A Trip to the Dales on the iPhone

It was at the beginning of this year I made a resolution to get fitter, and it has been happening - some weeks a bit slower than others.  I've been trying to get out a few mornings a week for an hour's walk with a bit of running thrown in.  I decided to set myself a challenge, to climb the Yorkshire 3 peaks in summer.  You can read all about it here on a blog post.  Last week, we decided to give Pen-y-ghent a go with our friends Amy & Claire.  We didn't want to weigh our rucksacks down too much, so decided not to take the cameras, leaving room for the essentials - Dairy Milk Whole Nut and a Snickers.  Instead, we captured the trip on our phones.  On Thursday, we went for a potter around Malham, I don't think I've been there since I was a teenager.  It's SO beautiful.  First to Janet's Foss, and then a walk into Gordale Scar, which absolutely took my breath away.

Photos were taken with iPhone 5, using VSCOcam.

We were up early for a hearty breakfast.  We stayed at the amazing Lister Arms in Malham. They lit a fire for us to have our breakfast by.

We did our last checks, pulled on the waterproofs, filled the water bottles and set off for Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Our first view of Pen-y-ghent, and all looked calm and welcoming!

I was a little out of breath on the very first steep climb, but after that initial warm up, I got more into my stride.  There were still a few patches of snow around...

Chocolate break number one....

The last push up to the top is a bit of a scramble, especially in the big wind that had picked up, but we just took it slowly.

The wind came out, so the hoods went up!

And then back into Horton for a well earned drink.  Inside the pub, there was a board with recorded times people had run the 3 peaks in.  I think the best was 2hrs and 20 something minutes!  We were happy with our 3hrs something for Pen-y-ghent though.  Just need to leave enough energy for the other 2 in July.