Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
7. A scoot up to the top of High Hill and back from home
Date: 28/01/09
Distance: Almost 4 miles
Ascent/descent: 850 ft
Route map
Time: 50 minutes (including 7 or 8 minutes being awestruck)
Apologies, I wouldn't normally post a write up of one of my bog standard mid week trots but this evening was a bit of an exception. I managed to finish work early and was driving back to Settle over the moor road from Airton in bright sunshine - suddenly, when I came to High Side in the middle of the highland cattle field, before me in the valleys everything was under a curtain of fog. It looked absolutely stunning. It was about 4 o'clock by the time I got home so I immediately grabbed my camera, threw on my running gear and set off in the fog to see if I could get above the cloud line before either the sun set or the fog rose too high.
To be honest I didn't have any high hopes and, even as I was climbing the side of High Hill itself, the fog was still thick and I suspected thta the sun may have already set. Anyway my determination paid off and right near the top I popped out into the last of the sunshine. I took about a dozen pictures and its been a job to weed out which ones were the best. These give an overall impression of the views I guess:
The view to the east towards Scosthrop High Moor:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/8094/p1280071ag1.jpg
Pendle Hill on the horizon:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/52/p1280070tj9.jpg
The sun going down:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/7749/p1280080bz5.jpg
Rye Loaf hill and Stockdale Valley slightly to the north east:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9981/p1280083so8.jpg
Fell running huh? What ever do you get out of it..........
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Stunning pics Stolly, the stuff of dreams:cool:
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Stolly i have enjoyed your thread most of all from this forum, your photography skills are topnotch, love your photos, you should have a blog for the world to see the adventures you have, as your pictures are amazing! xx
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Stolly, amazing pics. Alot of people at work wonder why I do the fell running thing and showing them the pics you've taken over the last year always gets a lot of nodded approvals.
Can't wait to show them the pics tomorrow......
Just wish I had been there to see it myself.:D
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
8. Horton, Pen y Ghent, Plover Hill, Foxup, Eller Carr and Langstrothdale Loop
Date: 01/02/09
Distance: 16.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 3,250 ft
Route map
Time: 3 hours 20
There was an arctic wind howling all night and spits of snow in the air first thing so this run looked ideal for some proper cold weather HPM training. For the first time since maybe last January I put on my running tights rather than shorts, wore two tops under my wind proof and I set off thinking I'd be ready for anything.
As expected the wind picked up massively as I neared the top of Pen y Ghent. There was also a shed load of icey snow about.
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9827/p2010091pm3.jpg
Once past the trig point and slightly sheltered by the wall, the wind died back a bit but from here on ice and iced snow became very problematic, especially on north facing slopes where the snow had accumulated, not melted and been turned to solid ice by the cold. Even where there were old foot prints in this ice snow it was dangerously frictionless (unless the footprints had some depth to them) and I tippy toed and if need be slid on my jacksy as best as I could over and down these bits.
The route to Plover Hill (just follow the wall) winding before me:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/997/p2010093iz6.jpg
After Plover Hill there is a cliff that drops down into Foxup Moor. This cliff has a narrow track that cuts a line down the side but, to get to that track, I first had to get across a 40 or 50 ft band of frozen ice snow and what's more it was nicely angled downwards at 45 degrees. This obstacle looked impassable to me and to try to cross it could see me whizzing off the cliff to my doom - frustratingly I could see all of the Foxup valley with my next ridgeline nicely beckoning beyond that but I just couldn't see a (survivable) way over the ice.
This picture looking towards Foxup doesn't quite show how deadly the ice appeared to me but its that band of snow in the foreground that was stopping my progress:
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9420/p2010095qb2.jpg
In the end I tracked along the ridge line towards Foxup and found a marginally less dangerous and shorter place to cross the ice. It was still bleeding dangerous enough though and I was extremely glad to make it down onto the safer ground below. The view to my immediate left having safely descended the ice bank:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3892/p2010098bf9.jpg
Anyway, once down, I scrambled my way down to the main track that took me all the way to Foxup and then climbed directly up the opposite slope heading for the footpath over Eller Carr and then down into Langstrothdale. Last time I came this way with Ady, we cut too oblique a diagonal up this hill and pretty much never found the path we wanted so this time I played it safe and followed the wall up. I soon found the right path and scooted over the ridgeline into the pine forested valley of Langstrothdale.
