Sorry to come to the party late on this one!
I only found out about this forum when Chris e-mailed me with a request to put a link to the forum on my web site.
Though I often climb Penyghent, Whernside, and especially Ingleborough individually, the last time I did the full 3 peaks walk was nearly 30 years ago, and so last year decided to give it another go.
My partner was spending the day in Skipton so she dropped me off at Horton at around 8:30am on a mid June morning.
As a photographer I am normally well loaded down with a rucsack full of cameras, lenses, plus a tripod, etc.
For the 3 peaks though I decided to travel as light as possible. The light rucksack made the walking so much easier and I flew up Penyghent in no time, not even stopping at the top. (In fact, I didn't stop until Ribblehead).
The day had started with low cloud, which shrouded the top of Penyghent, but had the advantage of keeping the temperature down.
As I climbed, I realised I had chosen a bad day to do the walk, as I soon started to pass dozens, then hundreds of other walkers. There was obviously a large sponsored walk going on. (Some of them had numbers over 1000 on them).
For most of the day I doubt that there was any time when I was more than 100 yards from another person!
One lady had a bit of a moment scrambling up the rocks and up into the cloud near the top. "I didn't think it would be like this. I want to go back".
The going was somewhat greasy underfoot after a few days of heavy rain and the stretch between Penyghent and Ribblehead was quite boggy in places. (Though I guess it always is).
I stopped for refreshments at the cafe at Ribblehead but was soon on my way again.
Unfortunately it was now rush hour on the sponsored walk and much of the climb up Whernside was done in a constant queue of people.
After the early low cloud it was now quite hot and humid, but very hazy. (At least I hadn't missed out on any good photo opportunities by leaving my cameras at home).
I reached the top of Whernside, still feeling pretty good, and again didn't stop.
Down to Chapel - le - Dale, and I blagged some water from a checkpoint for the sponsored walk.
On to Ingleborough, still feeling quite good, until just before the last steep bit, where I had to stop for a breather and some water. In hindsight I probably hadn't drunk enough earlier in the day, and I felt a little light headed all of a sudden.
I made it to the top and had one further stop where I demolished my remaining food and most of my liquid before heading back down to Horton.
I felt much better on the descent and got to the finish in just inside 9 hours for my lift home.
I made the distance in Anquet 23.4 miles and 5315' of climbing. (Though I think the various mapping packages vary quite a lot when it come to calculating ascent).
One think that struck me was that the 3 peaks is probably much easier now than when I last did it all those years ago. (There were no steps or other footpath "improvements" in those days).