With
the Fellsman kicking off the weekend after next, my run out on Saturday was probably my last longish outing before then. It was a real cracker of an outing too with me and Haz setting off from Ingleton and effectively doing a lap of the skyline of Kingsdale (arguably the very best dale in the Yorkshire Dales), visting the summits of Gragareth and Great Coum before dropping down to Dent and then returning to Ingleton by running pretty much the length of Whernside top to tail.
22.6 miles and just over 4,000 feet of climb with a heck of a lot of trackless running to boot. The gradient was also pretty runnable (in a very tussocky way) all the way round.... so I didn't take many 'too steep to run' breathers either!
Once we hit the trig point of Gragareth, we exactly followed the route of the Fellsman for about the next 9 miles, along the wall line to Great Coum, a tricky descent down to Flintergill, then all the way down to Dent before zipping up the Craven Way and finally turning off from the Fellsman route and directly heading up Whernside at Boot of the Wold. Even then we picked up another stretch of the Fellsman where it goes from the trig on Whernside for a couple of miles to a wall hopping over point for the descent to Yorda's Cave.
All the snow on the tops was fast disappearing although there were still a few drifty areas surviving. It was warm though and I managed to scoot all the way round in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. Even got a tan!
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| Just a couple of miles in Harry, who forgot to have a drink before we left home, stops to drink the river dry! |
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| Looking up Kingsdale from the southern end |
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| Gragareth ahoy! |
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| Gragareth trig |
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| First sweaty tee shirt run of the year! |
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| Heading towards Great Coum with the trod totally covered by the drifts |
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| Great Coum ahoy! |
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| Harry at the top of Great Coum |
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| Overlooking Dentdale from the cairn |
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| Our line ahead all the way down to Flintergill |
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| Still a bit of snow on the north western slopes |
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| Harry starting to hang back and play silly beggars on the Craven Way out of Dent |
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| Whernside ahoy! |
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| Approaching the trig point on Whernside with Ingleborough on the horizon |
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