HISTORY
In 1935 the journalist Tom Stephenson used the title ‘Wanted: A long green trail’ for an article. He was the first to suggest a public trail along the backbone of England, the Pennines, ending just over the Scottish border.
His quest was taken up by many and over the years new rights of way were created until eventually one long chain of 256 miles (412km) was established from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland.
It officially opened as the Pennine Way in 1965, making it the first official long-distance footpath in Britain. In its early days the Pennine Way was hard-going because a substantial part of the route crossed water-logged bogs which made sodden feet a guarantee at some stage.
Today walkers never get wet as often as 20 years ago because of the Herculean efforts that have been made to lay a trail of reclaimed stone slabs. Most welcome these, others scorn them. They are but an example of how the face of the British countryside has changed, and will continue to change, over the relatively short time that this route has been open.
HOW DIFFICULT IS THE PENNINE WAY?
If attempted in a single continuous slog, the Pennine Way is tough. Although only a few days might be really challenging, walking daily for at least a fortnight come rain or shine will take it out of you. The weather can whip in unchallenged from the west coast and leave you drenched or even frozen.
Without GPS, navigation is sometimes tricky, especially for those unfamiliar with map reading. Half the Pennine Way is on open moorland and one quarter on rough grazing; only a tenth passes through forest, woodland or along riverbanks.
This level of difficulty is what gives the Pennine Way its kudos. You’ll end most days feeling the strain but ideally will recover overnight, and once the aches subside you’ll be able to bask in the glory of your achievement.
Do not be put off. Although the walk is not as popular as it used to be and fewer than 4000 people attempt the trek annually, overall the gradients are pretty tame; it’s the duration that does you in.
There are 178 miles (286km) on gentle slopes of less than five degrees, 20 miles (32km) on slopes of ten to fifteen degrees, and only 31/2 miles (6km) on steep slopes of more than fifteen degrees.
All in all this totals 40,000ft/12,000m of ascent but if you can both read a map and comfortably walk at least 12 miles (19km) in a day you should manage it; just don’t expect every day to be a walk in the park.
ROUTE FINDING
Winding your way through villages and farmyards and out over open moorland, navigation along the Pennine Way can – depending not insignificantly on your route-finding experience – be notoriously tricky.
There are plenty of photogenic wooden signposts along the route (as pictured left), but there are also plenty of places where you’ll be left guessing. Fortunately, on some open moorlands, the presence of slabbed causeways not only make for easy going across the mire but also act as an easy-to-follow trail, even in zero visibility.
Nevertheless, there are enough places on the Pennine Way, both in the valleys and on unslabbed moors, where poor visibility could leave you helpless.
In such conditions, if you’ve lost track of your position, the traditional map and compass are of little use. With the absence of visible landmarks to correlate with a map, at best you can guess your position and head off cross-country on a bearing hopefully leading to a recognizable track or road. In some conditions such actions can be a recipe for a hill-walking disaster.
GPS
I never carried a compass, preferring to rely on a good sense of direction... I never bothered to understand how a compass works or what it is supposed to do... To me a compass is a gadget, and I don’t get on well with gadgets of any sort. A Wainwright
While modern Wainwrights will scoff, more open-minded walkers will accept GPS technology as an inexpensive, well-established if non-essential navigational aid.
To cut a long story short, within a minute of being turned on and with a clear view of the sky, GPS receivers will establish your position and altitude in a variety of formats including the British OS grid system (see p38), anywhere on earth to an accuracy of within a few metres.
One thing must be understood however: treating GPS as a replacement for maps, a compass and common sense is a big mistake. Although current units are robust, it only takes the batteries to go flat or some electronic malfunction to leave you in the dark.
GPS is merely a navigational aid or backup to conventional route finding and, in almost all cases, is best used in conjuction with a paper map. All a GPS does is stop you exacerbating navigational errors or save you time in correcting them.
Using GPS with this book is an option. Without it you could find yourself staggering around mist-clad moors all night, or ambling confidently down the wrong path. With it you can reliably establish your position, or quickly find out how far and in what direction it is to a known point on the trail.