After a while on the descent I veered off the main path and headed for the pine forest on my side of the valley. I had to cross a fence but found an entrance into the forest via a firebreak which soon turned into the forest trail that I was looking for. This trail I figured would be more fun than running along the road that tracks in the same direction in the valley floor. But boy did this forest trail go on and on; it was only after about 4 miles that I eventually came out the other side and was all set to follow the Pennine Way back all the way to Horton.
A brilliant run in trying conditions. I didn't get cold at all either even on the tops with the eye watering wind chill. That said I sweated cobs going through that forest.
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Cracking pictures of your last two runs Stolly...they just get better and better! ;)
Great for me to look at and dream of being up there!
I'm going to the Lakes for Valentine weekend so plan on an ickle walk...maybe Catbells or something not too strenuous for a fat old bird!!! :D
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
9. Goyt Valley, Cat & Fiddle, Shining Tor, Cats Tor and Erwood Reservoir Loop
Date: 04/02/09
Distance: Circa 12.5 miles
Ascent/descent: 1,850 ft
Route map
Time: 2 hours and 16
I had a work meeting in Etwall near Derby this morning and had pre-planned a run in the peak district for this afternoon to break up my return journey. Baaarby from the forum kindly pointed me in the direction of the peak trail runner web site and recommended route 10, starting at Erwood Reservoir and running a 12.5 mile loop up to Axe Edge to the south and back. This seemed a fantastic suggestion and Erwood Reservoir was bang on my route home if I went via Buxton and Whaley Bridge.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with no wind at all and a shed load of deep snow making the hills just stunning and I couldn't wait to get out, up and into them. All of this area in the peak district was very snowy and the Goyt Valley itself was basically cut off by it, with the road down to the reservoir shut to all but four wheel drive vehicles. This meant that I had to start my run from the top of the hill just off the Whaley Bridge road.
No probs with that though and, as the lane was 6 inches to a foot deep in snow, it was effectively off road running all the way. Given that I was starting high, I decided to run the loop clockwise. I’d armed myself with a print out of the peak trail runner Axe Edge map and incredibly for me had no problems using that and finding all the right paths, even those obscured by the snow.
I’d arrived later than I’d hoped, had to start further back from the reservoir because of the road being closed and more or less had to be home by 6 pm so, while running up towards Goyt’s Moss, I changed from the planned route on the hoof, thinking that perhaps I should make it a little shorter. (That said when I worked out which hill was Axe Edge on the skyline I almost changed my mind back again). I chose to hook right along what was an old unused road that turned into a lane heading directly for the Cat & Fiddle pub.
This pub, and some kind of radar mast adjacent to it, dominate the ridgeline to the west when viewed from the point I took the old road. The main road from Buxton to Macclesfield runs straight past this pub – which is apparently the second highest pub in the UK or something – and once I got up there I had to run a hundred yards or so in the slush beside this road before taking my path back north towards the reservoir again.
At this point I then made another change of route plan and, instead of following the more direct line, I hacked off to my left up to the top of Shining Tor to follow that ridgeline to Cats Tor and beyond, before picking up the snow covered road back to the reservoir from there. To a large extent this re-lengthened my run back to the originally planned 12.5 mile distance…. doh!
It was a marvelous extension to the run though and the snow was fantastically deep on this ridge with many drifts after Shining Tor trig being 3 or 4 feet deep. It was just stunning running and, before I knew it, I was back on the snow covered Goyt valley road down to the reservoir, before heading back up the hill (with a deep snowy ‘short cut’ through the fields) back to my car.
All in all gob smackingly brilliant. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/1561/p2040117bq1.jpg
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/8583/p2040118ro7.jpg
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/4306/p2040119ry6.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4954/p2040121kn4.jpg
There's more....
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Chuffing fantastic pics again, is that a monster in the lake?
Re: Stolly's adventures 2009
Cracking photos Stolly! :cool:
