The meet leader gingerly left home very early along streets covered in black ice. By the time Stockport was reached on the M60 the ground was white with thick frost. Passing Hyde there was snow, and by Mottram, Stalybridge and Mossley there was so much snow it was hard to tell road from cars from buildings as it fell thicker and thicker. A minor error of route finding by Greenfield Station led down the hill to Tesco where a U-turn was required. The re-ascent up the big white hill plus the hairpin bend took five attempts to regain the top. On through a ghostly Uppermill and then through very deep snow to Diggle, where a couple of local tearaways on quad bikes were causing mayhem as they mounted pavements to overtake.

Only 5 minutes late, the meet leader took only another five minutes to decide to abandon. A couple of phone calls to try to contact other would-be walkers and a retreat to Romiley was negotiated, passing sundry crash scenes along the way. Meanwhile - as the meet leader learned later from a series of evening phone calls and e-mails - other intrepid KMC types lost the struggle to reach Diggle (Bob Kelly, Dave Bone, Iain McCallum, Keith Williams, Phil Ramsbottom, Michelle Harvie, Mark Garrod: apologies for omitting anyone else).

From Romiley, 2 Gregsons and 2 Casticks later set out in sparkling sunshine across a snow-covered golf course to go via Compstall and Etherow country park, then over Werneth Low (from where by now you could see clearly almost to Diggle). Alan Hyde Jones plus dogs also came by on a run. As an afternoon it was perfect!

"In a deep and dark December..." (apols. to Simon and Garfunkel), perhaps too cold for comfortable cragging, close to the shortest day, don't want to drive too far, so why not take a break from Christmas build-up syndrome and spend, not money, but time with some of your clubmates on this brisk walk? Don't forget your lunch, compass and maps, and perhaps, importantly your headtorch.

The essence of this double cross walk is to go once over the main Pennine watershed by one route, then cross back over it by another, ideally before being overtaken by darkness. If you are likely to straggle, you have a few weeks to get fit, polish up your nav. skills and buy a torch battery.

MEETING POINT AND START:

Car park at DIGGLE Grid Ref SE006080. Go N through Diggle and turn R just by end of village, then 300m to car park in trees on R, just near where the canal tunnel starts. (Access to Diggle for most people is via Stalybridge, Mossley and Uppermill).

WALK ROUTE:

Cross bridge over railway tunnel entrance, then up Standedge Trail to Brunclough Res. Continue on Standedge Trail overlooking Redbrook Res. to cross Mount Road, then along lower flank of Pule Hill and on down into Marsden. Find and follow canal-side path to Tunnel End (ie. Yorkshire end of canal and rail tunnels). Go along Waters Road for 1 km - direction W - to Close Gate Bridge, then begin ascent of Willykay Clough via Station to Station Walk to reach main Pennine crest again in 3 km. Turn L (S) and follow Pennine Way along to Millstone Edge then Standedge to rejoin A62 just by Brunclough Res. Return to Diggle by choice of paths, eg.via Kiln Green, or simply by reverse of outward route. (see map for other options).Total distance - max. 20km (unless your nav. skills are really useless!), so with prompt start a finish in darkness can be avoided.

Best maps: OS Explorer OL1 Dark Peak and OL21 South Pennines (both needed).

MEETING TIME & START:

Meet at 0745 to allow PROMPT start at 0815 - it is December!. Here's hoping for a crisp and clear winter day - but, of course, it may be a more typical British one! A good turnout will just about round out the KMC year.