Since last Wednesday, the Dark Peak has endured and enjoyed some rather changeable weather from normal grey November to a road-closing snow fall, significant sub-zero and ice-forming temperatures relieved by a shift up to the warmth of a balmy 10 to 12\u2070C. This roller-coaster of a weather ride continued with the return to close to zero conditions for our adventure from Blackden which was chosen by Andy and Chris for nostalgic reasons. They are, firstly, to revisit the crevasse which almost swallowed up Andy a few years ago and, secondly, to see whether its width had now increased enough to swallow a whole group of Dark Peakers.<\/p>\n
With this in mind we set off down the icy path in completely the opposite direction from the crevasse down to the bridge over the sinister looking full and fast flowing river Ashop. Also full was Blackden Brook which was crossed with ease, however, for those missing the delights of a cold-water foot bathe, there was relief to come later. We were now in the ever present and necessary toiling stage of fell running, up the Wicken towards Blackden Moor whilst avoiding veering into the cheerfully named Dunge Clough. This we completed, although against a strong north westerly wind which tested our resolve and our clothing, five layers for me, though the youthful Tom was in long shorts, and, I must add, other stuff! The relative ease of Blackden took us to the final slope to Seal Edge where about twelve of us sheltered in a rock crevice from the chilling wind and ice, forecast to produce a \u201cfeels like\u201d temperature of -10 or -12\u2070C. In adversity like this, it\u2019s surprising how many people could cram into such a small and, by now, a cosy rock niche. Whilst there was a misguided idea to stay there, needs must, so we started our descent towards Gate Side Clough via the boggy but fast, triple crossing path. We missed it, but no matter we reached the track down to the valley where we indulged ourselves in some cold-water therapy, crossing the mighty (It felt like it) Fairbrook. It was near here that the wise amongst us decided that the next section of the run was not the cleverest of ideas and set off back avoiding the Fairbrook foot freezer, very sensible!<\/p>\n
Such was the numbing effect and the thrill of the chill, that we were prepared to road run (!) along the A57 for as many as a few yards to engineer our escape to Oyster Clough which involved some hands and knees climbing, to the extent that it did seem it would be a good idea to have studs fitted to gloves and tracksters. Such delusional thoughts soon passed as we descended into Oyster Clough and set about climbing up towards Cowms Rocks. It\u2019s a long way up there but we had the luxury of a following wind, which was more noticeable and colder with increasing height. Remember we had been softened up after coming down into the relative warmth of the sheltered valley. <\/p>\n
We were now on the hunt for \u201cthe Crevasse\u201d so it was time for some precision navigation. Having followed a bit of a traverse along the edge, we started descending through various obstacles and over a good variety of terrain only for Andy to declare that we\u2019d missed it, although, at least we had the comfort of knowing that \u201cA man who has never been lost has never been anywhere\u201d. An adventurous descent brought us to the road for a touch more road running to the car park where changing was done on the basis of minimal exposure to the refreshing wind chill and minimum delay to reach the warmth and beer of the Yorkshire Bridge Inn which stimulated conversations on blue matting removal, the temperature of the Punk IPA (very cold) and a possible Gentlemen\u2019s outing to celebrate Andy\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
As always, the combination of challenging conditions, navigational excitements, the recovery of our warmth, our discussions and the beer made for yet another wonderful Warts\u2019 outing. Thanks to all!<\/p>\n
Graham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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