Fellsman 2022

 I did the Fellsman once before in 2011. I walked it with a friend, it took nearly 27 hours and we both hallucinated cats.

No cats this time

Fast forward to 2022 and I'm a lot fitter and more experienced. The Fellsman is a race like no other though, and I wasn't (very) complacent. I took plenty of warm kit and food (although the Fellsman is famously a sixty mile eating competition, I was taking no risks).

Friday arrived and I headed up to Threshfield after work. Signage directed me into the quarry to park, then I gathered my kit and got the shuttle bus down to the school for registration and kit check. Bob Nash was on 'meet and greet' as we arrived, I said 'hi' and joined the queue for the famous Fellsman kit check.

I've included my kit list at the bottom of this post, and every item was checked at kit check as you'd expect. Once that was done I repacked my bag and popped over to the Runfurther stand to see Karen.

After a quick natter I headed back to the van to eat, get my kit out for the morning and have a couple of glasses of wine and some cocoa. That sorted me for the night and I burrowed down in my sleeping bag.

4.45 was very early. I ate some breakfast, drank a huge cup of coffee and headed up to the bus stop at 5.30. I was at Threshfield school by 5.45, which left me half an hour before the bus to Ingleton.

Not really practical for the Fellsman

Once at Ingleton I got my number and tracker (wups, forgot my number belt - attached it to my club vest then changed my mind and put it on my rucksack) then curled up in a corner  and slept for a while. As the start time approached I spotted Darren Gillman and wandered over for a chat. 8.15 or so we all trooped out on the field for a briefing, then at 8.30 we were under way.

A lot of DNS this year

As usual most of the field headed for the far right corner. A few of us went left and got out on the road through Ingleton that way. I was walking with Darren to start with to let my metabolism ramp up slowly, then as I started to feel a bit more active I picked up the pace.

It's a good sized climb up Ingleborough from this side, and it was getting hot already. A lot of people were removing layers (including me), and I was feeling like shorts with longs in the bag would have been better. At the top I paused and faffed a bit to grab the turf zone, then got on.

Ingleborough plateau

Coming down the track to Chapel le Dale there were a lot of walkers around. A small group was wondering what the structure was near the gate (it's a lime kiln).

Then on down the road and up the track to Whernside. I was feeling comfortable with the run, and making good progress. I chatted briefly with a woman who trains with Calder Valley and a guy I recognised from somewhere (turned out he'd been at the Ten Res's when I was on registration/results).

Stunning weather on Whernside

During the climb I paused to fish some peanut butter out of my pack. The warmth had made it very oily and it sprayed all over the outside. Oh well, I've had worse things on my rucksacks.

Near the top I spotted Karen who was already well ahead of me. I paused on the top for turf zone number 2 of the day, then the long run down the ridge wall to the stile over into Kingsdale.

Approaching the CP across the bogs there was a helpful lad, probably in his teens, suggesting good lines across the stream. He popped up again later with helpful suggestions at Flinter Gill.

I ate some of my own food at the CP and headed up Gragareth. At the Gragareth CP I was clipped, then went past to bag the trig. Along the (happily nice and dry) path to Great Coum in glorious weather and having a fantastic day.

At Great Coum it took me a minute to find the right approach (over the stile in the corner, then follow the far side of the wall). Leaving the trig I remembered taking a line too far to the left in '11, so I hand railed the wall down. That was too far right. Next time I'll just take a bearing.

Approaching Great Coum

On the track above Flinter Gill I met a chap who'd fallen and cut his hands. He seemed to be doing OK, so I cracked on to Flinter Gill itself and dropped down the awful rocky path. At the bottom the same young man from earlier gave me a helpful tip to cut out part of Dent village and get to the CP.

Dent CP is manned by Mytholmroyd Scouts - a welcome hint of home. I grabbed a cheese and onion pasty and got onto the road for the run up to Whernside Manor. There was a chap here who was wobbly on his feet. I stuck around for a few minutes to make sure he was OK, then cracked on.

Climbing up the back of Whernside I was making excellent time. At the top everyone was veering onto a trod straight towards Blea Moor. I'd planned on dropping down the path to the far side but the trod looked good so I took it, which turned out to be the right move.

Blea Moor

I got up to the top of Blea Moor, clipped and bagged the trig point (the marshals kindly warning me about the wet paint) then headed for Stonehouse. As I came up to the fence crossing I caught up with a couple of other runners that I'd spend a good part of the rest of the race with - one being Tony Wimbush. I'd met Tony a couple of times before, but mostly knew him by reputation for his peak bagging exploits. We ran together for the rest of the race and got along well.

Once we got onto the road down to Stonehouse Tony disappeared ahead. At the CP I just had some cheese much to the confusion of the pirates (pasta makes me very ill, a fact I could have done with knowing at Stonehouse in 2011....). Karen was there, pain slowing her down significantly from her usual blistering pace.

