Walk: 9:45am to 2:15pm - 10.5 miles
It was too tempting not to take advantage of the weather today, plenty of snow overnight and fairly clear skies for much of the day. I had planned to go walking with my mate Darrell again, but where he lives on the western edge of Sheffield he's on a hill - and there's no hope of getting off his estate in his rear wheel drive BMW. For me, plenty of snow at home and -7c when I left, but relatively flat and the main roads across Sheffield and out into the Peak District were fine. I dropped my wife off at work in Sheffield at 9:15 am and set off to park near the Fox House Inn. By 9:45am I was in my gear and ready to walk.
I'd taken my wife's compact camera again today, and also for the first time I'd decided to use walking poles. So, again my wife's gear was 'borrowed' - lovely metallic pink poles, but I'm not proud. I'd set the camera to overexpose as I'd been told that to get the snow white that's what you need to do, and yes the snow did come out white but I didn't like the overexposed photos, so next time I'll stick with grey snow...lol
As happened a couple of days ago, not far into the walk I was removing clothing, first the neck warmer went, then shortly after, the gloves. It didn't take long before I was starting to perspire a little. Yes, it was perspiring today - not sweating, don't forget I have pink poles! I headed off along the path that took me below Burbage Rocks and up to Burbage Bridge. Just a few footprints in the snow, and the only people I saw on that stretch were 3 climbers looking for somewhere to set up, and a couple of joggers. Now I was finding it very hard work walking in the snow (another first for me snow walking) - I can only imagine how hard it must be running and trying to keep your balance.
After crossing over the bridge at Burbage, I headed up past the Cowper Stone and onto the start of Stanage Edge. The views were great from up here, and it was great to be up here with so few people about. However, it was hard walking and I was really glad I had the poles as there were patches of ice under the snow, and small gaps where the snow came up to your knee's - up and over rocks for quite a distance. I did slip and fall at this point - but thankfully no mountain rescue needed. Shortly before reaching Buck Stone I took the path over towards Redmires Reservoirs passing Stanedge Pole. This section of path was relatively easy walking apart from slipping on compacted snow.
As I reached the reservoirs I stopped for some lunch. I had a flask of Beef Broth which had stayed 'tepid' and a large lump of bread to dip in it. Followed by a Nature Valley Oat Bar and swilled down with some weak mixed fruit cordial. I didn't hang around too long as it doesn't take long for the built up sweat to start to go cold. I headed over the moor up Rud Hill towards Brown Edge Farm - it was difficult here to see any path, but I could see stiles in the distance so as it was open access land it wasn't a problem.
After the farm I picked up a path and travelled south past Lady Canning's Plantation - again a good path but very well compacted as it's an area that's popular with the off-road brigade - a few of which I saw later with their jacked up Land Rovers and other 'monster truck' 4x4's. Not too far left now - probably 2 to 3 miles on the track back to Fox House, passing the Outdoor Centre on the way. Arriving back at the car I was 'dripping' - the relatively heavy soft-shell I was wearing wasn't particularly breathable so I couldn't wait to take it off. When I left the car this morning there were only 2 cars parked on the road near Fox House, when I came back it was about 1/4 mile of cars!
I had about 90 minutes to kill now as my wife didn't finish work until 4pm, so as the temperature had gone up a few degrees and the roads were now fairly clear I headed over the country lanes to Stannington to share a coffee with Darrell, and tell him of my 'adventures' - a really enjoyable day all round.
More photos can be found here
It was too tempting not to take advantage of the weather today, plenty of snow overnight and fairly clear skies for much of the day. I had planned to go walking with my mate Darrell again, but where he lives on the western edge of Sheffield he's on a hill - and there's no hope of getting off his estate in his rear wheel drive BMW. For me, plenty of snow at home and -7c when I left, but relatively flat and the main roads across Sheffield and out into the Peak District were fine. I dropped my wife off at work in Sheffield at 9:15 am and set off to park near the Fox House Inn. By 9:45am I was in my gear and ready to walk.
I'd taken my wife's compact camera again today, and also for the first time I'd decided to use walking poles. So, again my wife's gear was 'borrowed' - lovely metallic pink poles, but I'm not proud. I'd set the camera to overexpose as I'd been told that to get the snow white that's what you need to do, and yes the snow did come out white but I didn't like the overexposed photos, so next time I'll stick with grey snow...lol
As happened a couple of days ago, not far into the walk I was removing clothing, first the neck warmer went, then shortly after, the gloves. It didn't take long before I was starting to perspire a little. Yes, it was perspiring today - not sweating, don't forget I have pink poles! I headed off along the path that took me below Burbage Rocks and up to Burbage Bridge. Just a few footprints in the snow, and the only people I saw on that stretch were 3 climbers looking for somewhere to set up, and a couple of joggers. Now I was finding it very hard work walking in the snow (another first for me snow walking) - I can only imagine how hard it must be running and trying to keep your balance.
After crossing over the bridge at Burbage, I headed up past the Cowper Stone and onto the start of Stanage Edge. The views were great from up here, and it was great to be up here with so few people about. However, it was hard walking and I was really glad I had the poles as there were patches of ice under the snow, and small gaps where the snow came up to your knee's - up and over rocks for quite a distance. I did slip and fall at this point - but thankfully no mountain rescue needed. Shortly before reaching Buck Stone I took the path over towards Redmires Reservoirs passing Stanedge Pole. This section of path was relatively easy walking apart from slipping on compacted snow.
As I reached the reservoirs I stopped for some lunch. I had a flask of Beef Broth which had stayed 'tepid' and a large lump of bread to dip in it. Followed by a Nature Valley Oat Bar and swilled down with some weak mixed fruit cordial. I didn't hang around too long as it doesn't take long for the built up sweat to start to go cold. I headed over the moor up Rud Hill towards Brown Edge Farm - it was difficult here to see any path, but I could see stiles in the distance so as it was open access land it wasn't a problem.
After the farm I picked up a path and travelled south past Lady Canning's Plantation - again a good path but very well compacted as it's an area that's popular with the off-road brigade - a few of which I saw later with their jacked up Land Rovers and other 'monster truck' 4x4's. Not too far left now - probably 2 to 3 miles on the track back to Fox House, passing the Outdoor Centre on the way. Arriving back at the car I was 'dripping' - the relatively heavy soft-shell I was wearing wasn't particularly breathable so I couldn't wait to take it off. When I left the car this morning there were only 2 cars parked on the road near Fox House, when I came back it was about 1/4 mile of cars!
I had about 90 minutes to kill now as my wife didn't finish work until 4pm, so as the temperature had gone up a few degrees and the roads were now fairly clear I headed over the country lanes to Stannington to share a coffee with Darrell, and tell him of my 'adventures' - a really enjoyable day all round.
More photos can be found here
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