Walk: 10:15am to 2:45pm - 10.5 miles - 2302ft of ascent
Because I knew that I would be doing some scrambling today, I chose not to take my DSLR with me - which did go against the grain a little as I had planned to do some 'experimenting' with different settings when I next walked. So, last night I powered up Donna's TZ8 compact to check the battery - 3 bars showing so all set. I would be walking alone today as Donna was working, and my walking buddies unavailable, or at least that was what I thought. Today was also the first time I'd worn my new Karrimor Alpiniste jacket, so it would be good to see how it performed as I knew in places I would be building up a bit of a sweat.
I dropped Donna off at work in Sheffield and headed over towards Edale, a round-trip from home of 78 miles. The weather was stunning, lovely clear blue skies and the temperature gauge in the car showing 4c, it couldn't be better. After parking in the car-park just off the road and popping my £5 in the machine, I was ready to set off at 10:15am. And as you can imagine, with the weather this good I wasn't the only one!
As I was heading up through the village I decided that my first photo of the day would be the lovely church in Edale - but then 'disaster' struck. I powered on the camera and the battery gauge was flashing red with the message that the battery was low....nooooo...how could it be??? I managed to fire off one shot and the camera shut itself down. I did manage to get another 5 or so photos in the first hour of the walk, but on each occasion it powered down directly after shot - and then just gave up the ghost completely. It was such a pity as it was at that point that I ran two circuits of Kinder Plateau in 1hr...
Anyway, back to the real world. I headed out of the village and along the well kept path that takes you up the first stretch of Grinds Brook Clough, a lovely steady walk, which was a blessing as if I'm being honest I felt a little lethargic. Hopefully I don't feel the same in just under 2 weeks when I'm walking up Ben Nevis! The gently rising path went on for about 3/4 mile, and then the difficult part came.
The next 3/4 mile was clambering over rocks, and scrambling up the steeper rocky sections. This was my first experience of 'real' scrambling - that said I have no idea whether it's what an experienced walker would consider much of a challenge. A few people behind me turned back when it changed from being a nice flat path - so I could in some way consider myself to be 'hardcore' I did find this quite difficult and VERY tiring, I was breathing heavily, my legs were really starting to ache, and after slipping on a couple of occasions I then went one better and fell - bashing my right arm on some rocks, and more worryingly scraping my new jacket on them! But we Brits are made of sterner stuff, so I just cried for 10 minutes yelling for my mummy and then carried on...lol. I really couldn't work out what was best when walking up such a section, use the walking poles or not - and I'm still no wiser.
Well about an hour after leaving the car I reached the top, and I was sooooooo pleased - time for a 20 minute rest, and a bite to eat. After my pit-stop, I followed the path along the southern edge of the plateau, passing Upper Tor, Ringing Roger and heading over to Madwoman's Stones. This section was between 2.5 and 3 miles, and I picked up the pace passing quite a few groups of people along the way, I had the 'buzz' now and was dancing my way across the rocky plateau edge like Anton Du Beke trying to evade Ann Widdecombe.
I dropped down from the plateau as the more gentle slopes give you an easy ride back down into the Edale Vale itself, around this part of the walk you could see lots of walkers taking advantage of the weather, and as always in the area lots of cyclists on their mountain bikes. This last few miles back to Edale village had a couple of twists lurking along it's length, when I had to drag my weary body down and then back up a couple of clough's - Jaggers Clough really took it out of me if I'm being honest. I think the climb up Grinds Brook had really sapped all my energy as the spring in my step had now gone, and I just wanted to get back to the car. At a little before 2:45pm I arrived at the car-park, and although I'd had a really enjoyable walk, I really did feel a little 'knackered'
Because I knew that I would be doing some scrambling today, I chose not to take my DSLR with me - which did go against the grain a little as I had planned to do some 'experimenting' with different settings when I next walked. So, last night I powered up Donna's TZ8 compact to check the battery - 3 bars showing so all set. I would be walking alone today as Donna was working, and my walking buddies unavailable, or at least that was what I thought. Today was also the first time I'd worn my new Karrimor Alpiniste jacket, so it would be good to see how it performed as I knew in places I would be building up a bit of a sweat.
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| Steady path at the bottom of Grinds Brook |
I dropped Donna off at work in Sheffield and headed over towards Edale, a round-trip from home of 78 miles. The weather was stunning, lovely clear blue skies and the temperature gauge in the car showing 4c, it couldn't be better. After parking in the car-park just off the road and popping my £5 in the machine, I was ready to set off at 10:15am. And as you can imagine, with the weather this good I wasn't the only one!
 |
| Not too far after the rocky section starts |
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| A good view of the scramble, but maybe not the incline |
Anyway, back to the real world. I headed out of the village and along the well kept path that takes you up the first stretch of Grinds Brook Clough, a lovely steady walk, which was a blessing as if I'm being honest I felt a little lethargic. Hopefully I don't feel the same in just under 2 weeks when I'm walking up Ben Nevis! The gently rising path went on for about 3/4 mile, and then the difficult part came.
The next 3/4 mile was clambering over rocks, and scrambling up the steeper rocky sections. This was my first experience of 'real' scrambling - that said I have no idea whether it's what an experienced walker would consider much of a challenge. A few people behind me turned back when it changed from being a nice flat path - so I could in some way consider myself to be 'hardcore' I did find this quite difficult and VERY tiring, I was breathing heavily, my legs were really starting to ache, and after slipping on a couple of occasions I then went one better and fell - bashing my right arm on some rocks, and more worryingly scraping my new jacket on them! But we Brits are made of sterner stuff, so I just cried for 10 minutes yelling for my mummy and then carried on...lol. I really couldn't work out what was best when walking up such a section, use the walking poles or not - and I'm still no wiser.
 |
| Almost at the plateau now as the path returns |
I dropped down from the plateau as the more gentle slopes give you an easy ride back down into the Edale Vale itself, around this part of the walk you could see lots of walkers taking advantage of the weather, and as always in the area lots of cyclists on their mountain bikes. This last few miles back to Edale village had a couple of twists lurking along it's length, when I had to drag my weary body down and then back up a couple of clough's - Jaggers Clough really took it out of me if I'm being honest. I think the climb up Grinds Brook had really sapped all my energy as the spring in my step had now gone, and I just wanted to get back to the car. At a little before 2:45pm I arrived at the car-park, and although I'd had a really enjoyable walk, I really did feel a little 'knackered'
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