2012 was the 50th anniversary of the event and
the 500 places had sold out and there was a waiting list. I had opted to spend
the night before the event at the finish in Threshfield and be bussed to the
start the following morning. I arrived about 10pm, registered and got my kit
checked. I had been watching the weather all week and was pleased that Saturday
was forecast to be dry, at least overhead, but considering the amount of rain
that had fallen over the preceding days I was not expecting to keep my feet
dry. There would be a strong north to north easterly wind though and I had
therefore decided to carry an extra fleece and my Buffalo mitts just in case
things cooled down during the later stages of the event.
After a reasonably comfortable night on the school sports
hall floor I had my breakfast and waited for the buses. It was at this point
that I bumped into Roy Jackman and we chatted about our goals for the day.
Arriving at the start in Ingleton the wind was blowing hard and having sought
shelter behind a wall for a while we got back onto the bus until it was time to
start.
At 9 o clock we set off for Ingleborough the first summit of
the day. I had decided to pace myself and was aiming for an average of 4 mph
which should see me round the 61 miles and 11,000 ft of ascent in about 15
hours. As we arrived at the summit the full force of the wind was felt and it
was a relief to drop down towards the Hill Inn and cross the valley to
Whernside. The run along the Whernside ridge was straight into the wind and
this really set the tone for the rest of the day as the course heads in an
Easterly direction for most of the way. Dropping down into Kingsdale the
temperature climbed, but the wind and cold were back as the next ridge was
crested and traversed to the summits of Gragareth and Great Coum. The next
roadside check point is in Dent and I was feeling pretty low as I left it and
started the long gradual climb up onto Blea Moor. Even the sausage roll from
the checkpoint couldn’t lift my spirits. It was along this stretch that I got
talking to a guy who said he had been told the event had three distinct
sections, the hilly bit, which we had just done, the boggy bit, which were just
starting and the dark bit, which was still to come. For anyone reading this
that is considering having a go at the event, a word of warning, it would be
wrong to consider these sections as being entirely separate, in fact they are
cumulative i.e. it starts hilly, then gets hilly and boggy, and continues hilly
and boggy all the way to the end which unless you’re going to get round in
under 12 hours will be in the dark! Anyway I plodded on and Blea Moor came and
went and I made my way to Stonehouse at the other end of the Dent valley. Here entrants
were treated to pasta, tomato sauce and cheese and I took the opportunity to
fuel up in preparation for the second half of the course. From Stonehouse the
route climbs (I told you) back up the fellside, passing under Arten Gill
viaduct on its way to Great Knoutberry. Having visited the checkpoint by the trig
point its back down and across to the next roadside checkpoint at Redshaw and
from there on towards the Cam High Road and Dodd Fell.
On reaching the summit
of Dodd Fell we were treated to a 360o panorama of the Yorkshire
Dales and it was a real pleasure to be there, although I was starting to feel
really cold and it was good to get down and into the tent at the Fleet Moss
check point. It was here that I donned my spare fleece, my long tights and
balaclava and swapped my gloves for mitts. Suitably attired I set out with Tony,
the guy I had been running with since the Redshaw check point, onto Fleet Moss
the part of the course that everybody talks about and which has such a
reputation. We opted for the southern route which avoids the worst of the bogs
and joined forces with another couple who to be fair did most of the navigation
and delivered us to the check point on Middle Tongue just as the light started
to fade. The plan was then to take a bearing to a wall and use this as a hand rail
to the next check point at Hells Gap. This nearly went to plan but we went a
bit high and need to correct ourselves. Dropping down to Cray it was evident
that the couple we had teamed up with were struggling with the cold and they
decided to drop out. In fact on entering the tent one of them was shivering
uncontrollably and was quickly wrapped in foil blankets and extra coats. As it
was now dark we needed to wait to be grouped with other entrants to form a
group of at least 4 which took about 20 minutes. Our next objective was Buckden
Pike and we found the checkpoint staff huddled in a tent sheltering from the
wind. From here we made our way to Top Mere and on to the last roadside point
at Park Rash. After a quick drink we set off on the last climb of the route up
Great Whernside. On arriving at the summit ridge we were walking straight into
the wind which by now was now very strong and very cold and the ground
underfoot was just starting to freeze. Not wanting to hang around any longer
than necessary we had our tally cards punched and headed down towards the final
two check points. These came and went without incident and we finally arrived
at the edge of Grassington and managed to jog back to finish at Threshfield
where we arrived a 3.38 am on Sunday morning, 18 hrs and 38 minutes after
leaving Ingleton. It was here that we learnt the event had been stopped at
about 1.40 am and that teams still out on the course were being stopped at the
roadside check points, there tallies removed and then returned to the finish by
bus. Apparently too many entrants were suffering with the cold. We must have
made it through the last roadside check point before the event was stopped and
it a great feeling to know that I had completed the course.
It’s a great day out and the route takes you on a high level
tour of some of the best country the Yorkshire Dales has to offer. Having done
it once I’ll definitely enter again to see if I can improve on my time in
hopefully less challenging conditions.
Richard
