Stolly Hill Runs 2010

Ingleborough and Whernside from Ingleton

A cracking outing yesterday morning in fine and clear weather, albeit with a pretty darn chilly wind blowing, especially on the tops. This circuit follows the first 11 miles of the fellsman route out of Ingleton, before following the Whernside ridge all the way back to Ingleton.

Ingleton --> Ingleborough --> Hill Inn --> Whernside trig --> Ewes Top --> Beezley Falls --> Ingleton

15 miles and 3,600 feet - Route map

I gave it a fairly full on go too, running near as damn it all the way round (apart from the last 20 feet of Ingleborough and maybe the last 50 feet prior to getting onto the ridge top track on Whernside) and trying keep a good solid pace all the way. 49 minutes to the trig on Ingleborough, 2:03 to the trig on Whernside (about 9 miles in) and 3:12 to the finish, including all fanny about time taking photos.


A view north from the cliff top on Ingleborough

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Whernside just before dropping down the steep face of Ingleborough

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awesome pics stolly!

The Fellsman

61 miles (or was it 610?) and circa 11,300 feet

The start point, all of the checkpoints on the way round and the finish (takes deep breath) are:

Ingleton --> Ingleborough --> Yorda's Cave --> Gragareth --> Great Coum --> Flinter Gill --> Dent --> Blea Moor --> Stonehouse --> Great Knoutberry --> Redshaw --> Snaizeholme --> Dodd Fell --> Fleet Moss --> Middle Tongue --> Cray --> Buckden Pike --> Top Mere --> Park Rash --> Great Whernside --> Capplestone Gate --> Yarnbury --> Threshfield

The route

And yet again what a fantastic event! In fact it was much better for me this year in that I knew in advance what was coming and wasn't so suprised when I duly got it... full on.. with knobs on. The results aren't in yet but going from the Grough write up of the 401 starters, 298 finished with a (relatively low) drop out rate of 103; the winner completed the route in just over 11 hours and the tail end charlies in a bit over 28. I was somewhere in the middle, finishing by my watch in 17:45 hours.

It is such a fabulous route though and throws three back to back peaks at you right from the off - Ingleborough, Whernside and Gragareth with 8 identifiable peaks in all and 3 other significant bumps thrown in. Added to the mix is that a huge chunk of the route is totally off piste with lots of tussock and bog hopping needed. The bogs it has to be said were as dry as arseholes this year but I still managed to go knee deep and nearly have my fell shoes and socks sucked off in one bog encounter on Middle Tongue.

I felt pretty crap going up Gragareth early doors but after that things picked up and, apart from the cold wind after dark, I felt okay all the way round. The cold wind didn't bother me at all while running but, at the checkpoints and Park Rash especially, I almost froze my nuts off! Mind you that was all the more incentive to not dilly dally at the checkpoints and keep on moving.

And massive thanks to Rachel (Shaunandrachel from the forum) for hacking round with me; Rachel breezed it all the way too although I think we both struggled a little in the first 10-15 miles for starting off a bit (read miles) too fast. At the end she of course said "<expletive deleted> never <expletive deleted> ever a <expletive deleted> gain" but the fellsman is a drug and she'll be back. I'd long forgotten my troubles going up Gragareth a mere few hours later while remorselessly trudging across the ruts and groughs of Middle Tongue and, although my feet ached at the end, I've all but forgotten that too now. Roll on next year.


Early doors looking back as runners come up Ingleborough

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Rachel descends the other side of Ingleborough with some style

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Hacking up Whernside

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Looking back into Kingsdale with Whernside beyond on the climb up Gragareth

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Continued


Heading towards the trig on Blea Moor

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Ingleborough and Whernside quite some way away now from near the top of Great Knoutberry

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A stunning valley view on the way up Dodd Fell

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A view worth crossing Fleet Moss and Middle Tongue for...

