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Apologies in advance. I couldn't make my mind up until now whether to do this again or not but I've now decided to post pictures of good run outs, probably sticking to half decent weather when I can actually see some half decent views, and then only if the pictures cut the mustard. I'll try and cut out the bloggy waffle, I promise, and keep it sharp and tidy :rolleyes:
Ingleborough from Clapham – 31/01/10
10 miles ~ 1900 feet
Clapham --> Long Lane --> open fell to Full Beck Head below Simon Fell --> Ingleborough --> Little Ingleborough --> Gaping Gill --> over the top parallel to Trow Gill --> Ingleborough Cave --> Ingleborough Estate Nature Trail --> Clapham
Looking back on my route up from Full Beck Head (with Pendle on the horizon)
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8495/p1310100w.jpg
Whernside, Blea Moor and a teeny weeny Ribblehead Viaduct from the edge of Ingleborough
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2599/p1310105.jpg
Morecambe Bay from the top of Ingleborough
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/1715/p1310108e.jpg
Ingleborough trig with Pen Y Ghent on the horizon
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4962/p1310111.jpg
Errm, looks a bit "flat" don't you think? :confused:
;)
Morecambe Bay is flat :)Quote:
Originally Posted by jodg
Stolly
Some of us appreciated the bloggy waffle :). The snaps are the bees knees too.
Keep them coming ;)
The route (by and large) of the Malhamdale Meander
20 and a bit miles ~ 3,600 feet
Hanlith Bridge --> Malham --> Kirkby Fell --> Malham Cove --> Gordale Scar --> Street Gate --> Middle House Farm --> Monks Path to Dew Bottoms --> Parson's Pulpit --> Clapham High Mark --> Great Close Mire --> Mastile's Lane --> Smearbottoms Lane --> Weets Top --> Hanlith Moor --> Hanlith Bridge
This was more or less my route except that I started and finished at Hanlith Bridge, rather than Kirkby Malham, took an extended route passing the wrong side of Gordale Beck to get to Mastile's Lane and cut short the finish via Hanlith Moor, rather than going all the way down to Calton and then following the river back to Hanlith. A truly brilliant run with a lot of hard slogging involved (especially hard given my lack of decent run outs of late). The route is above 400 meters for much of the time and with the low cloud today I found myself mostly hidden in the mist.
This is the profile of the full meander and I more or less just cut out the flat bits at the start and end
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/317...nderprofil.jpg
The view soon after leaving Hanlith Bridge with the ridge line that I was to spend the next few hours hacking round dead ahead
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4230/p2070001.jpg
Kirkby Fell and Pikedaw Hill hiding in the mist ahead
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5041/p2070003.jpg
My foray the wrong side of Gordale Beck with Mastile's Lane running adjacent to the right to left wall in the distance (I missed a blatantly obvious path that cuts a huge diagonal across High Stony Bank. Doh!)
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7520/p2070015.jpg
As they'd say in Oz, a bloody good blowout!
My extended version of the Settle Loop
12 miles ~ 2,000 feet
Settle --> Watery Lane --> through the fields to Lambert Lane --> High Hill Lane --> Scaleber Force --> High Greet Radar Mast --> Rye Loaf Hill --> north down to pick up the Pennine Bridleway --> Hang a left at Nappa Cross --> pick up the Pennine Bridleway back in the direction of Langcliffe --> Jubilee Cave --> Brent Scar --> trig above Warrendale Knotts --> whiz down the hill back to Settle.
A fabulous run and I've found a new toy to play with.....
A 'panorama' picture looking back at my route up from just below the radar mast <--- Click Here
Looking towards Attermire from below High Greet
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8892/p2140008.jpg
Pendle on the horizon
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4812/p2140019.jpg
Rye Loaf Hill trig with all 3 Peaks in the far distance
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/3157/p2140037.jpg
Pen Y Ghent and Fountains Fell
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4395/p2140044.jpg
Bloodyhell, looks like it was a cracking day down here today...was thick cloud ALL day in the lakes! :p
The Kingsdale 'loop' aka the Kingsdale Skyline aka le stolly tour de Kingsdale
24 miles ~ 4500 feet give or take
Kingsdale is without question the most beautiful and quiet valley in the Dales. If you're unsure where Kingsdale is, its the valley to the west of the Whernside ridge line; the last Dale I guess before the low(er) lands of the Kirkby Lonsdale bit of Cumbria.
