Post
by mac.hawk » 28 Jul 2014, 21:10
There is no best time of year really as it's all relevant to how you prepare for the walk and what equipment you're prepared to take or leave behind. People do it in the winter but make sure they've got the appropriate clothing/footwear and adequate lighting and are usually familiar with the route. From a daylight point of view mid-March to late September gives you a 12 hour period where daylight is prevalent. By avoiding the summer period of mid-June, July & August you reduce the risk of blistering heat/sun (but hey, this is Yorkshire, it's been known to snow in June!). As a general rule, it's easier to prepare for the cold, wind, rain etc of spring & autumn than it is the blistering heat of a hot summers day.
Group walking can often be challenging for exactly the experience you've encountered. Within any group of say, 10 or 12, you will always get people who 'get a move on' and those that are more sedate, either through physical ability or simply not wanting to rush the experience. The people at the front get frustrated as they feel they want to press on whilst those at the rear get frustrated too as they feel pressurised to go faster than they feel they can/want to and inevitably suffer from a lack of a recovery period as/when they rejoin the others. Makes no difference (in my experience) whether you're all friends or complete strangers, it always happens.
To comment further on why you weren't given recovery time I'd need a bit more detail on the timescale. The aqueduct over the railway line a couple of miles after Ribblehead viaduct is roughly half way point on the 'Anti-clockwise from Horton route' and I'd expect a 12 hour traverse of the route to reach there at about five and a half hours (including whatever breaks you had).
Finally, you don't need a person to guide you round this challenge as it is perfectly achievable if you can (a) read and, better still, (b) read a map.
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks Walk by Brian Smailes is a complete guide to the route (currently in it's 5th Edition) and has gained good reviews, currently available from Amazon for under a fiver and would seem a bargain. Alternatively 'The Guide', as produced by myself (Mac.Hawk), is totally free and whilst it is a text only file it contains everything you need to complete the challenge, from general advice to an extremely detailed route guide (see comments on the June & Late February 2014 & August 2013 Version of 'The Guide' posted on this Forum), it also includes detailed timescale points for both a 10 & 12 hour traverse of the route and it is current - (I last walked the whole route in June 2014) - latest version is July 2014.
Last edited by
mac.hawk on 28 Jul 2014, 23:04, edited 1 time in total.