Anyone doing Kinder Down Falls

[Egglett]

Hi.. just looking to see if any other beginners are doing or thinking of doing this race

I want to get going off road/fell this year but because I'm new I find no one will run with me cos my times are slow!

If any other beginner is doing this or wants to but feels they would be looking at 2hrs - 2:30 for the course and would like to meet up at the start please give me a shout

I'm going to challenge my fears and go anyhow but I thought there might be others like me who'd benefit from running in a pair a while

[GeoffB]

Egglett - about 20 people took over 2 hours last year, so don't worry about your speed. Don't forget it's pre-entry - details here http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~temples/hc/
If you're not familiar with the route, I'd definitely recommend doing a recce first (on a fine day). The area around Kinder Low can be confusing in mist if you don't know it.

Have a look at the other thread for more info.

Good luck - see you there.

[RichK]

Hi Egglett,

Yep, I'm on for this one too - I'll be reccying at some point in the week. Were you at the Cloud 9 the other week, I saw loads of Goyt Valley people there.

Good luck!

R

[Egglett]

Yes I was at Cloud9.. enjoyed it actually - much tamer than Tiger Torr anyhow!!

Geoff.. I'm not going to get chance to do any kind of reccie so that's why I'm just thinking about if it's a good idea or not. I'm really up for doing it and would be gutted to have to drop out if people think it'd be too hard to follow

[RichK]

I'm going on a walking reccy first thing tomorrow so I'll post a report. I think nav wise you'll be fine, as long as you can use the map and compass in the event of bad conditions at the top. If you could make it to Houndkirk Hill in the Tigger Tor, I believe this one should be well within your grasp.

This hills are going to be a lot tougher than Tigger Tor though - that's what I'll be worried about.

Will report tomorrow!

[Egglett]

Cool.. that'd be great Rick

Tigger Torr was quite confusing and showed me that you do need to be able to get your bearings.. I had a running partner for that one though

I am just going to try and deal with it and face my fears on this one.

I got the OS map of the area today and am going to start looking properly at the checkpoint ref's tomorrow

I'll have to get my leg's in gear and follow someone who looks like they know the way !!!

[Swoop]

If you're not familiar with the route, I'd definitely recommend doing a recce first (on a fine day). The area around Kinder Low can be confusing in mist if you don't know it.

It was a bit misty today. I did the full route but was a bit unsure around Kinder Low. I think I went slightly to the left of where I usually go and was glad when I saw Edale Rocks immediately in front of me. Funnily enough I then got straight to the Pennine Way path with no problem - something I never usually manage to do, even when it is clear! I've never seen as much water in the Downfall and it was actually going down for once! There was quite a lot of slushy snow and ice between the Downfall and Kinder Low and it was very wet. Finished with very clean shoes as there was hardly any mud - the ground was quite hard.

[RichK]

Reccy report. Embarassing that I've never gone up Kinder before, despite living for years in Sheffield. Even less of an excuse now I've just moved to Castleton.

Exactly as everyone has said - it is a fairly easy route until you get to Kinder Low (actually I found it a bit hard around the downfall - difficult in the visibility to decide where to cross but I assume there will be the checkpoint marshall to guide there - I went a fair way upstream to ensure I didn't have a downfall myself).

Very misty on top today and very cold, lots of snow still around (and deepish in places - had lots of ice in my feet until Edale Cross).

The bad news, I got completely lost at Red Brook, between the downfall and Kinder Low. It wasn't obvious (to a poor navigator like me) at all where to go and I drifted into the Groughs on Kinder itself.

To give you an idea of the visibility and how far I'd drifted, I never even saw the Kinder Low trig point (or the Kinder Scout one).

I had to cheat and use my Garmin GPS to get me to the big cairn checkpoint - I had to use it sparingly because the battery was low and its cheating(!) but without it I'd probably still be lost up there - it is very bleak indeed and as Geoff says, it is very confusing. I can't remember why I lost my bearing at Red Brook.

So if by that point in the race you've got detached from the next runner ahead (very likely by then, especially in fog like today), then I think you'd be in some fairly serious trouble.

The good news is from the Cairn at 079864, it is child's play. Also, for an A race, the hills didn't seem too bad at all.


Are you sure you've no chance of a reccy? I'll be going up on Saturday for a very slow run around it to try to iron out the nav problems - I don't want to use a GPS in a race.

[Swoop]

I didn't see the Kinder Low trig point either but that's not a problem because you should be way to the right of it. The visibility was very bad today but I knew that even if I went too far left I would hit the path. Hopefully it will be clear on the day. I find I run much faster if I can see all around me.

[Joe]

From reading all these reports on how you're all faring on your recce's I'll be praying for mist and picking up a few places ;-)