Set off on foot up the Old Buxton Road from Macc. This road and the Cat and Fiddle Road was closed to traffic. At Walker Barn conditions were poor with deep drifts and blowing snow. A paramedic in a 4wd suggested turning back. Decided to push on a few hundred metres more to see what conditions were like. See video for an impression of the scene:
At this point I decided that further progress was unlikely and took the paramedic’s advice.
Decended via a different route encountering snow drifts around 2m deep in places. Hard going but strangely enjoyable.
The words of one who enjoys physical exercise and the conquering of nature. Pound to a penny though, you’d probably not have enjoyed the activation had you made the summit - except of course in recollection over a pint in front of a warm pub fire some years hence
It’s strange how enjoyable the snow was on Sunday and Monday while Paul and myself were out activating, but it is just an inconvenient nuisance here at home.
Thanks Gerry. