This was a bit of a new venture for me. I've done lots of ultra distance races, and a fair few solo rounds at the 12 to 15 hour mark. Something that pushes out more towards a hundred in time/effort/distance was uncharted territory.
I've been thinking about doing the Yorkshire Round for a while. A couple of weeks ago with a free weekend coming up I switched to the Dales Top Ten on the basis that although the distance isn't much less the terrain is a lot easier. In theory.
I'm not big on planning, so with a few days to spare I shopped for extra food, made some sketchy plans and took a punt. Step one was where and when to start: Claire doesn't sleep well in the van, and when you're sharing a small bed with someone who isn't sleeping well you don't sleep well yourself. To avoid starting already tired, I figured sleeping at home the night before would be better.
I decided that I was likely to take 24 hours plus/minus 2. I'd identified Kettlewell as a good starting point, being relatively close to home and a bloody sight quieter on a summer's morn than Horton. So on Saturday morning we drove up relatively late. The idea was to set off around 11 - 12, to avoid finishing in the early hours and make pick up easier.
Claire was joining me for the first bit, and once we got ourselves sorted we set off up Great Whernside. I wasn't going berserk fast, but brisk. I think Claire found the first bit hard going after a year of ongoing minor injury. Once we got to the top of Great Whernside and started along the track to Black Dyke we settled into a steadier pace.
Down through the bogs of Black Dyke to Park Rash, and onto Starbotton road. I opted for the reverse Fellsman route rather than over Tor Mere, to avoid the worst of the swamp. It's not much further round and much nicer.
Top of Buckden Pike then down as far as where the wall cuts away from the path. That's the way I usually come up on the Fellsman, so I followed the same route down to the road. Crossed the road where ongoing track maintenance is happening, and up the steep hill on Stake Lane.
I made a mental note while climbing just how far it is from the road up to the site of the Fellsman Hell Gap CP. I really need to eat and layer up at that point next year to avoid another long stay at Cray CP.
I filled my filter bottle at a stream by the track and carried on up to the top. Along the flat section over Stake Moss I was passed by an off road racing buggy. Politely I might add, at a steady pace and without spraying gravel everywhere.
Above the junction in the track where I was to take the Stalling Busk route there was a long traffic jam, maybe 8 off roaders. Looked like a guided excursion, who had unfortunately got stuck behind a sheep shearing station at the side of the path. They were all relaxed about it, enjoying the sunshine while they waited.
Down to Stalling Busk and I had a quick look around the church in case there was a tap. Nope.
On to Marsett, and up the lane signposted for Hawes & Burtersett. On the path up I found a little footbridge. The watercourse didn't look too sketchy, so I filled up a bottle.
Reaching the roman road I turned right for a short way then took the path round the bottom of Wether Fell to follow the path down to Gayle.
In setting up for this weekend, I'd downloaded the GPX from the LDWA website and edited it to start from Kettlewell instead of Hardraw. Thanks to the oddities of multi-track GPX on older Garmin units, my GPS was only showing the route from Hardraw onwards. Luckily I knew the paths well and was able to make my own way.
At Hawes I passed round the back of the church then popped into the church yard in search of a tap. Nope. I sat on the church steps to change my socks, then bought a 1.5l bottle of mineral water in a nearby shop. Guzzling the water bit by bit on the path then road over the river towards Hardraw, I stowed the scrunched up bottle in my pack.
At Hardraw the GPS finally figured out where I was, and I started to head up Great Shunner. I was still on very familiar ground and making good time.
Following the south side of the fence there was a reasonable trod that climbed and fell over small grikes. As I got further downhill the grikes got bigger, until I turned sharply right towards a row of grouse butts and through some 1.5m deep grikes. That didn't last long and I was back on a keepers quad track up the hill.
Over a few minor summits and past a large cairn to Gregory Chapel, then across a col to Archie Styrigg. The view here was stunning, all the way up to Dufton. The sun was starting to go down and it was a beautiful evening.
Heading back across the col to Gregory Chapel I passed to the right to follow the GPX line towards Hell Gill. This is where it all fell apart.
The line curved slightly to the right and crossed Hell Gill high up, then seemed to follow the side of the gill all the way down. So that was 3km of bog and massive tussocks. There was a nice trod for about 100m at the top. Following the gill meant staying level with the fence and climbing in and out of steep sided gullies. As I got further down the GPS line dropped to the level of the gill. Tried it, it was chest deep undergrowth and boulders. Climbed back up to the fence line and continued to contour above the fence in tussocks. The Inov8 Mudtalons had seemed like a good choice for the distance, but my ankles were turning with every 2nd step and it was really slow, painful going.
