Westend Moor

I'd not got up as early as planned, but headed off for Bridge End Car Park hoping there would still be space. In fact, it's been turned into a home for logging vehicles. Plan B was to park by Fairholmes, so I utilised the empty spaces by Derwent Dam and headed up the path towards Lockerbrook. The temperature guage on my car was telling me that it was below freezing, but the stiff climb soon resulted in me taking off the ski jacket and making do with a thin fleece.


Beyond Lockerbrook, the path climbes up to Alport Castles, where it levels out quite nicely. The views along the way take in the Edale Valley, the Snake Pass and Alport Farm. There were a few people around, but not many. I stopped for a brief chat with one of the park rangers, but otherwise just lost myself in my thoughts and my ipod!


Had the day been longer, I'd have liked to have carried on to Bleaklow, but decided to be content with making it as far as the Westend Moor trig point. Initially I decided not to return by the same route, and tried to hack a path down towards Black Clough - but eventually common sense took over and I headed back to the path I'd come on.

My timing was impeccible, arriving back at the car just as the last bit of light was disappearing. As you would expect at this time of year, I had been deep into the bog, so was glad of zip-off legs for the drive home!

(Technical Data: distance = 17.5km, ascent = 550m)

Weather Forecast

Anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors will know the importance of a good weather forecast. Last Saturday's forecast on most websites was for wind, snow, and generally horrible weather. It didn't happen - but then I wasn't expecting it to. Why? Because I'd looked at the surface pressure charts, and they had forecast pretty much what we experienced.

Today was a similar situation. The BBC were warning of snow and fog, but Mountain Weather Information Service (IMO the best forecast around) were telling me that the fog would be restricted to the valleys, and the sun would be out. Had it not been for that, I may have missed out on today and stayed in bed.

Burbage

Today was our annual Duke of Edinburgh's Award navigation training. All those who are interested in doing their D of E, come out to Burbage Moor with us and we go through the basics while getting cold, wet, fed up and stuck in bogs. We're quite happy for it to be nasty, as bad weather sorts out the serious ones from the "I've only come because of my mate" types.

For the first time ever, we had good weather. There was no rain, there were not really any bogs, there was no fog, and there was no snow. Okay, so it was cold, but the sun was out and visibility was excellent.

It's not a day where we walk very far - more a day where we walk slowly and deliberately. Oh, and as usual it was rounded off with fish & chips in the pub!

Snowdonia Navigation

Today's exploits were courtesy of Snowdonia Adventures who had put on a beginners navigation training course for some members of snowHeads. I had asked if I could tag along, as I teach navigation to my D of E group, without ever really having been taught how to teach it.

The course started off classroom based, before we headed out onto the hill. Most people had done some nav before, but there were a few total beginners. It was useful practice for me, with the 1st D of E trip coming up next weekend, as it is easy to get out of practice with taking bearings. I was encouraged that I seemed to get everything right!

As everyone was doing so well, we stayed out after dark, enduring a steep, uneven descent. This was particularly good as it was testing, and was interesting to see how the instructor managed the group to ensure everyone got down safely. Having done two night sessions in a week, I'm now keen to get out and do more :)

Brown Knoll

Having worked the past two evenings, I decided to take advantage of the weather and headed out to the Peaks. I'd planned a while back to do Rushop Edge/Brown Knoll, but never got round to it. The plan evolved into....park at the far end of Rushop Edge, walk over Brown Knoll and up to Kinder Downfall, then return by the same route.



Having [almost!] reached the trig point at Brown Knoll, I decided that it was far too boggy to want to return by the same route, so started to formulate plan B. I continued on, but stopped when I got as far as Kinder Low. Looking at the map, it appeared that there was a path that would link me to the Pennine Bridleway at South Head, without me losing too much height. WRONG!

As the terrain came into view, I realised that I had misread just how many contour lines I was crossing, but decided that it was still a better option that retreating back across Brown Knoll. So, my next target/challenge was to make it onto the Bridleway before it went dark. I reckoned that the final 2.5 miles would be okay with just my headtorch, but in fact the moon was full so I didn't need to use the artificial light.

The beauty of staying out late is that you get to experience views like this one below.

Tignes

I've only ever skied once before at October 1/2 term, so set off with expectations of icy pistes, lots of sun, and lazy afternoons. We were staying with Mountainsun in Les Boisses and were delighted to wake up on the 1st morning to fresh snow. In the village! Conditions on the glacier were a little windy, and visibility wasn't amazing....but what fantastic snow!

Over the three days, we got a mixture of heavy snow and sunshine. The race teams that were trying to train, gave up attempting gates in the 70cm of fresh powder and just free skied. On a couple of occasions we thought that they may close the area due to high winds, but fortunately they didn't.

My only previous visit to Espace Killy had been at the end of April in 2004. I'd skied more on the Val d'Isere side, but was really impressed with the ski area as a whole. One thing that I hadn't noticed, that I did this time, was just how expensive the place is. Skiing a lot in Austria has got me used to being able to ski on a budget - and this was no place for a budget! We were staying chalet board, so didn't bother with lunch....after all, only wimps stop for lunch on a powder day!

Because free ski hire was included in the deal, I didn't take my own. I chose to try the Scott Realm. They handled well, and were good for the conditions, but I wasn't convinced to rush out and flog my B2s on ebay so that I could buy a pair.

All in all it was a good pre-season warm up. Just a shame I have to wait 3.5 months for the real season to kick off for me.