Attempt 1 didn't go brilliantly well, but I didn't really know the key bits of the route. Attempt 2 was derailed by other things, but was a useful learning experience (and actually, a really nice night out on the hills)...
A few weeks back Claire was asked to do the FRA relays, specifically the navigation leg. Since it was around the Burnsall area where we've done a lot of walking lately, she was actually quite keen. She suggested that it would be a good weekend for me to have another go at the Dales Top Ten, since we'd be in the area anyway. So the plan was that Claire would pick up the van from Kettlewell, come to meet me at the halfway point and be on hand in case I ran into trouble.
Friday night we were all packed and ready to set off around 8. A last minute flurry of lift organisation gave us a passenger to Appletreewick from Hebden Bridge, so we set off promptly at 8.15
Dropping Claire & her team mate Pauline in Appletreewick at about 9.15 I headed on to Kettlewell. We'd arranged that Claire would walk up to Kettlewell after her leg of the race to pick up the van, and meet me in Garsdale around 10pm. I'd actually underestimated the distance from Burnsall to Kettlewell, and Claire had quite a job getting to Garsdale in time.
I was ready to leave Kettlewell at 10.20, and headed out over the southern end of Firth Fell. After the uber-fail of Swarth Fell and High Seat last time, I'd got Karen's route from her birthday run last year and, while I hadn't recced any more than last time, I knew Karen's route would at least be passable.
At Arncliffe I set off up the road towards Malham, a route I've never used on foot or any other way. It's a completely different view to the Monks Path on the other side of the valley, and very scenic. Some cows on the road were a bit dubious about me, but peaceful enough.
Karen and I had talked about her route off Fountains Fell towards PYG. We'd wondered whether it would be better/quicker to backtrack onto the PW and drop onto the road. In the event I was tempted by the clear trod heading in the right direction. While the trod disappeared fairly quickly, I picked out a pretty easy line and cut a big corner off.
Down at the road I stopped for some food sat on a boulder, then carried on up the PW towards the shoulder of PYG. Inevitably on a nice sunny day there were quite a few people going up, but I was able to pick my way around them, then again on the way back down.
Into Horton, and through the works at the railway station introducing a new footbridge. I started to see lots of Y3P walkers from here, and stopped to chat with the odd one.
The top of Ingleborough was pretty busy. There were a lot of folk around, obviously 3P walkers, many with bluetooth speakers and the like. I stopped in the wind shelter which was weirdly empty while I ate some malt loaf then got going.
I filled my bottles from the stream at the path junction above the steep climb then started picking my way down between the walkers climbing up.
On the way up Whernside there were huge numbers of walkers coming down, most of whom seemed to be struggling with the descent. They had marshals with walkie-talkies with them, it seemed to be some kind of organised event taking place from the Hill Inn.
The top of Whernside was in thick cloud. I stopped at the wind shelter to change my socks and eat again, and talked to a small group of young men who'd walked up from Ribblehead and wanted to know what was the quickest way down. I suggested they go back the way they'd come up, rather than down towards Chapel-le-Dale. Hopefully they managed in daylight.
Dropping down into Kingsdale on a nice clear trod, I layered up at the bottom with my waterproof rather than the windproof gilet I'd worn up to that point. Then shortly after stopped again to put on my head torch as it was getting properly dark.
Along the Occupation Road then straight up along a wall on tussock & bog to the col between Crag Hill and Great Coum, then onto Great Coum and across sparse heathland to the summit. The going was fairly easy on this section, until I started heading downhill. I had to weave around a couple of crags and kept losing the trod in bogs, but eventually found my way back down to the Occupation Road.
I followed the Occupation Road down to the public road, which was fairly awful. The surface was rocky and rubbly, and there was a lot of water running down it. At the bottom I turned a short way along the road then down an unmarked path across a field and out onto another road. I followed this road for several km. Karen had said she didn't like the amount of road in Dentdale. There was a potentially nicer but slower path through fields to my right, but I didn't have the OS map with me and wasn't sure I remembered it well enough. (I did have the Harveys map, but the 1:40k is a bit hard to follow through farms etc, so it was just for safety)
Finally leaving the road I went up a dead end lane which became a walled track up onto the moor. A very wet, boggy walled track. Followed by a very wet, boggy path down into the woods. My feet were absolutely saturated, but I knew I was meeting Claire at the bottom of the hill.
