Giggleswick to Giggleswick 3 Peaks Challenge

 

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you can!" 

 

 

Register for the next G2G3PC on a Sunday in May 2012

and enjoy the wind, hale, rain, tea, cakes and cheese at the highest tearoom in Yorkshire! 

 
 
 
You'll start at around 5am, after a hearty full English breakfast in the school dining hall, and are supported at 10 check points along the way with further food and encouragment! The finish is back at Giggleswick Schoolboy tower at around 9 pm.
Walkers get sponsorship for this challenge and ALL the money raised is sent direct to the Ananda
Marga Girls' Orphanage in Mombasa; a charity that the school has supported since 2004.
 

   
Support the Yorkshire Dales: The Three Peaks Project

 

 One Day!
 
The walkers who turned up for a 4.30 am breakfast on May 22nd 2011 could not have known that their one day was going to be quite so challenging. So difficult were the conditions that by the time they got to the Ribblehead viaduct for lunch eight of them decided to call it a day.
"It was the wettest, windiest and, at times, coldest challenge that we have done since I can remember" commented walk organiser, Bill Bartlett. "I really can't blame anyone for dropping out, the weather for much of the day was really awful!" 
The wild weather finally abated as the walkers came down the final peak of Ingleborough. Indeed, the last leg from Feizor was in bright evening sunlight and the final photos, taken at Giggleswick's schoolboy tower, show some walkers wearing sun glasses! 
Surely if there was one day that summed up the Yorkshire Dales, this was it. Hell to start off with and to keep you indoors, but then a little bit of heaven at the end if you’d braved it and stayed out! 
No wonder everyone loves Giggleswick and the Yorkshire Dales!
Congratulations to all that took part, whatever distance they finally covered, and a big thank you, as always, to the support crews and mountain leaders.
 
If you want to walk the challenge next year, or help as a volunteer, you'll need to sign up . Otherwise write to Sam Griffiths scgriffiths@giggleswick.org.uk and let him know whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t …you’ll probably be right.
 
  
This is how the day was supported:
 
3.30 am Chefs prepare breakfast in school dining hall (Eileen, *Helen Lindley)
 
4.30 am Breakfast for G2G3PC walkers in the school dining hall (Chefs). Beanies given out sponsored by Castleberg Outdoors. George on the left is the first to arrive at 4 am! 
4.55 am final briefing in dining hall from *Chris Wright (Mountain Leader) 
5 am G2G3PC walkers leave (from outside dining hall) (START)  
6 am Breakfast for “3 Peaks only” walkers (1) who at 6.15 am taken by *Bill Bartlett by minibus to join main walk at Dale Head.
7am (ish) Checkpoint 1 Dalehead: *WB with support minibus and other 24 mile walkers  (bananas, tea, coffee, hot chocolate)
8 am Checkpoint 2 Penygent top (*Sam Griffiths)  
9.30 am Checkpoint 3 Birkwith Cave: sponsor Settle Music Shop (*Linda and Allan Evans with MUSIC?, water, mars bars and support car (provisions delivered to them by WB after Dalehead)
11.30 Checkpoint 4 Ribblehead Viaduct: early lunch *WB (support minibus pick-up lunch at 10.30) 
1.30 pm Checkpoint 5 Whernside top "the highest tearoom in Britain": sponsors Craecoe Cakes and Settle Cheese (*Paul Hucknall and James Huxtable pick up extra cakes Sat pm from Steve in kitchens) 
3.15 Checkpoint 6 Philpin Lane and Hill Inn road crossing: *WB support minibus, Caroline Proctor, (water and  tea offer in field at base of Whernside)
5 pm Checkpoint 7 Ingleborough top Sponsor Castleberg Outdoors: (*Gen Patton, Waggsie, Geoff Wigfield (if emergency), Geoff  Boult)  
6 pm Checkpoint 8 Crummack Lane: bacon bap late tea (*WB collect in minibus at 5pm from kitchens) (3 Peak walkers finish here with option for others to finish early) Katie Boult, Caroline Proctor, Debbie Taylor
7.30 pm Checkpoint 9  Feizor (*Sue Watts-Wood)
8.10 pm Checkpoint 10 Gigg Quarry Schoolboy Tower: Sponsor Tony Dilger Wildlife Photography (group Photo) *WB
 
 
2010 Challenge Report 
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't" was proven "absolutely right" when fifty walkers completed the “Giggleswick to Giggleswick Three Peaks Challenge” on May 16th. The 50 strong group, including 3 walking just the 24 miles from Dale Head to Crummack Lane, completed the full 39 mile walk that they had told themselves earlier that they could do.

"Like many things in life, if you think you can do it you're probably right, but this is actually the first time that everyone in such a big group has completed their challenge" commented G2G3PC organiser, Bill Bartlett.

"Normally we have to take some walkers home because they get such bad blisters or they’ve just had enough! I'm very pleased that this walking group went so well and that everyone had such a great day out. The camaraderie among the 25 students and 25 adults was terrific."
 
The Three Peaks, Giggleswick to Giggleswick, was first walked in 1887 by two Giggleswick teachers but since then fewer have completed the challenge than have actually climbed Mt Everest.
 
In the last few years the walk has become quite popular and it raises much needed funds for the school's MCC orphanage in Kenya. This sponsorship seems to be a good reason for those who want to give-up to go on and complete the extra miles.

Mind-over-feet is important but so too are the support crew. At regular checkpoints there's a cup of tea, a smile (hopefully) and a large piece of cake to keep the walkers going.
 
The Whernside checkpoint claims to have become the highest tearoom in Yorkshire and is run by Giggleswick teachers, Paul Hucknall and James Huxtable (Heads of Science and Design). Between them they serve hot drinks and cakes to the walkers as they arrive at the top of the highest mountain in Yorkshire!

"At over 4000 feet I was really surprised to see Mr Huxtable coming out of a cloud at the top of Whernside with tea and cake" quipped 13 year old George Shelton who joined Paley House at Giggleswick in 2009 as a boarder.

"It was a long Sunday but I enjoyed all 16 hours walking and, unlike some, I had no problems going to lessons the next day."
 
One of the students who was not expected to have enjoyed her day out quite so much was Jordana Hargreaves. She admits to only having walked seriously around shops before.

"This walk was a real challenge to me because of all the fresh air, sheep and mountains. I’m exhausted now but very pleased to have surprised so many of my sponsors and teachers. They were pretty sceptical but that's changed now and I’ve raised a lot of money."

The challenge is not to be underestimated and takes about 16 hours. Bill Bartlett commented that, “this year the group were very fast to each checkpoint but in the past we have had bad rain, sometimes for up to 9 hours non-stop, which really can bog everyone down. The group this year, led by mountain-leaders Chris Wright and Neil Wharton, was lucky with the weather even though it was cold and wet for the first few hours."
 
At the traditonal finish by schoolboy tower, the current Giggleswick Headmaster was presented with a cup for completing the challenge by Bill Bartlett.

"Geoffrey Boult is the first Headmaster from Giggleswick School to complete the full challenge for 499 years. Many people wrongly believe that Canon J R Wynne-Edwards first won the challenge cup in 1887 but, although he went on to become Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School; he was actually just a Maths teacher at Giggleswick. He and another teacher, D.R. Smith, may have made history by becoming the founding fathers of the ever popular Three Peaks walk based at Horton-in-Ribblesdale but neither were ever Giggleswick School Headmasters!

It was thus entirely appropriate to award Mr Boult the G2G3PC Headmasters' Challenge Cup. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another 499 years before awarding it again!”