Shivering timbers at Stonehouse

I got on from Stonehouse and headed up the track to Great Knoutberry. It was just starting to get cold and wet. I paused at the top to put my windproof on, and followed Tony and Mark down from the top and across the open moor towards Redshaw.

I didn't hang about long at Redshaw, and caught Mark as we followed the fence. Shortly after we joined up with Andy then Tony caught us up, and we carried on as a group up to Snaizeholme and Dodd Fell. Another turf zone, much to the confusion of the others, and then on towards Fleet Moss.

At Fleet Moss Mark was getting cold and decided to run ahead on the road. We never saw him again, he was bloody quick on the tarmac! Tony was also fairly brisk, though less so than on the Stonehouse section, and the three of us reached Yockenthwaite together. We couldn't get the self clip at Yockenthwaite farm to work, so kept on up to Middle Tongue.

Proving we'd reached the self clip with a photo

From Middle Tongue Andy had a good line (78 degrees, roughly) to contour round to Hell Gap. Less direct than the higher line, but avoiding the groughs, definitely one to use in future. It was now bloody freezing, and I planned to stop and relayer at Cray.

Hell Gap came and went, and we dropped down to Cray. Here Tony and I were relayering and eating soup. Andy got going, and by the time we left it was fully dark and visibility was getting bad. We had a false start setting off along the road, then backtracked 100m to get into the field for the climb up Buckden Pike.

There was a head torch ahead of us, but I was cautiously watching the map, and by the time we reached the top visibility had degraded to almost zero. We handrailed the wall then dropped right for the path to Top Mere. The trod to the left eluded us a bit, and we ended up following a bearing. Occasionally we'd find the trod, only to lose it again in the bog and mist. At Top Mere the beacon guided us in, and we got onto the Starbotton road for the leg to Park Rash.

At Park Rash we stopped for a brew to warm up, then as we left we missed the path up. Once we got into the Iron Age embankments I knew we were too far over, and we started to climb straight up. I've used this slope for winter kit practice in the past, it's bloody steep, but we made it up to the path just as it crossed the fence.

From here to the top of Great Whernside is pretty straightforward, a fairly clear path. Again a beacon brought us into the CP, then we started looking for the fence down. It was further than we thought in the murk, but eventually we found it and, boxing round the occasional mere, we were able to follow it down to the path towards Capplestone Gate.

Once on the path things got tricky. Visibility was appalling and we kept losing the path. In the old quarry we got turned around completely and eventually followed the compass back to the wall, then stuck to the wall to reach the next gate.

At Capplestone Gate we clipped then turned left along the wall. At some point we cut over a fallen wall, then reached the green lane. We missed the path off to the left and dropped down to Kelber Gate and got stuck here for ages trying to relocate ourselves. Eventually I ended up getting an OSGR from my phone and, after a couple of false starts that helped us get back on the right path. The beacon on the stile had broken down (I switched it back on, but so did several people after me), and the flags were invisible by torch light at 5m in spite of a wide strip of Scotchlite reflective tape. The visibility was as bad as I've ever seen, and I've been out in some really shit weather in the Dales.

Once on the right path we soon made it to Yarnbury, then made good time down to Threshfield. I paused for the last turf zone on the bridge, then we got to the school and the finish at 19:43. Tony came in first V70.

Navigation was a big problem this year. Both Tony and I were relying purely on maps and that made it that much more challenging. At one point we looked like doing 16 hours, but the visibility put paid to that. I'm looking forward to entering next year and seeing what I can do with better knowledge of the route.

Kit

Unused kit in bold

• awdis grey base layer
• awdis fluo base layer
• club vest
• Ember insulating layer
• columbia lightweight waterproof
• Montane wind proof
• OMM full length leggings
• drymax socks
• spare socks
• prism hat
• montane cap
• primaloft buff
• 2nd buff
• OMM gloves
• buffalo mitts
• Altra Superior shoes
• UD Fastpack 15
• Silva ranger compass
• Harvey Fellsman map
• MSR titanium mug (Tony had a Whitefurze plastic 300ml cup with a screw lid, of the sort I use for carrying nuts etc. Definitely stealing that idea)
• Harrier first aid kit (I tweak this a bit - normally to carry emergency first aid stuff rather than plasters and the like, but also to fit individual race requirements)
• LED Lenser Neo10R (main light)
• Zebralight H600w (backup light)
• SOL bivi
• hypothermia poncho

Food

(Had exactly the right amount of food - for me)

• Squeazy snacker - peanut butter
• Squeazy snacker - mash & tartex
• mini cheeses
• mini malt loaves
• chocolate
• large block of cheese (mandatory emergency food)
• 3* Sainsbury cheese & onion rolls