Originally I'd planned to do a long run from Threshfield, following the Wharfedale offroad marathon route, but when I got in the car it was -5 degrees which, in my car, made the route over the tops to Threshfield more than a bit dodgy. So I decided on the Kingsdale circuit from Ingleton instead.
Ingleton --> waterfall walk path past Beezley Falls --> drop into the southern tip of Kingsdale --> Gragarath trig --> Great Coum --> the Whernside fell race/Fellsman descent into Dent --> a slog and a half up to the trig on Whernside --> Whernside ridge line all the way back to Ingleton.
A real epic with a fair bit of snow to contend with on the tops. 5 hours and 20 start to finish, including fannying about stops to take pictures and what not. Brilliant.
Starting my climb to Gragareth with Kingsdale below and Whernside on the horizon
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8854/p2200004.jpg
The same view but from higher up
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2598/p2200009m.jpg
The Whernside ridgeline.... with a 'slide of doom' just a few inches to the left
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8463/p2200024.jpg
Looking back at Whernside on the long run in to Ingleton
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/732/p2200034.jpg
Panorama piccy of the day
This looks like a cracker Stolly, well done and thanks for the route. Could be a great prep run for the Hobble:D
I was out on a long variation of your Ingleborough from Clapham yesterday. What a superb day, windburned nose and cracked lips by the end. It was a real surprise just how much snow there was on top. Big grin this morning when I saw the weather - looks like getting out yesterday was the right call.
Keep the routes coming Stolly, every one so far has been an "Oh Yes" for me:cool:
I thought it was you yesterday - I was on top of whernside! I'd run up the front, using some footpints in the snow and ice - but my friends used the fence and virgin snow and needed an ice axe to get on to the top!
great pics Stolly!
Good run Stolly :D
It reminds me of one I did with Ady and Cantona a couple of years ago only we started and finished at Dent and only went as far south as Twisleton Scar End (about 20 miles I think?). Kingsdale is a beautiful valley :cool:
Tinyman - give it a go; its a fantastic route and pretty testing I think. Tougher than the 3 peaks for sure - I was running for just over 2 hours before I finally got to the first descent (off of Great Coum) :D and I'd guess that no more than 8 miles of the route was actually in the downwards direction (the 3 peaks route probably has almost double that). The bit up to Gragareth is all about taking a line too with really no paths to speak of - I went along the lane at the foot of Kingsdale for a couple of hundred yards before taking a left and going through a clear gap in the limestone cliffs and then just bashing onwards and upwards from there.
Daleside - thought it was you too :). Seriously well done for hacking up the side of Whernside; I looked over the edge just below the trig where I usually aim to come up and it looked totally impossible. A walker who'd just reached the Whernside trig before me asked me how long I'd taken to get up there (thinking I'd just scooted up the walkers path) and was pretty befuddled when I said 3 hours 55 :rolleyes:
Alf - yeah I remember you doing it too as I was due to come along but cried off with the flu. I've run it before from Dent too but never before from Ingleton. Dent by the way felt like spring was in full bloom when I got down there after all the snow and ice on the tops.
Looking back into Dentdale on the way up Whernside:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4974/p2200020w.jpg
Awesome ridge line pic Stolly.
Cutthroat Bridge to Snake Pass - the 'toughish' bit of the High Peak Marathon
18 miles (hah!!!) and absolutely no idea of the climb (2,500 feet maybe?)
Cutthroat Bridge --> Lost Lad (an ominous warning of what was to come?) --> Howden Edge past Cut Gate, Outer Edge and other completely inhospitable barely noticeble 'landmarks' to Swains Head --> before the fun and games really began on Bleaklow ---> followed by what should in normal times been an enjoyable scoot down the Pennine Way (yesterday invisible and unfindable under a huge whump of snow) to Snake Pass
I really can't describe the epicness of this run/arctic expedition. Un-fricking-believable maybe? Stupidly stupendous? Extreme with knobs on? The most bonkers run I have ever done in my life? To cut a long story short a blizzard was raging for pretty much our whole trog round, what is a tough enough route at the best of times; the snow was especially bad from Swains Head going up and then over Bleaklow, 2 feet deep in the places where the snow wasn't er...too bad and hugely deep in others. Needless to say navigation in what was a complete white out was testing, even for IanDP who lives and runs there all the time, and our team of 6 plus Dave, the husky for the day, were all getting very, very cold towards the end of what became a seven and a half hour romp/near death experience.
