So far, we’ve only collected two, one above Cogman’s Cabin and a more significant one at Cowms Rocks which has been dignified with a name (see your local friendly Dark Peaker for that information). It was the latter one we needed to check for any widening, on our Wednesday night outing. But, such investigations are not won easily, the climb at the start from the road through the woods was steep but rewarding in that we discovered a ruined and roofless cabin which was not marked on our maps. Another anonymous Dark Peak curiosity to add to the list.
There had been concerns that the heat wave we’d been enduring would affect our athletic performance, such as they are, during the outing. However, the trees shaded us from the sun and the wind which had a significant effect when we climbed out of the forest. It was sufficiently cooling making the climb (now on a path) out of the stream just about pleasant even in the strange world the fell runners live in.
Last time we’d ventured into the Cowms rocks area was in darkness so we weren’t able to appreciate the general tumbling terrain of landslips and rockfalls. I think this was caused by the last earth movement which pushed the road below further down the hillside. (At least, it provided us with a large car park at Blackden, which, so far, is free to use.) In this jumble of rocks and mounds, we were inspired by one particularly pointy mound. It deserves a future summit expedition in the dark, assuming, of course, we can find it then. We scrambled on, up an ever increasingly steep slope until we reached the, up to now, invisible crevasse. It was wide and rather terrifying, possibly wider than last time we visited in December (?) last year. Tom regretted not bringing a Plum bob to measure the depth and we could only guess at the width but, certainly, no one attempted to jump across!
We left Cowms Rocks after much speculation about how much the crack has to widen before it opens to the point of collapsing, again. However, it did feel slightly safer on the moor above. This provided firmer and less rocky terrain though still fairly hard work until we found a useful and long trod taking us to the head of Oyster Clough and, close by, the cabin which was in fine condition. There we tarried a while and met a grandfather (?) and son (?) who arrived just as we were leaving for the descent of the steep wooded hill side. All well then, but only five out of six of us who had started, arrived at the cars. Andy was missing! By the time we’d changed, he was still missing. Not long enough yet to call for Mountain Rescue but long enough for us to go searching. So, a rescue party of three was formed and they headed off into the woods shouting “Andy”. There was a bit of a wait before the rescuers returned with Andy, still in one piece. Apparently, he had drifted to the right (compared with the rest of us) and was faced with a cliff descent which was even too much for him, so, sensibly, he retreated and returned to the car park and on to the YBI.
We had the usual welcome from the YBI and much was discussed, without any conclusion.
Jim O had also been out, reccying his race from Doctor’s Gate due next week. He proposed a cunning ruse for success which was to miss out CP 1 and just do CP2?? Any way that was his plan, I don’t know whether it will work?
We ‘d had a great outing so thanks to all.
Graham