I got to the van feeling OK, just a bit tired. I changed my clothes and ate some pizza, and had a cup of tea. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to fill the van water tank (and I'd forgotten that I'd bought a bottle of emergency water and left it in the cab!) so we only had one cup of tea each (and I drank half of Claire's too). We sat around chatting for about 45 mins before I headed out back into the night.
I was feeling pretty positive as I ran/walked along the road towards Grisedale. I was making good time, feeling dry and relatively clean and newly fed. I turned off up the road into the dale and filled my bottles from a roadside stream. After a prolonged meander that was much nicer in this direction I finally left the tarmac for a path along the side of Swarth Fell. Once I reached a large reentrant I cut straight up and started wading through yet more bogs towards Swarth Pike summit.
Up on the summit things dried out and I followed the GPS through the thick cloud to Swarth Fell summit, over coarse rocky heath. I like the summits around here, the ground is sparse and easy to walk on. That's a bad thing of course, it means erosion from centuries of over-grazing, but it's easier going than what was to come on the other side of Mallerstang.
Backtracking to Swarth Fell Pike I took a clear trod leftwards into the valley. This was a good path, wet in places but clear, which reached the road right by the "Welcome to Cumbria" sign. I stepped over the border to make sure I'd actually visited the county, then got on up the other side along Hell Gill.
This was one of the grimmest sections last time, and it was pleasant to turn left onto the other side of Hell Gill and find a clear path leading up Archie Styrigg. Again, wet in places but clear and obvious, it went almost all the way up to Gregory Chapel cairn, disappearing in a bog briefly on the way.
It was cold on the top of Gregory Chapel. I dropped down to the col and back up to High Seat, then backtracked to start the long meander to Great Shunner Fell. This was actually a nice section, although sometimes frustrating as it was hard to make progress. The moon was out above me even though I was in cloud, and it a was a good time to be out on the moors. Passing a wind shelter I took the opportunity to sit under cover and eat some malt loaf and pizza, then carried on along the faint trod.
Following the fence round the sharp angle on Hugh Seat, the ground started to get rougher. I missed the stile onto the left hand fence and had to backtrack a few yards.
In spite of being enjoyable, this section was the beginning of the end I think, and also the place where I learned some important lessons. It's a long way from Hugh Seat to Great Shunner, and the ground is rough and hard going. None of it is in any way runnable, and it's high up and exposed. I was walking fast but not running, and so probably not generating enough heat to keep me properly warm.
At one point towards the end of the leg my toe caught on a rock and I came down so suddenly my chin hit the ground. Spitting sand out of my mouth I picked myself up, and crossed over the nearby fence at a corner, then caught my foot on the corner tension wire and... fell on my face again.
Eventually I reached the sharp upturn to Great Shunner summit. I was tired (obviously, it was about 4am) but generally OK. I pushed up through the heather and bilberry onto the top where it was absolutely bloody nithering. The south westerly wind was enough to buffet me around, and certainly enough to chill me very rapidly. I'd considered stopping at the wind shelter but decided it wasn't sheltered enough and I just needed to get down off the hill.
Except of course this is Great Shunner Fell isn't it, and getting down off it isn't quite that easy. Because it's about 2km at almost the same height before you start to drop into the valley.
Great Shunner is like a microcosm of the Pennine Way. There are slabs. Many of them are underwater. Many more are in bogs. There are bogs where people have avoided the slabs that are in bogs. The path is clearly visible but you can't keep your feet dry for 2 minutes at a time.
Talking to myself, I was saying "I need some shelter while I eat. What I need is a massive peat grough... like that one there". I sat down on the lee side of a grough, put my primaloft on over the top of my waterproof, and ate a few bits: some malt loaf, a nut bar, some nuts. The salted cashews were delicious through the night, but I'm not sure how much energy I was getting from them.
