PACE – Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge 2015

What a wonderful day we had this Saturday. We met up with 15 great people striving to raise money for a worthy cause and do it with a smile.For most of us it was a 05:30 start to be at Helwith Bridge Inn at 06:30 for registration, tea, coffee and hot and fresh bacon, egg or sausage butties before heading to the start of our PACE Yorkshire 3 Peak Challenge.By 07:45 we were all at Pen-y-Ghent Café at Horton to fill in our cards and clock in for the start of the challenge.  A quick photo of the intrepid team and off we headed into the misty and damp heights of Pen-y-ghent.With the warm rain and misty views at 10:30 as we approached the top of the first peak we had split into 3 groups.  Sam taking the lovely ladies with huge hearts and massive determination, Richard leading the lets see how fast we can do this contingent and Craig taking the main pack.

11:00 saw all of us completing the first peak and saying the first of many thank you’s to Simon our wonderful and supportive ‘Man in a Van full of goodies’ that any walker would love to see a third of the way through such a challenge.  Hot and cold drinks, healthy snacks, sandwiches and sweets all offered with a big smile and lots of encouragement. Who could ask for more? We certainly couldn’t.By 11.30 all the waterproofs and jackets were off as the sun shone down and gave a wonderful view of the Ribblehead viaduct bathed in sunshine for the start of the second and tallest of the peaks.  A long and steady rising walk saw us ascend Whernside and as we walked higher the winds picked up and for some of our group a little rain cooled us as we bagged our second peak of the day

By 15:00 we had all been blessed with another visit by our Super Simon and had completed the steep and rocky decent of the tallest of our three peaks for the day.  This marked 15 miles and 4691 feet of assent completed and saw just one of our wonderful team have to call it a day.  After battling tremendous pain for a large part of the walk she made the decision to stop and with the words ‘I’ll see you soon in the Café at the finish you get it done in time to the rest of her group” she was whisked away for tea and cake by Super Simon.At 17:00 we had 14 people having bagged Ingleborough their final peak of the day and were all headed as fast as their legs would carry them back to the Pen-y-Ghent Café at Horton to collect their cards and clock in for the finish of the challenge.

By 19:15 all 15 walkers were back at Pen-y-Ghent Café at Horton having a well earned drink and a group photo to mark the end of our walk but not the end of the day.20:30 saw us all gathered back at the Helwith Bridge Inn for a hearty and delicious dinner where we could all hear how we had faired over the day.  Their was lots of blisters; sore ankles, knees and hips but it was all outweighed by the beaming smiles knowing they had completed a great day and raised lots of money for such a worthy cause.

Thank you Vicky for allowing us at Saaig Outdoors to help you complete your group challenge we had a wonderful day and met a superb group of people.  Looking forward to seeing you all again for your next challenge!