Stolly's Running Adventures

[Stolly]

23rd September 2008 - High Hill, Attermire and Warrendale Knotts Circuit - circa 6 miles with 1350 feet of ascent

OS Explore Route

I didn't get home from work tonight until 6:15 but I was determined to go out for a run, choosing an 'out of the back door' run to make best use of the declining light. It was also the first outing for my spiffing new Walshes so I thought I'd give them a good 'un to cut their teeth on. First off I set off over the fields, crossed Watery Lane before heading up steeply to the Pennine Bridleway and along that to High Hill Lane, the Settle to Kirkby Malham Road.

High Hill as viewed from the fields near my house:



I then crossed the road and ran through the field heading left (west) into the adjacent field before hacking up the sheer side of High Hill (the slope that the Settle Hills fell race comes tumbling down). Although 'High Hill' doesn't exactly break the Trade Descriptions Act, other names for this hill like 'fcuking steep hill' or 'cough a lung up hill' would probably suit it better! Anyway I made it to the top okay before hacking down through the tussocks in the direction of Attermire, running parallel with the wall to my right. Just before the bottom of this field things got decidedly muddy and my new Walshes finally lost their virginity......



Then it was up a steep but small incline and onto the little plateau with Attermire Scar ahead and to my right. After 300 or 400 yards I then hacked left following a trod around the back of (what I suppose to be) Warrendale Knotts..... whatever they are exactly (rock formations or weird tit shaped hillocks maybe?). This path meanders a little but eventually leads to a carn and a trig point with grand views of Attermire to the east, High Hill to the south with the lights of Settle now glinting to the south west. Attermire as viewed from the cairn:



Then all that was then left to do was to carefully climb and scramble down (easier said than done) to the main footpath back to Settle clearly visible running left to right below me and then follow that, culminating in a super fast descent down all the way to Settle Market Square. Then a quick trot on the roads back to my starting point. Altogether a great run with two solid climbs and one gut buster. It took me 1 hour 12 minutes all told although I was fannying around taking pictures for some of that. It was getting dark by the finish and pretty soon I'll be having to dust off the old headtorch I think

[wharfeego]

23rd September?

'ow dus tha get piccies that big ont'forum?

Spellcheck..."Attermire"...accordin t' map...mebee map's wrong?

I wer gunna organise a low key training (race) run (Grifter-type jobby)...named "Tour o' Stockdale"...this autumn but the field that the farmer was gunna let me use fo' parkin is too wet...wot a surprise

T'only other way is to start from Settle...mebee Greenfoot car park...I think it's free parkin after 6pm?

Too late now tav an evenin run and finish before dark...could mek it an 'eadtorch job?

Interested anybody?

[Stolly]

Thanks for the spelling lesson Wharfego - I've made that mistake before. For some reason it always comes out Attamire! For your evening run, assuming you did the southerly ridge first, would you go down Stockdale lane before branching up to the Rye Loaf and Kirkby Fell or would you go further along Black Gill Lane and go up from the highland cattle field by the tv/radio mast thingy? I've always wanted to run that ridge line. As for how the hell your tour of Stockdale would go along the other side of the valley god only knows so I'll be interested in coming along.

[wharfeego]

I'm on good terms wi' t'farmers up yon and I know that land like back o' mi 'and...used to do a lot o' shootin 'n playin 'round up Stockdale. I still control moles up that valley...Mole'ill...wotch owt!

Main thing is knowin where all t'gates are...I don't want anyone climbin walls.

I'll concoct a route int' next week or so...then we can av a recce.

I'll let thee know.

By t'way...it's wharfeego wi' 2 eeee's!

[Stolly]

21st September 2008 - Whernside and Great Coum from Dent - 12.75 miles and 3000 ft of ascent

OS Explore Route

This morning I met up with Ady (from Accy) in Dent for a run around the race route of next weekend’s Whernside fell race. It was fabulously sunny with barely a wiff of wind and Dent and the whole of Dentdale was looking absolutely glorious. And without any delay we set off up the lane heading towards Whernside, which we could see side on making up most of the the skyline to the east. I guess we followed the lane for about a mile or so before finally starting our climb up the north end of the Whernside ridge…. and it started steeply too although it was definitely runnable all the way, even for me. The path heads fairly straight east for most of the initial steeper climb before eventually hooking south and heading straight in line with the direction of the ridgeline itself.

