A late change of plans saw us glamping in Ingleton at the weekend, both my wife and I have memories of doing the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail but neither of us can remember when! We're getting to that age.
Although it was overcast, it was a very warm day so we were soon shedding layers as we started climbing up the steps next to Pecca Falls. We hadn't got the earliest start on the day but still, the trail wasn't so busy until we got to Thornton Force Waterfall.
Plan-B is not something you want to hear on the eve of your A race (and only ultra of 2022): the text message read...
NAV4 TdH Emergency info: Sorry, it's Plan-B. Route will go to CP3 and then return the same way...
I must admit, my heart sank.
The Tour de Helvellyn is a 38 mile ultra marathon that starts and finishes in Askham, a small village to the South of Penrith in Cumbria. There's no set route for the race, just eight checkpoints you need to navigate between, two of which you pass through twice on the eleven mile out-and-back section to Patterdale... which is where the sixteen mile loop section around the base of Helvellyn begins and ends. It's two weeks out from race day, and I've got a day-pass for a recce!
If you've ever been to Söll, you can't fail to notice the stunning looking bump to the North-West of town... it's called the Pölven. There are actually two peaks: the Großer Pölven (1,595m) and the Kleiner Pölven (1,562m), which are joined by a saddle-like ridge. I'd been eyeing it up since arriving and whilst waffling over a beer one fine evening at the Franzlhof, (in the shadow of the Pölven), I announced I wanted to have a crack at it.
It's early evening, a little before 8pm... light is beginning to fade but the air is warm and clear and still... and I'm absolutely stoked to be back in Austria!
A last minute decision to return to Austria for our summer holiday had sparked real excitement! Ten years had passed since we last visited (back when we had just one child) and since then, we'd had another child and I'd taken up running... so an obvious money-saving scheme presented itself: Dad would run up the hills!
