March 27th 2010. WE DID IT AND ALL UNDER THE OFFICIAL TIME! My handful of photos are now loaded here. Simon and Larry have the full set of official photos. Our sincere thanks to everyone who sponsored or supported us. WE HIT OUR TARGET!!! A full report is below.

Fundraising Walk

The main group of Dads set off on the Friday following a rousing send off from the whole of with some words of encouragement from the head master – Lawrence Caughlin – and a hearty three cheers from the pupils and staff.

We drove up to Ingleton in good cheer in a minibus from who were fantastic in their support for their fellow primary school in the village. The mood became more sombre on driving through Horton and viewing the three peaks for the first time ominous in the mist and appreciating the size of the task awaiting us the following morning!

We stayed in fantastic self- catering accommodation in Ingleton where we met up with two more of our group and set about planning for the day ahead fortifying ourselves with some superb cakes from the Holy Trinity catering group.

The next morning following torrential overnight rain and a 0430 rise, we drove to the start point at the Pen y Ghent café in Horton, thankful at least that it wasn’t still raining, and we met the last of our group before clocking in to start our walk.

The first descent up Pen Y Ghent was completed quickly but in thick fog, the only difficulty being the final ascent up the saddle rock face that was still very wet and had some hill streams coming down it. The snow around reminded us we were only just hitting spring in the dales. We took some photos to ensure everyone was still there (!) and set off down on the long walk to Whernside which was made much more pleasant by a long bout of sunshine.

The walk itself at this stage, as anyone will know who has done it, is particularly hard going as it is across several miles of bogs and streams and some rivers most of which are in flood and bridges are few and far between. But despite many slips trips and soakings and a lot of hilarity we jumped and dragged ourselves to the Ribblehead viaduct – a very impressive structure where we rested and dried ourselves off.

We then set off on the long looping climb to the second which became harder due to the large number of casual walkers, hill runners and day trippers that were now out and about. It made us appreciate the decision not to walk in the height of summer. This was a long slog that took its toll on the group but we still made it to the top on schedule and posed for photos before dropping down a way for a lunch break to get off the exposed top. We couldn’t fail but be impressed by the fell runners descending 1 in 2 gradients at full pelt as we were trying to slowly scramble down them. And we thought we were mad!

From here we pressed on to Chapel le dale to regroup for the final assault on peak three – the daunting and highest . Sadly we lost one of our group at this point who had gamely fought on with an injured knee and still managed to complete two thirds of the walk. Having narrowly survived a vote to shoot him to save supplies we left him in one of the two pubs you pass on the walk, and with envious backward glances, pressed on.

The weather deteriorated at this point but undeterred we pressed on to the base of the Ingleborough cliffs where the final scramble awaited us. From here it was a short but very steep climb up the cliff, avoiding the hill runners, dogs and literally climbing over snow at the end to get up onto the final summit where we were greeted with thick fog and high winds. The group wondered at how dangerous the land around must have been to drive people to live up there in the Iron Age - but at this point nothing could undermine the growing feeling of exaltation at having conquered the final peak.

Photos captured an exhausted but triumphant group in various stages of dishevelment before we began the last walk back to Horton. The final four miles felt like forty and although the group strung out into individual twos and threes everyone worked together to get down and back to the café in under the 12 hours required. The first group came in under eleven hours (madly running to the finish because the American finally got bored and they wanted to stop the organiser keep banging on about a good time  - it worked!), with the last ones still down with time to spare.

The group rightly felt very proud of their achievement and after much needed hot showers and foot soaks set about planning a great celebration with beer, wine and pizzas and having got some roaring log fires going in the accommodation partied hard until 9pm and fell asleep!

Our sincere thanks go to so many people who made this possible and to all the sponsorship from family, friends, businesses, colleagues, and the staff and parents of both Rudgwick schools. While every donation and well wishes were appreciated (and some donations were unbelievably generous), we had particular support from Peter Roberts and EEP – an event company working with the outward bound shop in Shere – who supplied us with food, supplies, clothing and equipment to a fantastic level; from Pennthorpe School who supplied the transport and sponsorship as well; Westbrook Agricultural supplies and Donald Jupp for particularly large sponsorship; Holy Trinity for sponsorship, prayers and cakes to die for, (and they nearly did sink us in the bog!); Ross Attwood for work behind the scenes to generate support, and the Co op for supplies.

Last but not least the group that walked who gave up a lot of time in preparation before the weekend and took time away from work and families to make this event a success. Alan Jupp, Ben Mayes, Ian Hall, Larry Heath, Loyd Harp, Mike Chapman, Mike Price, Paul Johnson, Simon Watkins, Simon Lovel and Stephen Chandler. A great group who walked for a great cause and reached and passed their target of £5000 for the new build project. Thank you everyone.

Ian Hall