Using GPS with this book
It’s anticipated you won’t tramp along day after day, ticking off the book’s waypoints as you pass them because the route description and maps are more than adequate most of the time. Only when you’re unsure of your position or which way to go might you feel the need to turn on the unit for a quick affirmation.
Most of the book’s maps feature numbered waypoints from Edale to Kirk Yetholm. These correlate to the list on pp256-62 which gives the longitude/ latitude position in a decimal minute format as well as a description.
You’ll find more waypoints on bleak moorland sections such as Cross Fell, where a walk can degenerate into a prolonged stumble through thick mist. Typically the end or start of a slabbed section is also marked, as well as cairns and other significant landmarks or turnings.
In towns and villages waypoints are less common but in places can still be useful to pin down an unsigned turn down an alleyway, for example.
You can either manually key the nearest presumed waypoint from the list in this book into your unit as and when the need arises. Or, much less laboriously and with less margin for keystroke error, download the complete list for free as a GPS-readable file (but not the descriptions) from the Trailblazer website.
You’ll need the right cable and adequate memory in your unit (typically the ability to store 500 waypoints or more). This file, as well as instructions on how to interpret an OS grid reference, can be found at: www.trailblazer-guides.com/books/pennineway/GPS.
You’ll soon discover that it’s possible to buy state-of-the-art digital mapping to import into a GPS unit with sufficient storage capacity. Advanced GPS users may like this option but it has to be said it’s about as useful as internet on a mobile phone.
Reliability and battery/charging issues aside, the pocket-sized receiver you’ll typically use will have a screen far too small to give you the ‘big picture’ and currently the cost of this digital mapping will exceed a set of easy-to-use OS paper maps which, while bulky, are always preferable.
It’s worth repeating that 98.2% of the people who’ve ever walked the Pennine Way did so without GPS so there’s no need to rush out and buy one. Your spending priorities ought to be on good waterproofs and a sturdy pair of boots.
However, all those thousands will have had their frustrating moments of navigational uncertainty and reliable technology now exists to reduce mistakes. Correctly using this book’s GPS waypoints will get you back on track and dozing in front of the pub fireplace or tucked up in bed all the sooner.
HOW LONG DO YOU NEED?
It’s no surprise: the slower you go the more you’ll take in and get out of the Pennine Way, if for no other reason than you’re not continually preoccupied by aching limbs and attaining your next destination.
Nevertheless some stages along are simply not shortenable without resorting to the flexibility of wild camping (see p14) and for many, time is money; not all of us can afford to dally.
The Pennine Way record stands at an absurd if impressive three-and-a-half days; most mortals average 17 days over the walk, and even then not without some gnashing of teeth. On this schedule there’ll be some long days of well over 20 miles (32km), but at least one rest day.
Anything less, even a couple of days, can be really pushing your luck and is best left to fit walkers or second attempts when you know the lie of the land and how to pace yourself.
Doing the walk in several stages
While most walkers set out to do the Pennine Way in as short a time as possible, they include those who fail early or wage an increasingly miserable battle of mind over matter.
Doing it in a single stage you get the weather and conditions you’re given. There is no time to nurse injuries, exhaustion or low moods as, especially if you’ve booked accommodation, you must always press on.
My recollection of doing the Pennine Way in the 1970s was much like this: a gruelling march from hostel to booked hostel. Thirty years after my first walk, this update was undertaken in four four-day stages (partly because of the amount of research required).
At this pace I found the combined 16-day walk never came close to being a chore. Within reason I was also able to pick good spells of weather while also avoiding crowded weekends with their need to book accommodation. Each four-day morsel was anticipated with pleasure rather than dreaded, as some days had been in my teens.
Although I had no choice this time round and a part of me still itches to bang it out in one go, I feel sure I got more out of doing the walk in stages and met as many doing it like this as those taking it on in one fell swoop.
Before you plan anything read the comments from Pennine Way walkers in the boxes on p25, p29, p30 and p32.
|
