The 3 Peaks from Horton - 24th January 2015

Hurrah, the first circuit of the 3 Peaks of the year and thankfully still with lots of snow about. That said, after a week of solid snow in Ribblesdale, it rained heavily the evening before the run, melting the snow at lower levels, and then froze overnight leading to treacherous ice higher up, especially on well used tracks. Not a problem though as we have kahtoolas and aren't afraid to use them!

Unfortunately Harry is on the injury list at the minute - a knacked knee (called a stifle in the doggy world) that will hopefully get better with rest over the next couple of weeks - so it was just me and Hester for this outing. Poor Hazzer...

From Horton-in-Ribblesdale - 22.4 miles and 5,817 ft - route on Strava

Ice, ice baby...

Pen y Ghent done and dusted and Hester heads into the tundra

Whernside ahoy!

It can be bit of a slog up Whernside

Hester 'summits'

Whernside ridgeline heading for Ingleborough next

Looking back at Whernside from the top of the Swine Tail on Ingleborough

Snow cam skins.........

Horton is just five miles that way then

Pen y Ghent viewed from the bottom of Sulber Nick

Shoulder of Pen y Ghent from Horton - 18th January 2015

Just a small trot out at dusk, looping up to the shoulder of Pen y Ghent via Dub Cote and back along the well used Brackenbottom Scar track, made all the better by the lovely snow and beautiful sky.

From Horton-in-Ribblesdale - 4.9 miles and 1,168 ft - route on Strava

Pen y Ghent

Looking towards Moughton and the setting sun

Horton overlooked by Ingleborough and Simon Fell

Ze boy

The light failing now and its head torches for the jog back down

Smearsett Scar, Moughton and Ingleborough from Horton - 17th January 2015

A stunning adventure in the snow, running from home and visiting the trig points on Smearsett Scar, Moughton and Ingleborough. Just blinking gorgeous!

From Horton-in-Ribblesdale - 16.7 miles and 3,551 ft - route on Strava

Harry and Hester heading for the top of Smearsett Scar

Hazier running the Smearsett Scar ridge line

Playing in the snow

The full assault team

Houghton trig point

Moughton Scars

Looking down Sulber Nick towards Pen y Ghent, partially hidden in cloud

Frozen 2

Ingleborough wind shelter

Perfect weather for tights

Langstrothdale Loop from Horton - 4th January 2015

A lovely run from Horton looping out through Langstrothsdale via Pen y Ghent, Plover Hill and Foxup before returning on the Pennine Way.

Me, Hester and Harry had a guest running friend of Harry's with us today, the completely mental springer spaniel Wallace, and as an experiment we attached a garmin running watch to Wallace's collar. Our run was 17 miles and, although Wallace was on a lead for 5 miles of the run, he still clocked in at 23 miles - basically off-lead he did 50% further than us, zig zagging side to side and generally running about like an idiot!

From Horton-in-Ribblesdale - 17 miles and 3,647 ft - route on Strava

Wallace (with the garmin gaffer taped to his collar) and Harry

Haz and Hester racing up Pen y Ghent

Looking towards Whernside from Plover Hill

Wallace in alert pose

Running buddies

Hester and Haz having climbed out of Littondale

Top of Littondale looking towards Ingleborough

Langstrothdale ahoy!

Wallace approaching Beckermonds

Introduction

Well, following on from my "hugely successful" (cough) Stolly's Running Blog over the past couple of years I thought it was time to give my hill running blogging a bit of a shake up and, for this year at least, I'm intending to 'run' two hill running blogs - a Yorkshire Dales Running Year (this one) and a Lakeland Running Year (the other one). Given that my running blogs are just one huge excuse to (in the main) include pictures of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District taken as I run through them, separating expeditions one National Park from the other somehow seemed like a good idea... although funnily enough, now that I've started, it suddenly seems ever so slightly less of a 'good idea'.

Given that I live in Horton-in-Ribblesdale (with Hester and Harry), the Yorkshire Dales runs will I'm sure outweigh those in the Lake District. Equally the Dales runs will be a bit south western Dales centric but with the occasional excursion north into Wensleydale or Swaledale. The Lake District is only an hour or so down the road though and we get over there relatively often so, after a bit of a slower start, the Lakeland Running Year will start to gather a pace in no time at all.

I tend to run in the hills most days by the way, circa 40 to 50 miles a week, but (thankfully?) the runs posted will usually just represent the more exciting weekend adventures, with the odd mid-week expedition included if something out of the ordinary occurs.

Quite what I'm going to do when I'm running somewhere not in the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District remains to be seen but I'll cross that bridge when I get there!

All style and sophistication - that's me!