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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Monday 20 August 2018

Monday Walk - [Peak District Trip] Edale Circular (via Kinder Scout and Mam Tor)

Length: 20.6 km (12.8 mi) [shorter or longer version possible, see below]
Ascent/Descent:  843m; Net Walking Time: ca. 6 ½ hours
Toughness:  10 out of 10 
                
From the West, take the 08.49 Sheffield train from Manchester Piccadilly (…var. stations…, New Mills Central 09.17, Chinley 09.23), arriving Edale at 09.32.
From the East, take the 09.14 Manchester Piccadilly train from Sheffield (Dore & Totley 09.21, Grindleford 09.29, Hathersage 09.32, Bamford 09.36, Hope 09.40), arriving Edale at 09.47.
Return trains to London: 16.32, 17.34, 18.32, 19.32 (change at Sheffield, from 3 hours).
Return trains: xx.47 until 19.47, then 21.45 and 23.21 towards Manchester; 16.32, 17.34, 18.32, 19.32, 21.30 and 23.01 towards Sheffield. 

“A walk of many contrasts in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District, associated with rugged moorlands and dramatically sculpted gritstone outcrops (or ‘edges’), which also routes through the lush Vale of Edale, while in the afternoon affording grand views into the Hope Valley (including the notable dry gorge of Winnats Pass) from the Great Ridge, which separates the Dark Peak (sandstones) from the White Peak (limestones).
Follow the Pennine Way from its start at The Old Nag’s Head pub up along the fertile Vale of Edale, surrounded by towering hills, and up the Jacob’s Ladder path to Edale Head and to the edge of the Kinder Scout moorland plateau, a rugged, desolate peat bog. You then follow the edge past some magnificent rock formations and through an area of scattered wind-and-rain-sculpted gritstone boulders to choose one of three descent routes back to Edale village for lunch.
After lunch rise steeply onto the Great Ridge overlooking the Hope Valley and up to Mam Tor, whose summit is a great vantage point and a former late Bronze Age and early Iron Age hill fort. Its other name of “Shivering Mountain” is due to frequent – and still active – landslips.
An extension to Kinder Downfall, the highest waterfall in the Peak District, either as an out-and-back or combined with a crossing of the Kinder Plateau upland peat bog (only for confident navigators), as well as some shortcuts before and after lunch, are described.”

Walk Options:
An out-and-back Extension to Kinder Downfall, the highest waterfall in the Peak District: add 5.4 km/3.4 mi and 165m ascent/descent.
An Extension to Kinder Downfall, combined with a crossing of the Kinder Plateau upland peat bog: add 3.2 km/2.0 mi (but see the warning on page 9 of the pdf).
A Shortcut via Grindslow Knoll cuts 2.8 km/1.7 mi and about 200m ascent/descent.
A Shortcut down Grindsbrook Clough (this involves light but prolonged scrambling): cut 2.5 km/1.6 mi and about 200m ascent/descent.
Cut out the southerly loop up to Mam Tor: cut 5.4 km/3.1 mi and 220m ascent, rated 7/10.

Lunch: The Old Nag's Head  (14.4 km/9.0 mi, food served all day), The Rambler Inn  (350m off route, 15.1 km/9.4 mi, food served all day).
Tea: The Rambler Inn, The Old Nag's Head or Cooper’s Café/Cooper’s Chippy (open to 16.00).
                                                                                   
For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files  click here. T=swc.303

3 comments:

Thomas G said...

Plenty of people left last night or this morning, but we had 3 walkers joining that had taken a rest yesterday plus 7 (!) new arrivals, so indeed had n=27 on the walk again, in w=generally overcast-with-two-short-periods-of-rain type weather.
3 or 4 took an off-walk ascent route up the Crowden Clough, 13 added the extension to Kinder Downfall and the peat bog plateau crossing to the route, 1 went on to do the full Kinder Scout circuit. But only about a handful walked the afternoon loop back up to Mam Tor.
The bog crossing, potentially very treacherous, was as easy as it is ever going to get: the Kinder River dry, the waterfall therefore w/o water, the gloopy boggy paths dry and bouncy, the tricky deceiving grassy bits just floating on deep water now being largely dry and w/o danger. So apart from following a compass bearing through pathless territory, there were no dangers today. No one shipped water, no one sank into mud. Almost a shame!

Thomas G said...

27 plus a dog, I should have said

Thomas G said...

Nuisance of the day: flying ants