Bleaklow Marsden to Edale "The Trigger" Reccie

Jan 1st 2013 The Trigger Reccie 
Wanted to do the last Trigger section from the snake top to Edale. Parked up in Hayfield and went up Williams Clough then along the flags towards snake top. This time I managed to find the flag with the broken corner that marks where I needed to head directly south to the plane wreck. It was not as easy as I remembered it from the last time I done it so I am now not sure if it is better than going over feather bed top. I will use this way on race day so just have to see how it goes. The accent up onto kinder does seem a bit easier so got up to the Boxing Gove OK and then cut across to Kinder West. There was driving wind and rain at this stage. I got to the Pennine Way and met a family with a small boy that was only about 8 yrs old. Commented to the Dad that it was horrendous conditions and he replied yes but great fun thought. Not sure if the young lad agreed. Lots of running in the water along Kinder downfall to get out of the stream bed at Crowden Head then head straight east across to Grindlow. It is absolutely awful around Crowden Head, the gruff dams are being very successful so it is incredibly wet up there I got stuck a couple of times.

Completely lost my sense of direction when I picked up a gruff and decided to follow it. The gruff finally brought me out at Crowden Tower which is not where I had intended on going. Initially I did not realize where I was and started to head in the wrong direction before turning around and following the edge path to Grindslow. Between Grindslow and Crowden Tower I met a couple of women who asked for directions for the shortest way back to Edale, so I told them to just follow the new flagged path to Grindslow and they could descend from there. I ran in the same direction and then started the decent to Edale. Cut a bit of a corner off on the decent from Grindslow to Edale and had a bit of fun galloping down the very wet grass at the bottom of the hill, which involved a sprint against a couple of young lads that were doing belly slides in the mud. Their mother is going to love that when they get back to the car.

I had intended on following the Pennine Way to Edale Cross then back to Hayfield from there but:
a) it would be a bit short,
b) I was not happy with my route across Kinder
c) it was a nice day at this stage
d) I was a bit worried about the two women I had met. The path of Grindslow is not obvious at the beginning and they could easily have followed the wrong one.
So when I got to the  Pennine Way into Edale I turned around and started to head back up to Grindslow again. Lots of comments from the muddy family about having to do it in reverse. My vanity also meant that I had to keep running as well until I was out of sight. I had hoped I would meet the two women while ascending to Grindslow Knowl but no joy. Means they missed the decent I had hoped they would take, just hoped they had gone down Grindslow Brook, which would have been OK as well.

 Got the reverse trip across Kinder perfect so arrived at Crowden Head OK. Head a meander around there to see if there were any lines that would be a bit firmer but no joy so I just headed to the Christmas Trees to drop into the stream bed to follow the river Kinder back to Kinder Gates. When I got to Kinder Gates it started to get very dark extremely quickly, a bit spooky as it was only 3:30. I was starting to regret not bringing my head torch. I said to myself, "Pat I think you are going to get wet". I couple of minutes later the heavens open up on top of me. Not often I have seen rain as heavy as that. A few weeks previously a Berghaus waterproof running jacket just arrived in the post. My brother in Dublin is the worlds greatest scrounger and he saw it as a "second" on a rail in some shop and thought Pat would find that useful. It is an amazing jacket just designed for these type of conditions. So hood up with toggles pulled tight to cover as much of the face as possible and I was able to carry on quite happily. I descended via the 3 Knolls path, which was a bit tricky in the pouring rain then a lovely sprint down through the three fields to get to my car near the quarry carpark. As I approached it I said to myself is that my car with the lights on? Oh (insert appropriate word) am I going to have  a flat battery? Thankfully the car started OK so I just got in with all my wet gear as I could not be bothered changing. Just get out of the gear in the garage when I get home.


07 Dec. 2012 Trigger Reccie

Last year I went up Lawerence Edge which was OK I got over to Wildeboar Clough by following a couple of women that were heading across on a compass bearing. I overtook them and ended up having to find my own way to Bleaklow summit. My line to Bleaklow summit was not brilliant.

For January's race I want to be a bit more sure of the route over Bleaklow. So yesterday I parked up in Crowden to have a go at the Bleaklow section of The Trigger. This leg starts with a rough accent through the heather and rocks with bits of trods in places. This is followed by a steep accent of Lawerence Edge with a couple of moves at the very top that require some care. The runkeeper plot below shows the line I took once I got onto the plateau. The little out and back at the bottom of the image below is deliberate so that I can identify where the style over the fence is. As can  be seen my line was way off it should have been more directly south from where I reached the plateau.

How not to run on a compass bearing.

Once I crossed the styal there are trods in the grufs that go the whole way to the Pennine Way. The grufs split a number of times and it is very easy to follow the wrong one which can result in rougher travelling. But if you keep going generally south (and possibly slight west of south) you will hit the Pennine Way eventually. This section of the Pennine Way is very faint so if there is snow it can be easily missed.

From the summit of Bleaklow it is a case of heading directly south to the Higher Shelf Stones Trig. The line is via Wain Stones, Hern Stones and then straight south from there. There is a trod the whole way but once again it is faint and easy enough to unintentionally leave it.

Back and forth to get the right line to Wain stones.

Last year, after the road crossing at the Snake Top,  quite a few guys went along the flags then cut directly south to climb Kinder via the Boxing Glove. This is a rough route passing to the east of Within Clough as there are a lot of side tributaries that have been dammed up and must be crossed. It has been suggested to go past Within Clough and go down to the west of it. I tried it yesterday but did not go far enough past it. The flags were so icy I  spent too much time watching my footing on them. I probably should have went as far as Moss Castle/Glead Hill area before striking directly south. I have done this in reverse (coming from the plane wreck up to the Pennine Way flag stones) in the past and it worked really well. You just have to identify the correct place to leave the flags, which is easier said than done. It is a pretty featureless area around there. What I done in the plot below was hopeless.

Left the flag stones too early.

My phone battery was getting low because I forgot to put it in Aeroplane mode so it spent hours desperately trying to get a signal and eating up my battery in the process. I had to turn it off once I got to the wrecks. I had intended on going to Kinder West trig but it was 15:15 and while I had a light I did not fancy descending off Bleaklow in fading light so decided to call it a day and headed straight back to Bleaklow summit via the Pennine Way. Pretty much a perfect line back to Wildboar clough and I descended on the west side of it, which is a much better way for going up/down Wildboar. Just had a one mile trot back along the railway line to the car to finish at about 4 O Clock, having started just before 11 am.

Loads of mistakes made but a lot of useful info gained as well, so overall a successful day out in clear blue sky and sub zero conditions.