Ok, so I know some people will be outraged by this, but...... I haven't spent much time in the Peak District. Within easy reach, location is no excuse, it's just that I get pulled to the other National Parks such as the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Yorkshire Dales (plus Scotland when I have the time). So, when a days climbing and abseiling in the Peaks came about I thought why not take this opportunity to have a look around...and yes, though it was a popular route that I took, I can assure you...I will be back for more! So, here goes... :)

Friday 13th April 2012: Climbing & Bridge abseil (good job I am not superstitious!) Night camped at Waterside Farm Campsite, Edale 

Saturday 14th April 2012: 

I love this time of year! After an overnight stay at the quiet Waterside Campsite, Edale surrounded by frolicking, bleating lambs, and amusing cockerels and hens (plus the camp’s wildcat), I awoke to blue skies though a tad chilly. After a leisurely brew and breakfast I packed up and drove into Edale to park up near the train station before setting off toward Mam Tor and the Hollins Cross ridge. The easy to follow bridal path led me through Hardenclough Farm and met up with the mountain bike trail over a steady ascent to Hollins Cross. The weather still remained clear though toward the Horizon it was clouding. The trail up was quiet apart from the odd mountain biker but as soon as I got to Hollins Cross there were a lot of people on the ridge leading to both Ward’s Piece to the East & also toward Mam Tor.

Passing by Back Tor I continued up to Ward’s Piece (476m) where I saw a weather front coming in from the North. A quick brew and I was off backtracking the route to Hollins Cross and continuing on up toward Mam Tor (517m) passing numerous families, groups and couples along the way....some wearing appropriate kit, others wearing some outright amusing gear (If this had been a 3000ft+ peak I would have been a tad concerned - think flip-flops up Snowdon) as well as a fair few fell runners and mountain bikers (popular trail for a busy weekend). Keeping my eye on the incoming weather front I was aware that Mam Tor trig point was going to provide one of those photos where it could have been taken on any peak, anywhere in the UK (y’know, person stood by trig point, looking a tad ‘wet & wild’ with a nondescript grey backdrop) and I was right. By the time I got to the summit of Mam Tor the wind had picked up & the clouds had left the peaks of Crookstone Out Moor and had descended on Mam Tor bringing a snow flurry. Having spent ten mins teaching a crow to use the camera (well, let’s not tell tales...it was actually a fell runner) I got the photo as described previously and headed back down to Hollins Cross where the sun had come out again. After stopping for a quick lunch whilst watching Mountain bikers carry their bikes up the trail, and laughed (to myself obviously...wouldn’t want to offend) when some novices tried to bike down the now wet & muddy fairly steep incline, I headed off down toward Edale, this time taking the route which leads through PeterBarn, across the River Noe meeting up with the road that leads into Edale. 

Once back in Edale at around 2pm it was brew time at the Penny Pot Cafe next to the station where the wood burner was working it’s warm wonders whilst I placed myself on the very cosy sofa to finish off the book ‘The Climb’ which I had been reading for the past week (For ref, it is Anatoli Boukreev’s account of the 1996 Everest Disaster and provides much food for thought compared to other’s  accounts – if you have read Jon Krakauer’s ‘Into Thin Air’ and had made your mind up about the events etc, it is a definite must read....just saying). At this point the sun was out again,  leading to a truly four Seasons in one day popular walk providing nice views without having to gain too much height, or by too much of a strenuous/technical walk, in the Peak District.

 
For more photos of this adventure see Gallery page:   

Now, when a weekend arrives, especially in the Spring time, I’m often away to the hills or trying to squeeze a little adventure into the two days. However, when a four day weekend comes into view it’s smiles all round as I load the car, jump in and head for the hills.

The Easter weekend was dedicated to the Lake District, meeting up with friends to get on the fells and recce the route for the LD Ten Peaks Challenge, which takes in the ten highest peaks, covers c. 73km, with over 5,600metres of ascent, in under 24hrs. Something we were pondering about the of doing in the Summer. The forecast was looking pretty sketchy, but hey ho....here we go:

 (For more info about the LD Ten Peak challenge see http://www.lakedistrictpeaks.co.uk/10-peaks.html) 



Friday 6th April 2012:


Having had a day to kit sort and get prepped I made way up to Seatoller arriving in time to meet up with folk in the Riverside Bar, for a few cheeky beers and a game of Top Trumps (it’s addictive!) It was always on the cards (excuse the pun) that the Easter weekend would be a busy one in the Lajkes and this was supported by the great atmosphere in the bar which was packed with walkers, climbers and general windswept, ruddy cheeked folk donned in a vast, colourful array of outdoor apparel. After much chat and once we lost interest in Top Trumps we headed to  Seatoller Farm Campsite (Grid Ref 245135) where the group had stayed the night before to hit the hay. Having arrived in the rain and decided to go to the pub straight away rather than put up my tent, I decided that I may as well sleep in the steel tent, aka my car.

