Yorkshire Three Peaks

(For those who want to know, right at the bottom is a map of the route)

I've been wanting to do the 3 peaks walk for years and years and years - after the Coast to Coast (I'll do it one day!) it must be my longest lasting aim... but for various reasons I'd never got round to actually getting out and doing it. But, finally, that day came! I've done Ingleborough and Whernside before but there was a little bit of mystery still left in that Pen-y-ghent had so far remained untrodden by myself. I was doing the 26 mile walk with my brother, Dan, who whilst enjoying the outdoors almost as much as me - certainly doesn't get out anywhere near as much. It was my longest walk ever, by a few miles, but it was at least double Dan's previous longest - and, being the kind of person he is, he'd not done the slightest bit of preparation for it - so (giving the end away here...) it was quite an achievement for him to make it round!

Anyway, we got up and set off by 5.30 and got to enjoy the most amazing sunrise you'll ever see (Dan's a real man's man - not one for pretty sunrises - but even he agreed). No chance to jump out and photograph it, so you'll just have to believe me... but a very, very nice start to the day! We headed up Wensleydale and as soon as we reached the watershed to come down towards Ribblesdale we were greeted by a much less inviting sight...

Photographically, I love mist, but not so fun to walk in!

Anete

Well, this post has been a long time coming! A few weeks ago after having yet another cancellation (eurgh, models... or at least models who do it for free...) I organised a quite last minute shoot with one of my lovely strangers, Anete. We decided to head to the Winter Gardens, which was lucky as when the day came I'm pretty sure it was the wettest day of the year - absolutely torrential - so it was good to be inside. Unfortunately, we put our belongings in a locker in the museum next door... not knowing that it closed at 5pm... so poor Anete then lost her phone until the next day and was quite possibly unable to get into her flat... exciting stuff! On top of that, it meant that both of us lost our coats for the walk home... we must have looked quite a sight! Since this is not a wordy post, I should note here, before I forget, that Anete was a quite perfect model - holds poses perfectly, looks like that, and is very friendly to boot!

Edit: You can find her blog here... so go and have a look!.. http://lepainnoir.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/photoshoot-at-winter-gardens-sheffield-part-1/

Anyway... here are the photos... they were something of an experiment for me, so I hope you like the results...

Approaches To Kinder II: Crowden Clough

My second in this series of posts is easily the most difficult route up I've yet to find. I've not had the chance to explore the northern edges yet but of the major approaches from the south, you won't find harder. 

Starting in Edale you take the path out of the top of the village towards Barber Booth - it involves a slight climb but is basically along the bottom of the valley. Upon reaching Barber Booth, or the farm you come to that makes up part of the village you just continue on to the road, walk along it a short way and just on the far side of the stream - beneath the trees - is a path off up to the right. In summer this can get somewhat overgrown - whilst in winter it could be tricky too due to certain sections slipping into the stream below - but in general it's a very decent path. 

A little further up you soon come across this little gem - it's a bit of a slide/scramble down to it - but well worth it...

Approaches To Kinder I: Jaggers Clough

After being commissioned to shoot some photos from the top of Jaggers Clough, I finally decided to do the walk up it from Edale to get a feel for the place.

The walk along from Edale is pretty straight forward - after walking up through the village you turn right at the church to head down a pretty obvious path just below the graveyard. This takes you through numerous valley-bottom fields and farms until you reach the main Hope-Edale road. After a few minutes walking along this, through Nether Booth, you turn left into an overgrown path which soon leads onto a much more well worn farm track. This takes you straight up to the bottom(ish) of Jaggers Clough - at which point you no longer need directions. I'd say this walk, at it's hardest gets to about a [2], maybe a [3] at a push - but most people should be fine. If you've not seen already, these numbers can be made more meaningful by having a quick look at THIS post. 

Approaches To Kinder, The Key.

After my many, many walks up onto Kinder Scout I am finally starting to feel like an expert. This weekend I went for my final 'major' approach to Kinder from the southern flanks, starting at Edale - Crowden Clough. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of information regarding the difficulty of each of these 'clough' climbs on the internet (or at least, I couldn't seem to find it) - so I have taken it upon myself to create a series of posts describing each. This is mainly because this most recent approach ended in failure - I knew it was a challenging one but upon reaching a steep scramble/climb at the top had to turn back because not everyone in the party was willing to climb it.

So, for this series of posts I'm toying with the idea of using the following ranking system - as it is what I know...

1) If you're like my Mum - you should probably turn back wherever I insert anything greater than a [1] in the text. This would be if you have absolutely no head for heights. A slanting path about 4 yards up would make you very nervous, anymore and it's too much.

2) If you're like 'old me' - more than happy, if not keen, to be high up, but so long as you have a 'falling gap' - a body length - between yourself and any edge. I'll shove a [2] in wherever this applies. Less than a 'falling gap' and you wouldn't want to be near any physically dangerous edges, or slopes greater than 30 degrees.

3) Current me - the more I walk, the more I desensitise myself. The top of Winnats Pass used to terrify me, all of 6 months ago, but now it is nothing. You no longer need such a large 'falling gap' between yourself and edges, and can generally manage slopes greater than 30 degrees - even if you don't fancy turning round too much on them. Probably somewhere around average. As you may have guessed by now - this would be a [3].

4) The Dan - slightly more adventurous than my current self, but still somewhat sensible (bordering on crazy, especially if paired with no.5 - the two together love to show off). Anyway, a [4] means a Dan can do it.

5) The Dad/Bob- fearless/stupid, whatever you want to call it. You don't care about sheer drops, edges or cliffs in the slightest. A breeze could knock you off? So what, you love to show off and stand on the edge. If I put a [5] you have to be a relative mentalist to give it a go.

Now, this list does not take into account you really outdoorsy types. I love to get out, spent my childhood in the Dales and get out into the Peak whenever I can now - but have little experience on the real mountains, with rock climbing and difficult scrambles. For you people, I'm sure you'll be fine - but this is very much aimed at the regular folk.

So - enjoy the posts and hopefully I'll have finally contributed something worthwhile to the internet.

• Jaggers Clough
• Crowden Clough

Win Hill Sunset

This set of photos is from April, one of my first post-snow outings of the year and whilst it is always enjoyable to make the short walk up to Win Hill from Hope (oddly, I think this was the first time I'd done it when it'd been light?!?) - it was made all the more interesting by the seemingly millions of lambs. Some behaving better than others... 

Spring Sunset Around Higger Tor/Stanage Edge

Towards the end of April I took a late evening stroll up from Grindleford, through Padley Gorge and the Longshaw Estate, over Carl Wark and Higger Tor to Stanage Edge. Whilst there was lots of nice light it was the first time I'd been out in a while, so was first and foremost just a very enjoyable walk - although, of course, that didn't stop me taking a few pictures... the sun somewhat fizzled out just as it was reaching it's most colourful - as it sunk into a thick bank of mist on the horizon which made it get surprisingly dark even before sunset had technically happened. The train back wasn't for another 90 minutes so I had some time to wander around amongst the late climbers and have a quite snack in the darkness at Carr Head rocks, overlooking Hathersage.

I've taken lots of shots of Carl Wark in all sorts of conditions, but this is probably one of my personal favourites - even with the endless brown heather!