Team Dystonia reach their peak!
- Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge 12th May 2007
- 24 miles to walk
- 5500 feet to climb
It was a long way to go for a walk!! It took Val, Joy, Jamie and me 9 hours to get to the Station Inn at Ribblehead on Friday 11th May and 7 hours to get back home on the Sunday. The walk seemed quite short by comparison—a mere 12 hours!
The inn was great and the manager very kindly got us a full English breakfast for 7.00am as we had to join our organiser at 7.45am in the next village. There were crowds of walkers of all shapes and sizes but we were expertly marshalled by Ian who was showing us the route and we were off just after 8.00am.
Our first climb was up Penn y Ghent which we saw little of as we got near the top as the visibility was very poor. I don’t think we noticed the rain too much but it fell fairly steadily. Sadly Philip slipped and twisted his ankle as we descended so our numbers were reduced.
A long slog took us to the Ribblehead viaduct where we were provided with hot drinks and were cheered by our supporters who thronged the roadside—well, there were three but it was nice to see them!We felt okay and I was rather optimistically imagining a nice refreshing pint about 6.30pm or so after a nice hot bath—optimism slightly misplaced!
The climb up Whernside was quite enjoyable as the sky had cleared but we all noticed that it was all becoming a bit of a struggle. Dropping down to our support car, courtesy of Ian and his team, where there was a nice cup of tea, we only had Ingleborough to climb then all downhill back to Horton.
By this stage our estimated finish time had slipped to 7.00pm or so and the climb up Ingleborough sapped the last bits of energy we had. At 7.45pm, tired but very chuffed, we finished! For me it was a birthday I will never forget—and over £4000 for the Society. Thanks to everyone for your support!
Read more about the challenge in our fundraising article, Pinnacle of Success.