Walking With Williams

Had a great day with my future sister and brother in law yesterday in the Edale Valley. Got up there in decent time and arrived in Edale around 11am. Unfortunately, this is a little late on a Sunday to get a parking space. However, we were lucky enough that as we left the car park, a dog walker had just arrived back at his car. Lucky!

Anyway, after  a quick change of footwear and application of gaiters, we started walking up Grindsbrook and beared right towards Ringing Roger. The pull up was steep, and hard work in the strong sun, but after 30 mins we got up to the top of Ringing Roger. From here, the gradient got less but it was quite hard walking up to the edges due to the snow on steep ground. We finally neared the trig point near Ringing Roger about 12 and walked west towards Grindsbrook Clough.

Nearing the top of the edge

Finding the path was difficult, and we had a few moments putting feet into 2 foot deep soft snow holes,  but once the path was found, speed increased. We stopped around 1/2 way along the edge to some rocks which made an excellent place for lunch. It was now nearing 13:30 and the decision was to turn south over Grindslow Knoll, rather than continue the original plan of reaching the top of Jacob’s Ladder before descending to Edale. Time was pushing on, and we were a little concerned about how icy Jacob’s Ladder would be – it was bad a few weeks ago with far less snow on the ground. So the route was cut short a little mileage wise. Still 6 miles done – 2 or so through thick snow so the legs were worked quite hard!

Grindslow Knoll - Last summit of the day

A quick round of pints at the Old Nags Head Inn rounded off a great snowy and fantastically clear day. Next proper walk will be in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, the snow will have melted a little so we can up the mileage and ascent – I certainly need to as I have booked train tickets for March 31st to Windermere for a 2 night wildcamp and haven’t done more than 10 miles in the last 3 or 4 months…

I don’t know, I have been stood up by both my better (arguably) and my PM for a walk today in the peak district. However, the ever dependable Sant did make it for a spiffing walk over Dewent Edge in the Peak District.

Phil and I met at 10:30 at Ashopton. We got our boots and gaiters on, and started walking torwards Ladybower Inn. Here, turning left we ascended to Whinstone Lee Tor with little incident other than the Sant slipping and slidding several feet due to poor traction on the peat. All good fun, and no damage or dirty trousers!!

At the Tor, we joined Derwent Edge which was fine, not the -10 wind-chill as pessimistically forecast by MWIS. An hour or so later, and we got to the final Tor (Back Tor?) where we lunched. We then continued north to try and find the path down Howden Clough. The top bit was quite difficult to find, the path being quite feint. I nearly lost my right leg down a rabbit hole, then sant nearly lost his down another one!! Wreckoning on 0.5 points for a rabbit hole leg bite, Phil was now beating me 1.5 to nil on falls.

As we continued to try and find the path, the ground got tougher and tougher. Peat grough after peat grough after bog continued to try and get us to divert to a more established path. But no, we kept on trying to find the path, and find the path we did. I had mistakenly headed too far north and had missed the head of the trail. As we had walked south along the clough, we found the main trail.

Its a great trail, fairly easy walking, but with a bit of exposure on the right added a touch of excitment. The scenerie was beatiful, with brown peaty waterfalls cascading below. The clough took about 1 – 1.5 hours to descend, so we got back to the reservoirs about 2:30.

A simple walk along the waters edge completed the walk. The long road walk was considerably brightened up with conversation and an (un)healthy application of Harribo.

Finanly got to the car about 3:30 and had a hellish drive back down the M1; what with heavy rain and some more sleet.

Back home, I started looking at the 3 dayer I am planning in the lakes. The distance scares me, maybe 25 – 30 miles over 2.5 days of walking, but more than that, it is snowing. Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. But a wildcamp is planned, and I don’t think I am ready yet for camping in the -13 wind-chill as predicted for tomorrow. Still…. A couple of weeks to warm up the lakes!