From this point on it went from bad to worse. Even with all my layers on I couldn't keep warm. I wasn't shivering but I felt a bit uncomfortable and my hands and feet were cold. I was worried, and kept pushing to get below about 600m where I expected the wind to drop a bit.
Except it didn't. At 550, 500, 450, 400, 300 it was still blowing just as hard. This was the start of the incoming storm.
I was getting disoriented and wobbly and knew I had to keep going or else. I kept striding along upright and seconds later finding myself crouched over and veering from side to side of the track. At one point near Hardraw I fell asleep leaning on a gate.
As I got onto the last section of track I phoned Claire and let her know I needed help. I initially thought if I could warm up I might be OK to get going in an hour or so. I stopped in the porch of the church for a few minutes, then as Claire arrived I got into the van and she wrapped me up in a sleeping bag. Claire said my skin was hot to the touch, so I can't have been hypothermic. So maybe it was hypoglycaemia. Again. I usually get horrendous cold sweats and shivers with hypoglycaemia though.
An hour's sleep, and the storm arrived properly. The van was being buffeted and rain was blattering on the sides and roof. No way was I going out in that even if I'd felt up to it. I was relieved, the decision was made for me. In truth I probably wouldn't have been able to go on anyway.
Lessons
I reached a point where I was struggling to stay on my feet. Maybe I was hypothermic, maybe hypoglycaemic, maybe I just needed caffeine. Whatever it was, I needed to be warmer.
This is partly because I was up high, on ground where I couldn't run, in a strong cold wind. Even if I was just hypoglycaemic, I was burning energy to stay warm. My pace was the kind of fast walk that I've now learned to do on long overnighters and mountain marathons where I'm carrying a lot. It's a new thing for me and I'm still learning about it.
I was wearing a base layer, a polartec alpha layer, and my stretch waterproof which, while comfortable, is not as hard a shell as some. I put a Montane Prism over the top when I got cold, but it still wasn't enough. I think for overnight on high ground I need something heavier. Paramo maybe.
This was pretty much the same situation as I've got into at Cray on the Fellsman (although I was much worse). I think it's a combination of the cold and the food.
That fast walk gait inspired by something Nicky Spinks said in an interview is working really well. On gravel or tarmac I can do sub 10min/km, and on rough ground I can keep going at a good pace instead of wasting energy trying to run.
I was still climbing OK right up to the top of Great Shunner, which is reassuring.
My feet were cold, and I was annoyed by them getting wet all the time. The Mudtalon Speed shoes are designed to be quite freely draining. Maybe I need to spray a pair with fabsil for the winter. The Mudtalons were OK for the first half, but I was very glad of the thinner soles for the section from High Seat to Great Shunner.
Variation in food was better, but I could have done with yet more. I missed the fig rolls that I'd been unable to buy. More pizza would probably have been a good idea. Cheese as well - I didn't take any lumps of cheese because I couldn't be arsed cutting & bagging them. That was a mistake.
Kit
- Awdis long sleeved base layer
- Awdis short sleeved base layer
- Montane windproof gilet
- Rab powerstretch gloves
- OMM full length flash tights
- Inov8 Mudtalon (first half)
- Inov8 Mudtalon speed
- UD Fastpack 20 bag
- Salomon water filter
- 2 water bottles
- Montane Element Stretch waterproof
- Kalenji waterproof trousers
- Bridgedale merino running socks
- Black Diamond talus gaiters
- Garmin eTrex 20x gps
- Suunto compass
- Harvey Yorkshire Dales map
- Montane Prism jacket
- Silva Trail headtorch & spare battery
- Zebralight H62fw spare torch
- First Aid Kit
- SOL survival bag
- Buffs
- Glasses
Food
- Jamaican patties (2)
- Malt loaves (2)
- Pizzas (2)
- assorted Nakd and Kind bars
- salted cashews
