From Buckden, we continued into Kettlewell, where we turned left for Leyburn, and were repeatedly reminded of the "1 in 4" and "25%" road gradient we were to encounter.  I am so glad I invested in a decent car in 2003, because my old Mondeo would have turned it in for the afternoon and left us high and dry in such conditions!  We reached the top of the road, Tor Dyke, and parked up here.  This time, there was no intention (or time) to do the "double" with Buckden Pike G/NP-009, but we headed south up the grassy slopes for Great Whernside.  In order to attempt to avoid the deathly steep eroded section near the stile, we took a wider curving path around, but this in fact only avoided the first eroded section, which is not all that steep anyway.  So hands to the floor it was, as we pulled up to the stile.  If anywhere I've been on my SOTA travels would benefit from some groundwork - ie some stone steps putting in - it would be here.

Soon, we were out on the gently sloping path to the ridge, and spotting what appeared to be a large stone shelter that we hadn't noticed last time, a check on the map was in order.  The shelter sat at 699m on the ridge, with the summit a couple of minutes walk further along at 704m.  There was a fair breeze blowing so we chose to use the shelter as a shack, although moral issues of claiming 6 points from below 700m were discussed!  I erected the SOTA Beam, WASP and inverted Leki pole in the shelter wall so that it all stood at about 2.5m AGL to partially relieve our guilt!

We had heard a station "30 minutes off the summit of Coniston Old Man" on the way up, but didn't hear him again, so like Roger, that was another that "got away".  Coverage is always excellent in all directions from Great Whernside, and in just over half-an-hour, I made 13 contacts, all but one with 59+ signals coming back.  All on 2m FM except one with G4BLH on 70cm FM.  The descent took around 45 minutes, and we avoided the steep eroded section by contouring around the grass just before it.

We dropped back down into Kettlewell, where we heard Sam 2E0UPT/P open up on Great Knoutberry Hill G/NP-015 - yes, he was still lagging behind!  We drove via Cracoe where we pulled in for a drink at The Devonshire Arms, where we welcomed and treated like celebrities.  The landlord and all the regulars around the bar wanted to hear all about our day's walking and radio, and Jimmy did his party piece in stating the height ASL of any summit that was thrown at him.  This was a Jennings pub, and as well as the usual range of ales - including one of my post-walking favourites Cumberland Ale - there was one called "Sneck Lifter", a dark ale at 5.1%.  This I had to have, and thoroughly enjoyable it was too.  The only downside was that with the strength of it, I dared not have even another half with a fair old drive still to follow!  Jimmy 'phoned Marianne with our ETA, and we were instructed to sort our own teas out, so just before arriving home, I collected fish, chips and peas x 3 for our supper, which was suitably demolished on our dining room table.  

Thanks to the following stations, worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts, except G4BLH's second contact, on 70cm FM: