So, a few texts to some of my weekend warrior buddies (who don't usually mind getting wet) and I'd managed to get Adrian (a PTI who's easily persuaded into most things that sound like hard work) and Adam (who's currently away prepping for Afghanistan with the regular counterpart of our regiment, the Duke of Lancs), who I'd not seen for a while and is just as keen on less than favourable conditions.
Since I'm based in Glossop I tend to find I approach Kinder from the North, on the Pennine Way, after heading up Doctors Gate, or parking on the Snake Pass summit. After looking at the map and being short on time for the day, I wanted to get up onto the Edge on Kinder's Northern side as quick as possible. Firstly because the crowds usually head along the Pennine Way and secondly we didn't really have more than 4 hours of daylight at our disposal. Fair to say, because of the weather we saw 1 other group from a distance the whole afternoon. I settled on setting off through Lady Clough with the intention of heading up the Fairbrook path after crossing one of the many fords, then ending up on the Edge, via Fairbrook Naze. Once here I intended to head along the Edge to the Pennine Way, down the steep steps, then along the bottom of Ashop Clough to get to Lady Clough again where I'd parked.
On the day the weather was meant to be horrendously wet in the morning and dry and (gasp) sunny in the afternoon. Plans generally fall apart on first contact and this is pretty much what happened. We crossed through Lady Clough forest to where one of the many fords were, to take us over and allow us to carry on with the route. Needless to say the river was a LOT more swollen than expected. What usually is about 6 inches deep and I feel perfectly happy to let my dog run about in with zero chance of being swept away, was a raging torrent about 2 foot deep. Not feeling like getting wet and/or washed a mile downstream we decided to do the route in reverse and see how the river looked upstream once a few of the tributaries were out the way. Knowing there's a footbridge near the Snake Inn this seemed logical, rather than do it the other way round and find we're stuck out longer than expected.
We headed upstream following the Ashop Clough footpath. Once out of the forest the rain picked up a notch so on the the waterproof pants. I'd picked up a pair of Berghaus Goretex gaiters and Berghaus Deluge waterproof pants a week earlier and this seemed a perfect chance to give them some proper use. I'd stuck the gaiters on as soon as we set off earlier as I knew it'd be a boggy day, and the pants went on less than a mile later. Both performed really well and for the £65 I paid for both I can happily say they're brilliant value for money. For the £40 I paid for the pants they blow everything else out the water in that price bracket. Unless your going to spent £100 on something really high end I'd be more than happy with these. Up top I was using what I think is a prototype Rab Pulse jacket. I picked it up from the Rab factory shop for peanuts a while back and its made from Pertex Shield+. It looks the same as the Pulse but has a second chest pocket and weighs 230grammes and has no labels inside. Stupidly light but stood up to the rain well. I'll write more about the gear used in proper reviews at a later date once I've used it all more.
After about 2 miles the river was narrow enough to jump over, but must have still been nearly 2 foot deep. I looked on cautiously thinking how Jess would do crossing, to turn around and see her floating downstream backwards with a look of "check out what I can do, Dad"! Thankfully she's a very strong swimmer and quite large (being a 6 stone German Shepherd) and I'd kept her on her extendable lead, for exactly this reason seeing as there were no sheep about for her to be tempted with. Within about 15 feet she'd perfectly happily hopped back out again without the need for me to go diving in after her and somehow with a dry head on her behalf. Needless to say I kept her lead shorter after that until we crossed a couple hundred metres upstream where we could jump easily as I swear she was a duck in a past life. She seems drawn to jump into any water she sees! We'd made the decision to cross earlier than the Pennine Way (where the river hasn't even started) as thick fog was heading towards us from the West and progress had been slow. Ideally I'd wanted to get up onto the top of Kinder as soon as possible but this idea had gone a little backwards.
Once we'd successfully crossed and were all still relatively dry (apart from me who'd gone knee deep into a bog which is traditional for me every time I go out) we just made a straight line up to the Edge, following what looked like the least steep part of the hillside. It was a knackering 500 metres but cut out at least an hour of much needed daylight and meant we were just ahead of the incoming fog.
As we headed East along the Edge light was starting to fade so we upped the speed a gear to try get back down to the road before it gets totally black, but I noticed quite a few potential overnighter spots. If you do, remember that your not allowed to in the Peak District, so exercise common sense. Leave no trace and arrive late/leave early. After a wet a slippery descent along the Fairbrook path we got back onto the Snake Pass, virtually opposite the Snake Inn. We stuck headtorches on to make sure we didn't have any accidents with passing traffic in the dusk as I'm pretty certain we'd end up worse off! Luckily there's a bit of a path along the side of the road so we didn't actually have to walk the road which I was pretty glad for. 20 minutes later we were back at my car, muddy and wet, but glad to have got out for sure. I worked out we'd only walking 6 miles in 4 hours but it felt like double that! In the dry I'm certain we'd have made twice as fast progress. Nevertheless, it beats sitting at home getting fat over the Christmas period!
