The plan was to take a friend, Mick, on a decent hike around some of the best parts of the southern Pennine Way while considering a few elements to make it count as a QMD. We spent two days in and around the Pennines. Pen Y Ghent is the highest peak in this area, standing above 700m, which makes it a significant peak. Fountains Fell is also quite a significant peak and is right next to Pen Y Ghent, so hitting both of these makes sense.
Where do we start? Mick does around 9-10 hours of exercise each week and has been out on the fells and trails of the Isle of Man for over four hours every Saturday without fail since April this year. He's not a fast mover, but he loves his running and hiking and gets significant enjoyment from the outdoor environment. Mick also has COPD, which he discovered 18 months ago. He has been on a journey of transformation ever since and, through conscious effort, has made amazing progress with his health and fitness. Mick is one of our (coached running) athletes, and I know what he is and isn't capable of. He was super psyched to be hiking and exploring some of the Yorkshire Dales this weekend at a very leisurely pace.
I know he's good for 6-7 hours of activity, and if we start around 9-9:30am, that's about the amount of sunlight we'll get too. So, considering pacing and the route, Malam is a good place to start. Malam Cove is stunning and a geological area to explore and discuss. Making our way from Malam to Horton in Ribblesdale should take us between 6-7 hours and allow us to take in some great sights and high peaks. Perfect.
Nikki, my partner, was meeting her friend, Kat, and running a longer portion of the route in preparation for her Spine race happening in January. We made a plan between us: Kat would drop her car off at Horton in Ribblesdale and catch a lift with us to Gargrave, where the two of them would get out and start. Mick and I would drive further up the trail to Malam and start our hike from there. We planned to call or message each other between 2pm and 2:30pm to check we were both okay and make any additional changes to the original plan if needed.
We would likely see them passing us at some point during the day too. We all planned to meet back up in Horton in Ribblesdale upon finishing the hike.
Weather was forecasted to be cold, sunny, and dry with a chance of cloud in the afternoon. Later in the evening, it was expected to get much windier and rain to come in, but we weren't planning on being out that long, so it was nice to know we didn't have to worry about that. Wind was low but possible 20mph gusts on the peaks. Temperature was expected to be around 3 degrees.
The day was fantastic. Malam Cove was awesome; I'd only ever been through it during the night (in the Spine race) up to today and always wanted to see it in the day. Mick was excited to learn about how the rock formations came to be and the story behind the dry wall that would have once been a great waterfall. We got some great drone footage here. We pressed on to Malam Tarn; Nikki and Kat ran past us here and looked to be having a great time. We enjoyed observing the forest floor, looking for cave spiders, which were recorded as supposedly being out in the area. Apparently, they can grow up to 7cm, but we didn't see any.
We talked about the fir trees and how to identify them and distinguish them from other evergreens. We also discussed why there were random circular walls around some of the trees. We still don't know for sure, but we think it might have something to do with food for the cattle. We continued up Fountains Fell, and the wind picked up, so both of us layered up some more. Mick enjoyed the short scramble to the top of Pen y Ghent, and then we descended to Horton in Ribblesdale as darkness set in.
Area :
South Yorkshire Dales
Most of the larger southern dales (e.g. Ribblesdale, Malhamdale and Airedale, Wharfedale and Nidderdale) run roughly parallel from north to south. Includes the Three Peaks, Malham and Langstrothdale/Wharfdale.