And this was just a simple 18 mile recce of the middle bit of next week's 41 mile High Peak Marathon!!!!
A great, great experience though made all the better for actually surviving it.
Emmi plus the trusty Dave on the easy bit just after Lost Lad
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/157/p2260002.jpg
If we could have seen it through our snowblasted eyes later, pretty much all of the route that wasn't buried in 3 feet of snow, is as wide open and as bleak as this....
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4855/p2260003.jpg
Still early doors and we are still having fun as we drop down Sheepfold Clough
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/537/p2260004.jpg
After Swains Head my hands were just too cold to risk taking my by now sodden gloves off and I just diidn't want to stop moving but I did manage to take one photo of the team 'playing in' the snow.
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2783/p2260006.jpg
Thanks to all my fellow arctic adventurers on the day, Emmi, Dave, Southernsoftie, IanDarkPeak, Clare and Andy. See you all next week for the second instalment!
Great write up Stolly, but ultimately, you just had to be there!
Well expressed Stolly:D
Went up cut gate today, no sign of our tracks, they had been oblierated by more snow. Not much wind but guess what it snowed the whole time and is still snowing now. I reckon bleaklow will colapse under the weight of it.
Looks like an epic adventure:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by southernsoftie
Good luck to you all for next week;)
I didn't spot Dave straight away he was quite well camouflaged there :)
Stolly, I just caught up with your stuff. The photos are giving me SO much pleasure, and I'm very glad to have the route suggestions - could gladly use a bit more detail in them - hope to do some of them for real sometime when my long run is a bit longer! Finally, I love the cat - sometimes sit and watch him all through his repertoire. Well, no wonder I never have enough time - for running OR housework.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
In hindsite Dave was awesome, we were wading through deep snow and dave just kept ploddin( although he needed carrying over some drifts):rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
Nearly to the top of Plover Hill and back from Horton
9 miles ~ 1,400 feet
I am now officially sick to the back teeth of bleeding, sodding, futher mucking snow!! My plan was to run out of Horton, around the western side of the Pen Y Ghent ~ Plover Hill ridge to Foxup Moor, up Plover, along the top and then whiz down from the trig on PyG. Unfortunately despite a bold effort, the side of Plover was impassable, either vertical snow and ice or deep drifts with the normal path completely buried. I did attempt a climb but reached a point where going up any further was suicidal and getting back down the way I'd gone up was becoming exceedingly tricky too. So I bottled it and decided to live to run another day and reversed my tracks.
Horton --> Horton Scar --> Hull Pot --> Horton Moor --> Foxup Moor --> nearly to the top of the vertical bit of Plover --> back to Hull Pot --> over Whitber Hill --> an off piste line to the western Pennine Way track --> Horton
Spot the footbridge... and the stream under it!
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/843/p2280011d.jpg
The bottom of my assault on Plover Hill
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4206/p2280018t.jpg
I got nearly to the top of this bit before losing my nerve
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9720/p2280016.jpg
Left to right --> Ingleborough (the all white submarine), Park Fell and Whernside viewed from the top of Whitber Hill
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4552/p2280025.jpg
Blinkin' Nora - good effort Solly. Yes I want the snow to go away too - so I can reccy Coniston. Sorry ice climbers, but is getting annoying now.
Hey Stolly, i went on my first run on pendle hill yesturday with hursty....whats not to like about it!:D
Its my little joke, largely because southernsoftie and ukhursty never seem to run any other flipping hill. I love the half tour route and do run it every now and then; the full tour route though is so contrived that you can end up hating the hill, especially on the 5th or 6th sodding climb :rolleyes:
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Well a fellow club mate said the pendle cloughs route was also contrived....i enjoyed the recce but its going to be a sod to race it.
When i can drive, i'll have to come and join you in - :eek:yorkshire:rolleyes: - for some runs stolly!
The Dales are only an hour from Preston Al and its a stunning drive if you zip through Bowland.
