Into the clouds.

Well, that's Whernside done.

We arrived at the Ribblehead parking area in good spirits (as always) and donned our gear.

Looking up to the peak, there was a bit of clour cover, but it wasn't going to put us off.

Rixy and I set off walking, he kept telling me how bad a walk it was going to be.

As he said, no point sugar coating it haha.

As we went past Blea Moor signal box, the cloud cover seemed to dissipate from the peak a bit, thankfully, as I wouldn't want to get to the top and not have a view, would I?

 

The going was steady for the beginning, with a few simple stream crossings, that added to the sight seeing I guess. We then hit the hill and slowly wandered up, stopping every now and then to take a breather and take in the views around us.

On the way up, Rixy saw a Collie that looked like Richard Gere. Strangely enough, I saw the resemblance! (I'll point out now that if I told you about ALL the random conversations we had, we would probably be hunted down, put in a straight jacket, and locked in a padded room)

We got a spot of drizzle just before we hung a left, and over the stile.

From my point of view, the going got a bit easier here. Still uphill, but somewhat less strenuous.

I mentioned stopping for a quick snack, and Rixy said 'Just over the next hill then, there's plenty of rocks to sit on'.

When he said plenty, he meant one or two!

 

We sat down and I put my waterproof on, just to keep the wind out. I've been collecting Army ration packs of late, as they are pretty good in my opinion, so I gave the yeast extract, on biscuits brown a go.

NEVER AGAIN! Hell that stuff is foul, I doubt even Bear Grylls would touch it. Fortunately, I have some 'Fruit Spread-Strawberry' as back-up, that went down a treat.

As we were more or less ready for setting off again, it started to hail. Instead of re-packing the waterproof, I kept it on. Good move.

As we trudged on, the hail started coming down, and then the snow flakes.

Now, this may sound a little childish even a little stupid to some people, but it put a HUGE smile on my face. I said to myself that despite the weather, I was going to walk as often as possible, as often as family life allowed. I wanted to walk in snow, it was just something I wanted to do.

When walking as a kid/young teenager with my old man, it was always just Summer walking. I have wanted to do a bit of Winter walking for years, and this was the start of it.

As we wandered further on we stopped to take in the fact that the cloud base was just there, right in front of us, 50 yeards up.

We kept our heads down at this point, as it was getting quite bleak, and cold.

When we hit the summit, it let off a little (but not much). We got into one of the wind breaks up there. There was another couple sat eating their soggy butties.

I had offered to provide the meals, as Rixy had driven, but he decided he didn't want my Curried LAmb.

He announced that he was going to have his Chicken Casserole, at which I think the couple silently scoffed at the idea. That was of course, until the cookers and meals came out. The lady piped up that she thought we were joking. We were deadly serious haha.

We had a bit of a chat, and seriously, if you are reading this, and you are the couple that was up there, it really is part of the fun, part of the adventure.

We set off cooking. Very similar set-ups, gas canister with small burner screwed to the top.

If you have read my blog about Simons Seat (which can be found HERE) you will see that my last idea of cooking was a disaster! Well this time, it was Rixy's turn to need the use of somebody elses gear...mine!

He forgot a lighter, I had a few spares 'just in case'. His cooker was taking forever, so while I was tucking into my Sausage and Beans, he was using my stove to warm his food. Oh, and he borrowed my spare mug for his brew.

We talked on the way up about my idea of packing everything 'just in case', but as you can see, it helps sometimes.

We hurried along, had our snap, had our brew's, and then headed off after checking we had packed everything away, including all our rubbish. (It bugs me when people leave rubbish behind, even the slightest bit, but I can bend over so many times to pick up the odd bottle top, I can only fill so many tight pockets with bits)

We both knew it wouldn't be long before we were back to seeing the fields below, but it was quite windy, and freezing on the face and soaked gloves (note to self, windproof doesn't necesarily mean waterproof!) so we kept our heads down.

Ingleborough

After a short while, there it was...the descent. Oh my god! It was hard work, harder than the ascent. My knees were killing me, but my boots were holding out well and not rubbing.

For those who don't know it, it's a quick drop of about 750ft (very rough estimate) down some steep, stone, man made steps. I can imaging it being deathly in icy conditions.

Fortunately, after probably 20 minutes, it levels off and it's through a few fields and farms, up to the tunnel under the railway, back onto the original path, and then back to the motor.

Happy Rixy

Looking back up towards the peak

All in all, it was pretty easy going, the descent being the hardest part.

The climb up? Yeah, it's kind of hard, but my aim is to get out and climb mountains. I'm under no illusion it will be easy. I don't ever think I will do it stood on my head kin of thing, asI know that is the attitude of silly people.

I'm out to climb physical mountains, and climb personal mountains.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It added to my 'bagging list' for 2012/2013, it was a hill I had never hiked before, it also gave me route knowledge for the 3 Peaks Challenge, which we will be doing for charity (probably in October 2012) Near the top of the descent, Rixy showed me the rough route of the 3 Peaks Challenge. It's going to be a killer, but all for a good cause.

Just to add, one of our conversations was about Tele-transportation machines, and whether the useage would be charged pence per mile, with an altitude gain surcharge or not? That's the sort of randomness that I enjoy.