Operation Lyke Wake Walk Winter Crossing

Mission - Trek the 40/41 miles across North York Moors in Winter.
Target - To complete the mission in sub 13 hours.
Fellow Trekker - Jon Leete

Comments - Take the hardmans route taking in all the Trig points of Carlton Bank, Lordstones, Wainstones etc.
  and unsupported.

02 Dec 2011


LWW Stone Osmotherly to Hasty Bank

LWW Stone at Osmotherly

Jon Leete

03.00am - We set off on our journey and instanly made our way up the climb from the LWW stone, it's one hell of a start due to the fact your muscles haven't had time to get going and you are calling on them to get you up quite a steep longish hill. With muscles twinging at the top and not even a mile completed you just know it's going to be a long hard task ahead. The weather was around the freezing point with next to no wind and dry so as far as we were concerned we couldn't of picked a better day. By the time we reached the Trig point at Carlton bank we were exactly on time compared to our summer crossing, 1 hour 37 minutes. Onwards past Lordstones and onto the next trig points of Cringle moor, Cold Moor and Wainstones before making our way down Hasty bank to make our first pit stop at the bench. (In memory of a fellow Lyke Wake Walker).
Total 3hrs 3 minutes. ( Exactly to plan )


Hasty Bank to Layby past Fat Betty

Daylight at last

 After a brief sock change and a bite to eat we made our way up the ascent of Round Hill (Highest point of North York Moors), I must of forgot from last time but this seemed never ending and before we reached the summit we switched our head torches off to prepare for the awesome sunrise that was to come, after cresting Round Hill we were  suddenly greeted with a big bright sun staring straight at us so much for watching it slowly rise. The going was good and averaging just over 4mph we hastily made our way past the Lion Inn, Ralph's Cross and Fat Betty (6 hours 01 minute). At this point we had made some time up from our last crossing by the way of 10 minutes. It didn't take much longer to reach the Layby before you turn onto the boggy section and at the layby we took our well deserved 20 minute pit stop.


Layby to Shunner Howe Trig Point

Shadowy past

 It didn't take long sitting around before you started freeze so after a quick sock change and food we were up and almost ready to go. Stiff, aching and shivering and after only 18 minutes we slowly made our way onto the boggy section, to be honest I was dreading this section and trekking for mile with soaking wet and freezing feet. After 10 minutes or so we started to warm up and regain our walking form which was just as well as we hopped, jumped and skirted our way round the wet boggy section and in no time with dry feet we had mad it to Shunner Howe. We felt good and made excellent time past the Blue Man boundary stone and it wasn't until we reached the ascent of Simon Howe that our new found energy started to drain away rapidly.
 We reached the Blue Man in 8 hours 1 minute which was unbelievably 32 minutes quicker than last time and we were delighted with our planning and preparation of altering our pit stops. We reached the summit of Simon Howe and took a much needed final planed pit stop.

Simon Howe to Finishing LWW Stone

Finishing Stone at Ravenscar

Bloody Hell ! It was cold stopping and once gain we had great difficulty in getting going again and unfortunately this time we never found our magic wings and to make do with slogging it out. From Simon Howe the track was greasy and muddy and with the added difficulty of tired limbs our moral seemed to be  taking a bit of a battering. We passed through Ellerbeck 42 minutes quicker than last time and way ahead of our schedule in a time of 10 hours 4 minutes. The ascent upto Lilla Howe Cross was no worse going than last time and even though we felt knackered we once again made up time and passed the cross in 10 hours 47 minutes, with the finishing mast in sight and 44 minutes to play with a sub 13 hour crossing seemed a dead cert. The track down towards the Flask Inn was a muddy slippery mess, last time we were going slightly above 4 mph down there but this time we couldn't get anywhere near that even on the good bits, for some strange reason it felt as if we were loosing time left right and centre and that we would struggle to crack the sub 13 hour mark. At least from Jugger Howe to the finish the ground under foot was spot on and from Jugger Howe it became a task of how far under 13 hours we could go. and finaly the finish and the LWW stone. OHHHHHHHHHH ! That was bloody hard. 12 hours 21 minutes and 50 seconds.

Jon Leete

Well worth the effort and all the aches and pains, and like we said to some fellow walkers at Simon Howe it might not feel good now but it will feel good tomorrow. ( And it does.)
03:21pm The end.

  Thankfully my mate Jon's wife Marg was there to pick us up at the finish with a warm flask of tea and more importantly a lovely nice warm car.

 At this present moment in time I would be happy to leave that time as my fastest crossing and drop back to a more pleasurable 14 hours in future, our next crossing will be summer 2012 and will be a night reverse crossing all being well.