That said I'm kind of getting stuck in my ways too and only ever want to run in the Dales nowadays - the peak has too much mud and bog and the lakes has too much rock and rubble.... and too many tourists ;) :rolleyes:
:D Well it will be a while yet.;)....but i'm excited already!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Oh god! The Dales, the Dales, the Dales, that's all we ever hear about! Why not run somewhere else...Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
;)
Nothing wrong with that, and yes i'm sure that SS and UKH are saving up to buy Pendle Hill and split it between them :D.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
i'm with Stolly on this oneQuote:
Originally Posted by southernsoftie
less chance of seein' soft southerners up yon Dales:pQuote:
Originally Posted by southernsoftie
And not forgetting the biggest reason of all, 500 square miles (give or take :rolleyes:) of the southern and south western bits of the Yorkshire Dales National Park start right outside my back door :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Aye, that's true. Can't move on Pendle for those buggers!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Alright alright, stop showing off :p
*dreams of the day*
and i have just bought it on the latest memory map 1.25000 so its going to be the only place i can go running without getting lost and its on my doorstep tooooQuote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Dreaming of this again?...;)Quote:
Originally Posted by OneHillWonder
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1010/...7e5e80045b.jpg
Yup, too right Mr Brightside. One day :D
The High Peak Marathon
42 miles ~ 5,400 feet
Edale Village Hall --> Hollins Cross --> Lose Hill --> Win Hill --> Below High Neb --> Moscar --> Cutthroat Bridge --> Derwnt Moor --> Lost Lad --> Sheepfold Clough --> Cut Gate --> Outer Edge --> Swains Head --> Bleaklow Stones --> Bleaklow Wainstones --> Snake Road Top --> Mill Hill --> across the top of Kinder to Edale Cross --> Rushup Edge --> Hollins Cross --> Edale Village Hall
And jeepers did I make hard work of it. I can think of a myriad of excuses; I know I didn't sleep enough on the Friday of the event or the week leading up to it so I was probably starting tired, maybe I didn't put in enough mileage leading up to it, I was definitely carrying too much stuff in my backpack (following the incredible recce last week) or maybe, just maybe... I'm just crap! I suspect though that the main reason for my struggles was that, as a team, we just went off miles too fast. Well too fast for me anyway. I have a run all day (and night) pace that I know would have got me round in good nick and probably an identical if not better time but the first 11 miles to Moscar, done at a fairly full tilt, did it for me.
For a start I was sweating cobs as we were going up Win Hill, such that I had to take my waterproof, gloves and hat off, with both tops that I left on now drenched with sweat. Coming down into the Moscar drink and food station both SS and I had been lagging behind our other two team mates, not helped by getting stuck behind another couple of teams. But pretty much as soon as we'd got there, where I had to fanny about putting my warm stuff back on in readiness for the high ridge running ahead, the team wanted to press on, meaning that I whacked back a couple of cups of cold water and a cup of coffee and we set off with me trying to gulp down a couple of mouth chamming slabs of fruit loaf on the hoof.
I tried to find another gear from there to Lost Lad and massive respect for Gary who did manage to find one and could then keep pace with the others. I basically knew what gas I had in the tank and settled for getting round my way and became a distant 4th member of the team from that point on. In fact I virtually solo'd the rest of the route. Eating was a real struggle for me too - I was feeling sick and was definitely "windy" most of the time and desperately thirsty by Snake Pass (I had a poweraid in the bag but the thought of drinking it made me feel even sicker). The Snake Pass stop was better for me and I made sure I got plenty of water down my neck but I still had trouble eating the marmite sandwich I picked up there.
Anyway I 'powered' on through thick and thin and the team managed to finish in something like 12 hours 15 minutes. I loved every minute of it despite all my 'difficulties' and it was a cracking endurance/survival training session for sure!! I was an hour quicker this year over last so roll on next year's HPM and an 11:15 finish <cough>.
Well done Andy and Kevin, who breezed it, and Gary who did brilliantly to keep up with them.
Bleaklow ahead in the early dawn light
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/8528/p3060002.jpg
The Pennine Way off of Bleaklow.... is there somewhere under all the snow
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5744/p3060003.jpg
Kinder and our snowy line up it ahead
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/2539/p3060004.jpg
Edale comes into view (southernsoftie bottom right having a sit down)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7959/p3060005e.jpg