Honeymoon in the Dales...

 So, Claire and I got married on Friday (the 13th of course!) and, after a lovely meal with the close families (including Claire's mum and dad who came over from Botswana) Claire and I set out for the Yorkshire Dales.

My father and Pat had booked us a B and B at West Witton in Wensleydale; which was a lovely place in a lovely spot. I had forgotten how lovely Wensleydale is, the winding river and the narrow valley.


After a meal in the pub we had breakfast and watched the snow falling outside; closely followed by the sun; closely followed by rain - clearly changeable was the order of the day!
That being the case - we elected to drive to Whernside, a hill I know very well and one which would give an ascent on well-made paths that should not be too boggy. After a 40 min drive we arrived at Ribblehead - to find a biting wind and not much warmth in the sun. I discovered this by being dispatched to get some tea from the tea van!

Suitably well wrapped up, Claire and I started up Whernside via the viaduct -as in the picture above. It was a slow ascent, but very well judged given our progress up the mountain. Ingleborough was snow capped as can be seen from the shot. What was amazing was the number of people around, I had imagined it would be busy but not as insane as it was. It seemed that hordes of people were on a 3 peaks challenge walk.                                                                                                                                                                    Quite a few were either dressed oddly and/or sporting headphones depriving themselves of the noise of the birds and sheep....

The summit ridge was very cold, with a cross-wind and Claire was able to wear her birthday present gloves ( a present from Mum expected for Scottish winter). Fully dressed up we wandered down - Claire being extremely nimble on her feet on the steep descent.

Turning left at Ellerbeck farm and suddenly the numbers dwindled to about 1/20 of what they were before...all that remained were hot-dogs and hamburgers - twice. Oh and a lovely (but rotund) doggy who offered to help!

https://picasaweb.google.com/102361192587557786751/HoneymoonOnWhernside

pictures

Walking around town in the snow...

weird weather with a capital W...went up to work today and then met Claire for lunch in Carlisle; the wind was biting and it was sleeting gently.

Went for a stroll around town this evening - snow was in the air and was falling; although not settling. Wonder what it will be doing in the mountains?

Climbing again..

another amazing day in Cumbria...blue skies and sunshine; although we sat outside in Keswick eating our ice-creams with the forecast saying snow on Tuesday - mad!

Back to today; Claire and I decided to have another go at climbing - an reasonably early start saw us at Brown Slabs on Shepherds Crag before the madding crowd. The fact that Shepherds gets the afternoon sun meaning we had a couple of hours as being one of only two parties on this part of the crag.
Brown Slabs (Diff) was first on the menu - the first route that I had led for nearly a year as well. I felt ok on it - it is polished but not to oblivion and I could potter up ( I have done the route several times before) to the top ok(ish). Claire did a really good job of following - the top does steepen a bit and become quite arkward - with a couple of high steps that are easier for me with my longer limbs. However, she climbed really well - using her feet well - and soon joined me on the summit.

After an amble down we found a few more people arriving at the bottom and so staked our climb for Brown Slabs Direct (V.Diff). The start to this was horrendously polished and the gear a bit minimal for the first 30' or so. Once above that; the rock improves a lot, the gear is spaced but excellent and I really started to enjoy the climbing. It was good to feel like a proper climber again; picking my way up a route. After the tree; which is a possible belay the route steepens a lot but the holds are all there and the friction is good...I was soon on the top and watching a bravura performance from Claire. Claire climbed the route faster than I did and showed really good technique. More to the point, she seemed to have enjoyed it as well which is the key thing.

The crag was getting rather busy as the sun had hit - so it was time for lunch and a gear spree in Keswick. With Claire working nights this week, we might need to test her new fell running shoes out!!