit of Ingleborough we follow the Y3P route and so we headed off towards Blea Moor sidings. This was only my second walk with the bridge camera that I got for Christmas (the first one being this route back in May....I did say it was becoming a favourite walk), so with Shaun giving tips on how to use it, I was getting some practice in and taking plenty of pictures.
Took us ten mins under 2 hours to get to the summit, and, even up top, there was little by the way of wind.....very rare for Whernside.
After the usual Trig point picture, and 20 mins sat in the sun, we headed off back down. They are continuing to do work on the path coming down from Whernside, and more of it seems to be paved each time I go. Still that very steep, tricky bit to negotiate though. However, reached Chapel Le Dale without incident, with plans for a quick stop at the Hill Inn, only to be greeted by a sign announcing "Closed all day on Monday's".
Considering that there were several other people (about 7) in a group, who arrived not long after us, plus another chap who we met on his way down who said he was heading for the pub, the landlord must be losing a fair bit of trade this time of year.
So, publess, we headed on and began the approach to Ingleborough, stopping for lunch at the limestone outcrops just before Humphrey Bottom, and the start of the climb. After a slog to the base of 'The wall' and a steady climb up it, we finally reached the final approaches to the summit plateau.
The para gliders provided some distraction on the way up too
And so onto the summit plateau, and a wonderful view from the top (for a change)
Leaving the summit behind us we started to cross Simon Fell. Looking back gave us this rather good view of where we had just been
Having crossed Simon Fell, we went up and over Park Fell, with a steep descent back down from there, to regain the road about half a mile from Ribblehead. Our record of success with refreshments was not improved by arriving at the tea van five minutes after she had finished serving tea......did manage to get ice creams though
A very good days walking. 13.9 miles in total and 2,435 feet of ascent.
Got the full Y3P in a fortnight, so good to get out and have a look at the route, or most of it (did PYG the next day).