I was ‘comfortably’ running this all the way although Ady (bless him) had to keep stopping to walk from time to time………….. to wait for me to catch up! Eventually we topped out most of the worst of the climb alongside Whernside Tarns with a nice easy run to the trig point from there on, making the summit in something like 62 minutes. Ady managed to capture a great shot of my sticky out ears silhoutted by a low sun and Ingleborough behind:



Then it was a brilliant descent from the Whernside trig into Kingsdale; fast all the way, mainly on a fairly gradual slope over tusocky grass, not too rocky, although pretty boggy in places, and before we knew it we were standing in the lane at the foot of the valley. Ady (the small white blob in the distance) descending with Great Coum rearing its head to the left of the picture and the feint green line of Dentdale in the distance ahead:



Going up Great Coum was initially easy going, following a bridleway but, having referred to our race route map two or three times, we just couldn't see what path if any went from that up to the top ridge. Eventually we realised that we had probably missed a turn somewhere and just climbed the wall and took a direct line through boggy cotton grass up to the ridge - not easy going with a few sudden sinkages and stumbles along the way. Me and Ady posing for a self portrait picture at the top of Great Coum, a picture that I only managed to get right at the fourth attempt



Do you think Ady has a fake tan?

The descent of Great Coum was 'interesting' to say the least and will be even more interesting in the race if there's low cloud. We really couldn't find a path of any shape or size to begin with and our route down was all boggy grass, cotton grass and drainage ditches. We also started off too far left such that our line gradually curved back to the right (the right direction) in a big elongated C. Further down we did find a sheep trod and this finally met a better path, but we were almost through the field by then. This descent was quite dodgy with me plunging into thigh high, sucking bog twice en route.

Once at the bottom of this very large field though we knew we were home and dry and managed to sort of figure out the fiddly finish of the race route down to the playing field in Dent - we suspected they'd purposely routed this through fields rather than a much more obvious path so that spectators in the field below would have a good view of runners coming home from a mile out. Either that or the race organiser had just plainly lost the plot!

Anyway a cracking run with great company - 2 hours and 18 minutes including fannying about time.

[dominion]

You ought to try the new DOM-MAP mapping service! OS Maps, GPS uploads and loads of features, if I ever get beyond one test page!!

Here's todays DOM-MAP route,

http://www.northernboyslovegravy.co.uk/map/

[wharfeego]

Do you think Ady has a fake tan?

not sure 'bout the tan but Ady's stance looks a bit iffy

[Stolly]

26th September 2008 - Snowdon, Watkin path up and Welsh sounding opposite ridge back down - 8.2 miles and about 3,900 ft of climb

OS Explore Route

So this morning I had a client meeting for work in Llandudno along with Dave, a work colleague and coincidentally a (better than me) runner - yes such an athlete does so exist! The meeting finished at 12 and, on such a beautiful day, it seemed a shame not to run up Snowdon while we were in the vicinity. A quick hack in the car via Capel Curig and before we knew it we were at the car park at the foot of the Watkin Path up Snowdon.... and ready to run baby! I've previously been up here three times but, each time, it had been pissing with rain with crap to zero visibility - no such problems today though and once we'd climbed up through the woods and onto a mini plateau a fabulous view of Snowdon appeared before us:



This run isn't a major distance or anything but it is a pretty tough and relentless climb all the way to the top. The sun was beating on our backs too all the way up so there was plenty of grit and sweat needed to get up there. Here's me 3/4's of the way up trying to smile between gasps of desperately needed air!



The Watkin path up (to the left) as viewed from the final rubblely scramble across the front of the top bit of Snowdon with the ridge that we ran back down to the immediate right.:



Once at the top, after 1 hour and 22 minutes, the views were immense; here's the view looking east from the very top:



By the way the new cafe, which isn't quite open for business yet, (although the idea of a summit cafe and train route up such a wonderous mountain horrify me really) looks very classy and well built; much better than the previous clapped out building for sure. That said there was no time for pratting about on the top and we then set off smartish on the tricky but fast descent back down the ridge to the west of the Watkin path. Technically this descent was well dodgy with loads of slippy, rocky slate and a not to be sniffed at gradient all the way down. The descent was no walk in the park and this was confirmed by the time it took us to get back down - a further 47 minutes - all to do, as the crow flies, a mere 8 mile horseshoe. It took 2 hours 9 minutes all told come the finish but was..... well just awsome.

[emmilou]

WOW Stolly, Looks fab. Haven't ever run/around/near there.......yet

[Big Compass]

Hi Stolly nice to meet you at Whernside, and DO like the photo's, top class, brill.