Yorkshire Peak 2 Whernside.

So after our 1st peak (Pen-y-Ghent) back in May we got the message through that the "team" were planning to take on the next peak on the list which is Whernside and the only one of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks I hadn't climbed.

Our plan for Pen-y-Ghent had worked well and this one was supposed to be easier to climb so we decided to adopt the same approach. Arrive early and get a head start as we have the youngest child and the rest would catch us up on the climb.

Oh dear oh dear how naïve we were to think that this one would go like the last. Little legs was not a happy camper for the ENTIRE walk and proceeded to moan for pretty much every 100 metres or so while son no 1 decided that walking with his cousin would be sooooo much more fun and raced off ahead and refused the walkie talkie. Did I mention he had been explicitly told not to race off ahead? needless to say there was no cell phone signal for a while to get a message to him to stop where he was and WAIT!

One of the few pictures of the day where he didn't look offended Force Gill Waterfall in background

The slog up the path which runs along the railway line and then up the spine of Whernside isn't massively challenging but it is long and with not many geocaches along the route to make it more interesting for junior it made for hard going!

Jake and cousin miles ahead of us

The main group caught up with us as we were approaching the summit and we all made our way to the trig point to hunker down for lunch. Son no one had a sulk on at this point as I was pretty furious with him for walking ahead of us with no means of communication and his cousins and aunt had to make their way off the hill ahead of us as they had plans for later in the day.

Grumpy Children at Whernside Summit

Finally we started making our way off the summit for the descent and the path down is a killer! steep and rocky, and with some people ascending this way too it was busy. We were fortunate that it was not wet as I can imagine when raining this route is treacherous. Needless to say we had to help Bear with several of the "steps" as they were just too big for his little legs.

Much steeper descent

The way down was arduous with many rest stops for Mr Grumpy face Bear who sat down a lot and cried! Needless to say mummy needed a glass of wine when she got home.

He's smiling here but if you look carefully you can see its through tears!

 From being some of the first on the hill in the morning, we were also one of the last off it our descent had taken so long and there were few cars left at the parking spot when we got back to the car. One of the few positives was that the sun came out.

Glorious Whernside

Don't the Dales look glorious in the sunshine? Both boys finally started to cheer up when we got to Ribblehead Viaduct and they could see the car. They also started being nice to each other which gave them the motivation to get back to the car and a treat of chocolate! So all in all not as successful an escapade as our Pen-y-Ghent adventure but they did it. 2016 has to be the year for them both to conquer the final hill - Ingleborough, however that will have to wait for Jakes leg to heal. But that's another story! Till next time

The boys and Ribblehead Viaduct