Kinder Edge from Snake Pass 13km

A nice route in the sunshine, but windy day:-

Parked up at the Snake Inn, came back via Fairbrook Naze for a butty and a pint before comming home. Briefly met Martin Rye (summitandvalley) en-ruite on a backpack. Must get out for a long weekend myself soon.

Terra Nova Laser Competition Venting

Looking at how best to increase the venting on the Terra Nova Laser Competition I came up with the following:-

Using 1mm dyneema and a mini cordlock it adds minimal weight.  It is also accessible from within the tent with the inner door open.

Langdales Easter 09

Had lovely week up in the Langdales, staying at Chapel Stile.  Managed to get two good walking days in with the rest of the time spent relaxing with the family.

Langdales and Harrison Stickle, Crinkle Crags

Winter Skills at Derwentwater YHA

My wife kindly bought me a Winter Hillwalking Skills 2 day course for Christmas.  So the time came in Frebruary and I headed for the Lakes.  I took the Friday off also and decided to do Blencathra on the way, no pictures though as visibility was a bit low!:-

The course was run by Summitreks and based at Derwent Youth Hostel.  Highly recommended fun weekend!

Hayfield – Brown Knoll

Well the weather report last night said we would be lucky to see any sun today and lots of rain.  So I was please to see blue skies on opening the curtains.  I packed my wet weather gear and decided that it woud be a good test for them if it closed in later in the day.

I have always gone up to Kinder Plateau in the past when parking at Hayfield, so I thought I would do something different today.  A round up to Brown Knoll and back again to Hayfield.  The walk was beautiful with glorious views of the Edale Valley (Cloud inversion) and Kinder Downfall and Kinder Low.  The summit of Brown Knoll however was mud wrestler’s dream however.

The helicopter was out delivering stone for the Pennine Way path.

Leki – Guarantee

Well true to their word I received a replacment pole section from Complete Outdoors this week.  Posted to me FOC and it came with a new tip and expanding which I had off the broken pole.  Thanyou very much and I am back in polling action!

Keeping Charged

Most things theses days seem to run off AA batteries.  Now you can get 2900 mAh NiMH batteries as well, gear seems to be lasting longer.  Here is a little lightweight (120g with USB cable) charger I found that does just the job for me.  It charges individually (using peak detection for faster and more accurate charging) so that you can charge odd numbers of batteries (handy again for your Satmap).  It comes with a AC adapter (50g), or you can use it with any USB power source.  I recommend stealing your electrons from  the YHA PC when available.  It also tells you when a rechargeable battery is dead.  I use this with a mixture of low loss NiMH and high power NiMH batteries from Vapex depending on whether I need lots of power or weeks of use.  I see less and less need for specialised battery packs when AA’s come with so much power now.  Lets hope the manufacturer catch on and start standardising on AA’s for gear.

Broken Pole

Well here is the offending article.  I have only used these Leki Ultralight (maybe too Ultralight?) poles for two walks now.  I hope I get a bit longer before the next failure.

Still waiting to hear about the guaratee on breakage?

Mam Tor – Lose Hill – Castleton

Had chance for a quick day out today from Castleton.  Day was cold, and slippery on the way down from Mam Tor.  Slipped and snapped one of my walking poles, I feel a bruise coming on.  I hope Leki they live up to their 5 year breakage warranty.  I’ll let you know when I get some feedback.

I parked up by Mam Tor, and came back up the old land-slipped road.  I am sure this has moved more since the last time I was there.  This was 20 years ago however!

In Search of Kinder Scout – Crowden Head

Well the sun shone today so I thought I would go and try to find the highest point in the Peak District – Kinder Scout.  No mean feat as Kinder Scout is not marked by much.  I have been up a few times now but always settled for Kinder Low.  Below are the pictures to prove it and the route I took.  I recommend following the Kinder river from the Downfall through Kinder Gates to the source as a way to beat the peat hags.  Do this when frozen as today and it becomes a little easier also, as you can walk up the river.  Unfortunately the mist closed in as the ‘summit’ approached so no clear views from the top this time.

However if I hadn’t programmed in the route and summit to my Satmap GPS I don’t think I would have found it at all!

Surely the highest point in the Peak District deserves and better cairn than this?