We went to the Peak District for the first time, over a long weekend. We drove up on Friday morning, and on arrival we had a look at a potential scramble up Elbow Ridge by Winnats Pass near Castleton. Not only quite a bit exposed in terms of the geographical conditions, but in terms of passing traffic, too, being located right near the bend of a popular road. We decided not to go for it on this occasion, but instead walked over to Mam Tor, up to the top then back down the other side.
On the Saturday, we started walking from Edale up to Ringing Roger, a group of rocks with rounded edges. This did not help with trying to scramble up them, nor did the surface texture of these rocks – raspy like very coarse sandpaper. It make the skin on our hands feel very thin and sensitive in no time. After exploring the rocks around Ringing Roger, we continued up the path to the top of Golden Clough, then passed westwards over Nether Tor. After a while on this path, we headed northwards off the path across the snowy heather moorland to the top of Blackden Brook, where we tried a spot of clough scrambling, in this case working our way around ice as well as water on the rocks around the stream. Then we walked back across the top plateau back onto our earlier path, then continued west via the Wool Packs – an area filled with very strange-looking, but surprisingly large and tall, lumps of rock. A couple of girls asked if they could join us in order to descend to the valley. We walked on, past Edale Rocks, then using the Jacob’s Ladder route back down to Edale.
On Sunday morning, we took in a bit more clough walking. We drove to Upper Booth, then walked up Crowden Clough. We tried the bit of scrambling near the top of the clough, including a ‘thrutch’ – a new word for me, but an informal climbing term meaning an awkward move, often up a rock crack or chimney, where you have to wriggle around and use any part of your body that you can to stop yourself from falling. Having got to the top, we talked about the possibility of going to the top of the famous Kinder Scout, but conluded that we did not have enough time before we had to head off back to London. We came back down alongside Crowden Clough. Then we drove back.
I hardly took any photos after we went over to Blackden Brook on the Saturday, because B’s camera card became full and I lent him my card.
Map of Day 1 walk route
View Peak District 1 – Mar 2013 in a larger map
Map of Days 2 and 3 walk routes
View Peak District – Mar 2013 in a larger map