Our 5 year old daughter took on Whernside and won!

As you can probably tell from our posts, @markangeltrueman and I enjoy travelling and having adventures. We have been pretty lucky to visit some amazing places around the world. Since having our daughter (Evie) 5 years ago, my parents have been awesome 'babysitters' meaning we could keep travelling. However, in the last couple of years, Evie has been old enough to understand where we are going and what we are doing - BUSTED!

She is a great kid, loves the outdoors, loves nature and being hands on, but most of all likes a challenge - maybe it's in the genes! She always asks about our adventures when we return home, so in the half term school holidays, we decided she was old enough to take on her own mini adventure holiday!

One of the main reasons for us going on this holiday is that, for the past year or so, she has said she wants to climb a mountain. As you know the UK isn't known for its mountain ranges! In fact the highest point in the UK is Ben Nevis, which stands at a whopping 1345 meters (or about 4412 ft if you are that way inclined!) but that is located in Scotland which is around an 8.5 hr car journey from us and is known for being (on average) clear only 1 day in 10! BIG gamble as we only had 5 days to play with.

So... what was our plan? Well... we do have some pretty amazing hills in the Yorkshire Dales (in fact it could well be my favourite place in the UK). This place home to the Y3P Challenge where you walk about 26 miles, summiting 3 peaks (Pen-y-gent, Whernside and Ingleborough) in under 12 hours.

We decided on Whernside as our daughters 'mountain' challenge! It probably has the best route up and down for a beginner, with a good track and is the tallest of the Y3P. Plus the walk itself is pretty awesome with enough points of interest to keep a 5 year old entertained!

Evie ready and raring to go!

Picking the best weather day (which for 'up North' nearing the end of October was pretty good!) we parked the car near the Ribblehead Viaduct and made our way towards it. At this point Evie was so excited. We both had to keep telling her things like "stop running" and "stop skipping - save your energy!" (Not that it mattered as you will find out!) Myself and Mark were a little apprehensive!

Walking past the Ribblehead Viaduct

The viaduct is impressive in itself, but when in the foreground of Whernside makes it even more so. It stands at 32 meters high, has 24 arches and is known to be the most iconic feature along the famous Settle-Carlisle rail line. Evie was clearly taken with the size of it too "it's even taller than you Daddy!".

Looking back at the viaduct with a train going over it

Keeping on the path we walked alongside the viaduct for a bit. We stopped to wave to a passing train and Evie was delighted when the driver waved to her and the train tooted! With a smile on her face we asked Evie if she was ok... "is it time for a snack yet?" came her reply. With snacks sorted, we went past the Blea Moor signal box.

Blea Moor signal box - summit of Whernside covered by the clouds

The path winds its way slowly upwards. Criss-crossing streams by walking on larger 'stepping stones' to cross them, there is only 1 real bridge to use. In the distance Evie spots the bridge and says "Oh cool a bridge... can we cross it please?" before running off towards it! She was in her element!

Walking over the bridge

Over the bridge, we walked next to the Force Gill aqueduct. This was built to direct the water from Force Gill waterfall, over the rail line in to Dale Beck. This 'bridge' takes you over the train track and then up and past Force Gill waterfall.

Force Gill Aquaduct

From here the track keeps going up, but Evie was loving every second, especially once we caught a glimpse of Force Gill... "Mummy, Daddy, I can see a waterfall"... again off she runs. After the waterfall the path really steepens... "I'm tired, are we nearly up the top yet?". As all good walkers know the standard reply is "of course, just over this ridge". Once we reached the top of the ridge, Evie realised we were lying and asked for more snacks! Keen to keep her on board we found more snacks!

Going up up up...

There are a number of gates and stiles to navigate on the way up, but we were more concerned with the growing amount of cloud on the summit! Hoping the weather held we kept heading up. We tried to keep going with the whole "the next ridge is the top", but Evie isn't stupid and soon realised it wasn't the case.

Taking the stiles in style

About 3/4 of the way up the clouds really started to roll in around us and the wind picked up quite a bit. Evie thought it was amazing though - not only was she was walking in the clouds she was climbing up steps as big as her!

BIG steps for little legs

The last part along the top, we told Evie that she needed to look out for the trig point as that would mean she reached the top. Evie spotted it and we ran towards it! She had done it!

TOP OF WHERNSIDE - one happy Evie and 2 proud parents!

As the weather wasn't great, we didn't make it a long stop at the top. We found some shelter and had a munch on some sandwiches and chocolate! We hit the trail and made our way back down the same route we came up.

Fun on the mountain

Evie was beaming from ear to ear - especially when other walkers heading up said things like "well done" and "wow, you've done a great job for someone so little".

Posing by the stream

Still running and skipping the whole way down the trail, with a few falls and trips along the way, Evie completed the whole thing in about 4.5 hrs. Mark and I are so proud of her. My counter said it was a little over 23,000 steps - so for a 5 year old it would have been a whole lot more.

Coming back down to Earth

Yes, she said she was tired at points and that her feet hurt, but to be fair so did we! If we had any doubt in our mind that she couldn't have done it we would have turned back and/ or carried her. However, she seems to be a bit stubborn like us and once she has something in her mind will do anything to achieve it. We are both so incredibly proud of her.

Beautiful views

As for Evie, she said she loved it and even asked when we could climb another mountain! So I guess another trip to Yorkshire to climb Ingleborough or Pen-y-gent will be on the cards - maybe she could be the youngest person to take on and complete the Y3P!?

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!