Buckden Pike, Wharfedale

After our walk up Great Whernside from Kettlewell, I was keen to get back into Wharfedale and hopefully this time with better visibility than the whiteouts we had on that particular walk. That walk up Great Whernside was part of our training for the Yorkshire Three Peaks and this time, our hike up Buckden Pike was a prep walk for the Lyke Wake Walk.

For some reason the drive over the tops into Wharfedale seems to take you through several climate zones and this trip was no exception, as we drove through rain, sunshine and thick fog at various points on the journey.

We parked up in Buckden before heading upwards onto the fell. Weather conditions weren't great as we set off, with the drizzle soon giving way to misty rain as we entered the cloud. Unfortunately this also meant the views were very restricted. The walk up Buckden is nice and straightforward with a good footpath all the way up. Before we knew it, we were at the summit cairn an trig point. Sadly we could still barely see ten metres or so away.

From the summit we headed alongside a drystone wall, towards a memorial commemorating the loss of lives of a Polish bomber crew.

You can read the full story here: http://www.buckdenpike.co.uk/mainstory.html. The path wasn't too bad along here, but once we were past the memorial it deteriorated significantly and at times we were ankle deep in bog. Good training for the Lyke Wake Walk then!

At least it wasn't a long stretch across boggy ground and we soon started our descent of the fell. With the height lost came visibility gained and Wharfedale started to open its heart to us.

You've got to hand it to the Dales, whether you are on rugged limestone pavement, whalebacked fell tops or at the valley bottom alongside river, there is always a serene beauty to the region. The descent down into Starbotton was pure pleasure with a great view of the lush valley and the river.

Our route took us through the idyllic hamlet and out the other side as we headed towards the river, and onto the Dales Way footpath. We stopped for lunch beside the river.

As we were enjoying sandwiches, we noticed a distinct, distressed sound in the distance, and on looking around we could see a sheep with its head stuck in a fence. Unfortunately it was on the other side of the river! Dave bravely took his walking boots and trousers off and hopped into the icy waters, but it was too deep to risk crossing. Let's hope the farmer did the rounds later that day and rescued the poor thing.

The rest of the walk back to Buckden saw us follow the path meander its way gently close to the river. We were soon back at the car and despite the poor visibility we had for the first half of the walk, this was another fantastic expedition into the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Great Whernside, Wharfedale

Somehow the middle of March 2013 offered that rarest of occasions -  a free day! When I checked my diary and realised Claire and I had a weekend without appointments, so after a quick chat with our fellow walker Dave we decided to meet up at Kettlewell for an exploration of some of the fells of the Dales. The original plan was to take in both Great Whernside and Buckden Pike, but the weather had other plans for us.

There are a number of ways Great Whernside can be tackled from Kettlewell, and the route we picked seemed pretty straightforward and direct.

We started off heading out of the village along the pretty lanes before taking the footpath heading towards the interestingly named Hag Dyke. This was pleasant walking territory and we gained in height pretty quickly. We got a little bit confused at the scout hut which is situated at Hag Dyke, about halfway up Great Whernside, but soon found our way back onto the path.

Shortly afterwards and we found ourselves walking in the white stuff, and it was only a few minutes until we were knee deep in snow at times!

The deep snow made the walk considerably harder, but we pressed on upwards, soon reaching a collection of cairns. From here onwards we encountered a whiteout and wouldn't really see anything beyond the white ground and sky until well off the summit of Great Whernside.

Fortunately we were well equipped with map, GPS and the compass which kept us headed in the right direction, and shortly afterwards we reached the trig point that marks the top of Great Whernside. At this point the snow was also coming down and so we didn't hang around for long, as when we stopped for even just a couple of minutes the cold really got to us. We stayed on the summit plateau for a short while mainly guided by compass as there was no way of discerning the path on the ground!

Conditions improved slightly after we had passed through the summit crags and we could see a slight depression in the ground which looked like it was where the path should be and fortunately we were right. A short while on, and we came to some very steep slopes.

It was far too slippery to attempt to walk down them and so we had to just sit down and slide all the way down. It was great being a kid again and we've never come off a fell quite as quick as this!

Now that we were off the higher ground the visibility improved, but by this point we had got fairly chilled, and the prospect of going through that all over again wasn't all that appealing and so we decided to head back to Kettlewell and save Buckden Pike for another day.

We crossed the little road from Kettlewell to Coverdale, and took the path back to the village, following Tor Dyke and the Top Mere Road. This was a really nice path that made for pleasant walking, and as the skies cleared we had great views back over to Great Whernside and down onto the picturesque village of Kettlewell.

All in all a great day out and good preparation for the next big Dales walk, which I'll be telling you about very soon!

A Wharfedale Wander - Almscliff Crag

This was an excellent walk that I did with some friends after a night in Leeds. it always amazes me that there are so many fabulous locations in close proximity to big cities. I am familiar with the region around Otley and Ilkley just north of Leeds and Bradford, as well as the foodland walks around the Adel and Meanwood areas just north of the city, but this was a new one.
My mate Rob was keen to show me "Lovely Rocks" and I was only to happy to discover a section of Wharfedale. We parked up at the railway station at Huby - which is oddly named Weeton station even though that village is a mile away?!

Together with Jase, who had accompanied me on walks in Malham as well as a walk along Offa's Dyke nearly 20 years ago, we made our way out of the vilage in a thick mist. There were patches of blue sky visible and we hoped the sun would manage to burn off the mist, but unfortunately we never did get our view over Wharfedale.

But the mist and fog patches made for some pretty spectacular eerie scenes and whilst we were walking along the lane all of a sudden Almscliff Crag became visible.

This was definitely a place worth exploring, and we were not alone as it is a popular spot for climbers. Almscliff still felt very remote and magical in particular in the light which meant that crags and climbers drifted in and out of visibility.

After a short climb we were at the very top of the crags, where we enjoyed our sandwiches and a chat about how the rock formation came to be. We enjoyed a roam around on the top of the rocks in the vague hope that the mist would lift, but the we will have to enjoy those views another time.

We made our way along the footpaths back down to the village of Huby, before heading our seperate ways and having thouroughly enjoyed our short walk.