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The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge takes on the peaks of Pen-y-Ghent (694 metres), Whernside (736 metres) and Ingleborough (723 metres), usually in this order, and in under 12 hours. These hills form part of the Pennine range, and encircle the head of the valley of the River Ribble, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I drove to YHA Hawes on the previous day and stayed for 2 nights . Very early morning on the next day I left for 3 peak challenge . I drove to the starting point and started in dark.
We start from Chapel le Dale, which is a quiet start point with free parking. We walked in a clockwise direction, summiting Ingleborough first, then Whernside, and finally Pen-y-Ghent. The initial ramble to Ingleborough is straightforward, but the ascent of the hill itself is reminiscent of the stairs that Frodo climbed over the mountains in “Lord of the Rings”.
We were through the Ingleborough Nature Reserve then continued via a duckboarded track to the western base of the hill where an extremely steep ascent eventually took us on to the plateau. We made our way up and then along it to the trig point on Ingleborough’s summit at 2,372 feet above sea level. Whernside is ahead behind Twistleton Crags to the north and Pen-y-Ghent is to the east. One can also see the curving Ribblehead Viaduct taking the Settle and Carlisle Railway over 24 arches of masonry, the longest if not the tallest viaduct in the UK.
This was September ,days are already getting shorter but lot less crowd and good weather made it pleasent. I summited Ingleborough at 6.50 AM . Next was to tackle Pen-y-Ghent.
The direct route from Ingleborough to Pen-y-ghent covers roughly 10 to 11 miles across the Yorkshire Dales, descending via Sulber Nick into Horton-in-Ribblesdale before climbing up past Brackenbottom and the Pennine Way to the second summit. We descended east off the flat plateau of Ingleborough (723m) down toward Simon Fell Breast the navigated the limestone pavement landscape over Sulber.We followed the well-marked path south-east off the high ground into the valley floor and passed near or through the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale, which serves as the traditional midpoint/base for the area for a quick toilet /snack stop.Next we joined the Pennine Way path heading upward and tackeled the steep, rocky final climb and short scramble section near the 694m summit of Pen-y-ghent.
The walking route from Pen-y-ghent to Whernside is about 11.5 miles (18.5 km) long, forming the long fanal leg of the my classic clockwise Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. It features a steep initial descent, a long flat valley yomp past the Ribblehead Viaduct, and a steady, grassy climb up to Whernside’s ridge, The paths from here to Whernside are well established, with good signage along the way. We now dropped in to the long stretch of relatively flat walking as we head along to the Ribblehead Viaduct, which is part of the Settle to Carlisle train route.As we walk through the valley base along paths and across fells, we are treated to some beautiful scenery on the way.
From the summit it was about 1.5 hour back to the starting point. Misson accomplished in 9hr 39 mins.
Finally it was time to enjoy a well earned glass of beer before heading back my YHA for the night sleep