Sat 7th April 2012:

Once up we brewed up and had breakfast before we set off from the campsite at 09:00 making our way toward sour milk gill which we made our way up alongside, with a wee scramble here and there, and over Gillercomb, before ascending a little, prior to making our way up to Green Gable (801m) summit. The weather provided low cloud occasionally breaking to a magnificent view across to Derwent Water & Skiddaw. Once at the summit, the cloud had shrouded , so there was minimal visibility apart from brief openings in passing cloud to see the looming summit of Great Gable (899m). Having made our way across to Great Gable, where we were surprised to see a group of 30+ strong Irish walkers all in good spirits, and again with visibility poor at summit a brief photo stop was had before making our way down to Styhead Tarn were the Mountain Rescue stretcher hut is based. The cloud had lifted at this point so views across the valley were good, with the Seathwaite Fell and surrounding lower peaks to the East as well as Lingmell  clear. Great Gable still held it’s summit cloud as well as Scafell Pike (978m) which wasn’t a surprise really.

We took the Corridor route up to Scafell Pike summit, on which, as it was late in the day, the majority of people we passed were descending (18:00). By chance, once we arived at the summit the cloud had blown on to leave good views of surrounding fells and across to the West coastline as well as the sun lit Langdale Pikes. The wind had picked up a bit by this point and it was clear that another cloud front was coming our way, so after a brief stop at the summit we descended to make our way across to Broad Crag and on towards Great End (910m) before dropping down before Great End summit ascent to Angle Tarn where we were to wild camp that evening. On descent of Scafell Pike the cloud had come in making visibility poor & surrounding peaks out of sight. At this point we took a bearing so as not to get led off course, but there were often breaks in the cloud allowing us to see Broad Crag and the route up and over to Great End. When we got to the Great End we veered right, rather than continuing up to Great End Summit,  picking up the path that takes you to Esk Pike and Angle Tran. On approach to Esk Pike (885m), which looms over Angle Tarn, the cloud held at the top but at 606m visibility was ok. 

Now.....weekends are busy in the Lakes, but Bank Holiday Weekends, come rain or shine, can be pretty chocka, so really it was no surprise to find about 6 other tents up around the Angle Tarn area. At this point, at about 20:30, the winds picked up a bit so we recceed the area to find a good camp location (Grid Ref 247078) and set up tent and had dinner, discussing a possible swim in Angle Tarn, to which we then decided was a rubbish idea (though one to remember for the warmer months) before retiring to bed, The winds by this time had dropped and the area became surrounded by cloud but no issues with weather throughout the night and a great night’s sleep was had. 

Sun 8th April 2012:

With a 07:30 awakening, and a head stuck out of the tent to survey the morning’s weather,  it wasn’t the sunniest of weather as desired, with more low cloud, poor visibility & slight precipitation . Once up it was breakfast & brew before packing up before heading off at a leisurely 09:00 toward High Raise (762m) via Lining Crag. At this height there was still the low wet cloud, so visibility continued to be poor especially up toward High Raise summit, where we had to walk on a  bearing for most of the ascent and descent to ensure we kept on course. On descent we decided it was easiest to follow close to Flour Gill down the valley, rather than go across country, and we were actually glad that we did as Flour Gill is really quite lovely and had the interesting feature of old building ruins tucked nicely in one of the its snaking bends.....well, to be honest, as we hadn’t seen much for a few hours we probably got more excited about this than we would have normally (a sign of civilisation after several hours of not seeing anything apart from rock and cloud!).  The gill took us all the way down to the pickup point at Steel End car park, at the south point of Thirlmere Reservoir to which we arrived at 16:00 ready for a good cuppa and a big plate of hot food, which we accustomed after a drive to Keswick at the Ramblers Tea Room (which I can highly recommend for darn good veggie food that would turn any meat eater!).