2016 03 10 Kinder


 

Winter conditions on Kinder

 

By the Peak Forest Canal

 

Glad to have made is safely to the car park

 

I’d done the recce on the previous Sunday and not been able to do the walk I’d originally planned due to several foot of lying snow on Kinder and poor visibility.  My first route would have done a near complete circuit of Kinder and today we had to settle for just the western edge of Kinder.  That was tough enough and I don’t think anybody would have been disappointed with missing the full circuit of the plateaux.  I certainly wasn’t.

But to begin at the beginning, we met at Bowden Bridge, Hayfield setting off at 08:30 with 13 on the walk.  First walking past Kinder reservoir we then started on the climb of William Clough.  It wasn’t long before we were in the clag and walking on snow.  A little before the top someone shouted up that two of the party had turned back to do their own thing for the day.  So now we attempted to follow the Pennine Way along the western edge of Kinder.

This wasn’t easy in the conditions: wet snow, still generally a foot deep and in places accumulations of hip deep snow.  I find several 2 or 3 feet deep drifts to sink into as I lead and try to find the path.  Keep on my tracklog and the Pennine Way with difficulty and feel grateful to have the GPS.  We take what shelter a few rocks afford us for a quick coffee break.  Push on to Kinder Low.  Dropping down to Edale Cross, I manage to sink down to my hips in snow and struggle to pull myself out as a boot fills with water from the stream under the snow drift.  Now follow the reverse of the Bullock Smythy route for a while.  Eat our lunch on either side of a track.   We are now below the snow line, out of the clag and walking becomes easier again.

Continue down and the up to cross the A624 and up towards Chinley Churn.  Cross over another ridge and down to the Peak Forest canal at Furness Vale.  Have an afternoon coffee break by the canal before going through New Mills.  Follow the Sett Valley Trail back to Hayfield and then return to Bowden Bridge.  We finish at 16:10.  18.25 miles; 1,010metres of ascent. Not an easy walk in the conditions. 

Steve