Peak District Walk

Members: Jim Gregson, Sandy Gregson, Kate Harvey, Alan (H) Jones, Alan(L) Jones, Iain McCallum, Lorna Marsland, Dave Shotton, Peter Walker, Alan(L) Jones.

Guests: Dave Bate, Simon Robertshaw.

 

Due to the weather conditions there were three groups of walkers: Group One: Jim and Sandy, Iain, Lorna, Dave B, Simon.

Group Two: Dave S. Kate, Alan (H) and Skip.

Group Three: Alan (L), Peter.

The planned walk coincided with a major change in the weather with warm air from the West meeting cold air from the East (Siberia) leading to snow falls over North West England and dire warnings about road conditions from the Met.Office.Would it be possible to get to Hayfield? In fact the roads to Hayfield were largely clear of snow and so the meet went ahead as planned although the route was modified to take account of the deep snow on the tops. On reaching the White Shooting Cabin, instead of making for Burnt Hill as planned, we decided to head for William Clough by traversing the hillside above the Kinder Reservoir. Down in the Clough we had a pit stop at 11am. Then crossing the stream we followed the path to the top of the Clough and ploughed through the deep snow up the hillside onto the mist shrouded edge of Kinder Scout plateau.

Progress along the edge through the snow and drifts to the Downfall was rather slow. At times the mist thinned and it looked as though the sun might just break through but it failed to do so. At the Downfall we stopped for lunch at about 1pm. Although there was ice on the river the waterfall had not frozen up despite the cold snap. From the Downfall we headed South along the edge to the trig point at Kinder Low. In places the snow was thigh deep where it had drifted around the rocks. Jim led the group for the most part, breaking trail through the snow to the trig point. After re-grouping we dropped down the hillside to the Hayfield/Edale track and out of the mist. Heading up the shoulder of Brown Knoll we followed the track towards South Head. Underfoot the going was now much easier and we made good progress along the now much extended paved track. Below South Head we had a short stop for drinks. After the break we followed the Pennine Bridleway towards Hayfieldfor a short distance before bearing right up the path over Mount Famine. Kinder Scout was still shrouded in mist. From Mount Famine we followed the well tramped snow covered ridge round towards Hayfield making our final descent down through the woods and so back to the cars.

Group Two – Started a little later than Group One but they followed much the same route until they reached Kinder Low from where they descended with some difficult down the ice covered rocky steps back to Hayfield via Tunstead followed by tea and buns at Rosie’s Tea Room. Here they met Kevin Anderson and Alice Larkin who had been out tobogganing.

Group Three – They walked parts of the Pennine Bridleway and the Edale Cross track.

Iain McCallum