I'd expected to take about 2 hours from Archie Styrigg to the meeting point with Claire in Garsdale. It took most of that to get to Hell Gill Force, leaving me another 6km to go.
That timing confused me and I briefly forgot about Swarth Fell. As I ran north along Mallerstang I was puzzled by what was clearly Wild Boar Fell in front of me, until I remembered I still had Swarth Fell to climb on my left and groaned.
The GPS line took me along the road then up a sheer quarry face. Clearly this was stupid, and I carried on to a gate slightly past. There was a clear trod up the side of the fence which I followed, ignoring the GPS line which was off to my left.
Eventually the trod petered out and the GPS line crossed to the right in front of me. I fought my way through more bog, tussock and boulders to reach the edge of a basin, then contoured through boulders, waist deep soft rushes and thistles to reach a path up Swarth Fell.
At this point I was fairly tired, but mainly just not having any fun. The idea was a nice run through the night, but I'd run out of motivation battling through terrible terrain. Following the trod down towards Garsdale from Swarth Fell I got a decent spell of trotting in, until I had to leave the trod to get down onto the main bridleway below. More ankle turning tussocks. More swearing. If this had been an isolated bit I'd have been OK, but coming after about 10km of it, I'd had enough.
I got onto the bridleway and headed down into Garsdale. Which meant about 7km of road, perfect for finally capping my mood. I'd been considering sacking it as I fought through the boulders on the far side of Swarth Fell. The road finally did it. I messaged Claire as I descended to let her know I was calling it, and ran/walked along the road as best I could to the van, passing a rather startled dog walker along the way.
Back at the van I took off my bag (which had chafed my back pretty badly) and had a cup of tea. Claire had put together lots of additional food apart from the pizza I'd pre-prepared, and had a cup of tea waiting for me. I was very happy to see her, and happy to stop.
After a break I didn't feel any more inclined to carry on, and wasn't really convinced another 12 hours was going to be safe. I'd done a respectable 70km with 2300m of climb, including some barely passable terrain for about 15km. We ate some food, drank some beer and settled into bed at the side of the road.
Next day on Strava, Karen noted that she'd done the DTT as her birthday run last year. Looking at her route, she'd obviously recced and found better routes on both the grim sections by passing along a path (marked on OSM) to the north of Hell Gill, and going straight up Swarth Fell Pike from Outhgill (another path marked on OSM) although she still hated the road bit.
I'm disappointed not to finish, but reasonably sure that it wasn't fitness that stopped me. Lack of planning perhaps, and that's something that catches me out a lot. But I almost consciously do that - I like to go into things without knowing too much and adapt as I go. This time it was a totally new venture - a long distance with only a single support stop. I didn't finish, but I learned new things about the geography, and about how to manage solo over longer distances than a race usually affords.
I'll go back and have another go, maybe in the autumn if opportunity arises.
Kit
- UD Fastpack 20l
- Raidlight T shirt
- OMM 0.5 tights
- Inov8 Mudtalons
- Black Diamond gaiters
- Salomon water filter
- Silva Trail head torch
- Zebralight HL600 backup light
- Montane Element Stretch waterproof jacket
- Evadict waterproof trousers
- Montane Ember insulating layer
- Sunglasses
- Prescription glasses
- Garmin eTrex 20x
- Gloves
- buffs
- compass
- first aid kit
- bothy bag
Food
- jamaican veg patties - 2
- cheese and onion rolls - 2
- malt loaf
- cheese
- Nut protein bars - 2
Lessons
When taking a punt at anything un-recced, look at the route in detail and compare it with both OSM and OS. There are physical paths on OSM that aren't recorded on OS.
Carry more water on this kind of excursion. Another litre would have been ideal. The extra weight in the bag is worthwhile to be able to drink freely.
Carry a little sweet food - fig rolls are ideal
Inov-8 Mudtalons are bloody useless on rough ground
Print the route onto a map and take the map, instead of/as well as the GPS. Not having the bigger picture visible when I left Gregory Chapel, I didn't see that I could have gone far to the right and avoided the worst of the crap as I was going to lose height soon anyway.