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listen buster! When a lady says no she means no!! Never ****ing again!! You are an absolute star Stolly- a top navigator/organiser/pacer. All I had to do was choose off the menu! Although, my crusty old compass helped a weeny bit didn't it? And I did lead on the way up Dodd Fell/ (yes - that well worn clear path I could clearly follow!) Thank you for taking the photos-we would have no records if it wasn't for people like you-although I reckon taking your camera out and getting the right angle wasted loads of time so we could have done it in under 17 if you weren't so snap happy!! You are added to my list of heroes but I'll just be your support team next year-I am still tired now!!
As I shouted back at the school
"WOO HOO-WE DID IT!!"
...and then I got told off for waking the others up by the quartermaster! Whoops!
P.S I love my picture too-my Liz Hurley tips for sleak thighs worked!
Off for some more vino to celebrate!

Stolly, can you suggest an AS type route up Great Knoutberry Hill?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

Stolly, can you suggest an AS type route up Great Knoutberry Hill?

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Great Knoutberry is a really runnable hill (Fellsman excepted) so I'm not sure it would ever count as an A grade hill to scoot up and down; either run up it from Stonehouse (but this includes a very rubblely track for a fair whack of the distance) or from the Hawes - Ribblehead road from just below Wold Fell.

Smearsett Scar, Wharfe and Moughton from Helwith Bridge

7 miles and maybe 1,700 feet

I'm bogged down with a cold at the minute so I went for a gentle trot out with the hound in tow this morning; a lovely run though with great views from Smearsett Scar, running through an absolute shangri-la of wild flowers in Wharfe Woods followed by the limestone isolation of Moughton and the cracking descent from there between the two quarries back to Helwith Bridge.

Route


The trig on Smearsett looking towards Pen y Ghent and Fountains Fell

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And looking towards Ingleborough

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Ingleborough poking out between the trees in Wharfe Woods

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Looking back from the side of Moughton with the horizon pretty much showing all of the ridge line that I'd run across as well as the woods and the route down to Wharfe via the caravan site

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Plover Hill and Pen y Ghent from Horton

10 miles ~ 2,000 feet

Route map

Horton --> Horton Scar --> Foxup Moor --> Plover Hill --> Pen y Ghent --> Hull Pot --> Whitber Hill --> Horton

Done at a fair cracking pace (for me) on bone dry ground, albeit in supremely sweaty noggings weather. Brilliant though and I ran all but the stepped part of the final 100 feet up Plover - even then managed to run maybe 10 of the steps and if I just keep incrementing that bit by bit I might just nail the bastard one day. 1:41 start to finish :)


Pen y Ghent viewed from the top of Plover with my wall eventually leading all the way to the top

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Plover and my wall this time viewed from just off the pyg trig looking back the other way

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A trot around the 3 Peaks

23 and a bit miles and 5,300 feet

> Route map

And for the first time in a long while I ran the route on a Saturday smack in the middle of 3 peaks 'peak time' and there sure were a heck of a lot of 3 peaks walkers out and about. I started at about 9 am and pretty much all the way from Horton, up and over Pen y Ghent and down to Ribblehead I was overtaking a steady stream of 3 peakeroos; some with some interesting navigational problems. Even though the bogs are supremely timid at the minute I found two walkers at Black Dubb Moss who'd both gone in almost to their armpits :D and a group of Scottish walkers were totally confused as to where the path went after the ice cream van at Ribblehead - there was a huge great fecking railway viaduct backed by a huge great fecking mountain right before their eyes but nope, they didn't think that was the right way!

All in all the weather was too crap for any pictures with light rain all the way round; the tops of Whernside and Ingleborough had poor visibility and a cutting wind too and the run in from the top of Ingleborough all the way down to Horton was straight into the wind most of the way.

By the way that is absolutely the last time ever that I run in my adidas thermal - I was absolutely boilng at times, to the point of being lightheaded and dizzy at the top of Whernside and the top of the slabs going up Ingleborough, and totally chilled to the bone at others - just a brief stop at the Whernside trig for a drink and a mouthful of mars bar and I was almost immediately teeth chatteringly cold. I think the thermal just constricts any air flow because its so tight to the skin making you (well me anyway) hot and sweaty very quickly and, in lulls or slow climbs, that sweat (and rain yesterday) cools extremely quickly too. The ideal top to be both too hot and too cold whatever the weather!!

Any way stolly at the finish sporting the offending thermal top

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4 hours 40 altogether which I was a bit disappointed with. That said I'd run 7 miles on Thursday night with the Skipton joggers at fairly full on ramming speed and had had a 3 mile trot out with the dog on Friday too so it was probably not as bad as all that.