I love...

Foiled by the snow

Monday December 22 - Edale

A rare free day with sunshine forecast and the promise of a crisp, icy traverse of Kinder via Jacob's Ladder, Crowden Tower and Grindslow Knoll. The whiteout seems to have caught everyone by surprise. The guy who arrives at the pick-up truck next to my car says it's harsh on the top and inadvisable without crampons. He's been across to the Downfall and I notice his ice axe is still caked in frozen snow. Figuring I might just settle for reaching the top and coming straight back down I set off. The next guy I meet has given up, settling for turning back at the top of Grindsbrook after a quick coffee and says he just wants to get home now. I'm still determined to get to the top, after driving an hour and a half to get here. I've resolved to stay overnight in the village if driving out again isn't possible. But it isn't to be. The snow is at least 6 inches on the flat and drifting several feet thick in places. The going is hard, even on the lower slopes heading west toward Booth. The wind chill is cruel and the driving snow makes looking ahead almost impossible. The rescue helicopter is criss-crossing the valley and I'm not keen on becoming another mountain rescue statistic. So I give up after little more than a mile, hunker down behind a wall, eat my lunch - glad of the hot flask I brought - and just enjoy the beauty of it. 

 

 

 

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First snow of winter

Monday December 21 - Cadole, Flintshire

New Forest winter morning

Saturday December 19

If only...

RATM's 'Killing In The Name' to beat off another SyCo Christmas number 1?

I love that thought...

Unchanging but always different

Monday December 14 - around Alport Moor

Seven months after gazing across Alport Dale toward the moors beyond, back in the heat of May, it's time to explore that western side of the valley.

It could be another world this time. In fact, in many ways it really is another world. One of perfect solitude. A place to lose yourself ...... metaphorically only, thanks to my GPS60 and the trusty back-up of analogue compass and a waterproof Ordnance Survey OL1 Explorer Active edition map.

 

It's a short climb up from Birchen Clough bridge to the edge of the moor and from then on it's a case of 'walking on instruments' all afternoon as the view never extends beyond a hundred yards or so.

Cutting east across Over Wood Moss toward the top of the dale it's a world of peat groughs and hags, no footpaths here. This is wilderness walking in total solitude. The only sounds come from the cackling of startled grouse and the squelch of sodden sucking black peaty paste underfoot. Until the appearance of scattered gritstone rocks and the sudden edge of the moor and time for sandwiches, tea and the music of waterfalls below, that I came to see. But they're buried somewhere deep in the thick clag that fills the valley.

Setting off to zig zag south, avoiding the deeper cloughs with their steep banks, slippery as butter, that otherwise spell a real struggle to make progress, it's clear from the emergence of the occasional faint trail and boot print that others walk this edge. But probably not today.

Today I have it all to myself. Maybe I'll return in the spring, when the sights, smells and sounds of all the teeming life of the moors have returned too. And it will be different again but still the same, just the way I love it.

Derwent Edge and Strines Edge

Saturday November 21 2009

Wet wet wet. And windy. Moody and lovely. Not many people about but the mountain biker I swap pleasantries with sums it up when he says how much he's enjoying the low cloud ceiling. I'm with him on that.

 

 

Black Ashop Moor

Saturday October 31 - below the northern slopes of Kinder Scout.

 

It seems to be a little frequented area, juging by the dearth of walkers. Maybe it's that solitude that makes this such an unnerving sight. I'm convinced it's a person. And someone either deaf or dead as I approach, hailing loudly 'are you OK there?'.....

 

It's a relief to find it's just a pipe emerging from the ground and wrapped in a waterproof cover, albeit a bit of an odd thing to find out here. It's not the only strangeness this afternoon. After my lunch stop I'm baffled by the total disappearance of all the water from my Camelbak. It's happened before - and that time was at the foot of Kinder too, but over on the other side. It's a lovely stroll though, with views of Bleaklow in the distance and the strangeness of Kinder's rock formations above all adding to the atmosphere.

 

 

Morrissey - Leeds Academy, Thursday October 29

The temptation is to fall into a stream of hyberbole. The bottom line is that I always love a Morrissey show. From the idiosyncratic movies of German 'schlagen' performers projected onto a big screen in the 'dead' time between support and main act to the wry inter-song banter, it's always an experience to treasure.

Then there's the band who, frankly and seriously, rock. Tonight they were the mighty Boz Boorer (guitar), Solomon Walker (bass), Jesse Tobias (guitar), Matt Walker (drums) - all retained from last year's troupe - and Gustavo Manzur on keyboards.

Emotional. And occasionally spine-tingling. As always.

The set: This Charming Man / Black Cloud / When Last I Spoke To Carol / How Soon Is Now? / Ganglord / Cemetery Gates / I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris / Teenage Dad On The Estate / Nowhere Fast / Irish Blood, English Heart / Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself? / One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell / Death At One's Elbow / The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores / Is It Really So Strange? / The Loop / Because Of My Poor Education / I'm OK By Myself // First Of The Gang To Die

Grasmere & Elterwater

Wednesday October 28

 

Grasmere to Easedale tarn

Tuesday October 27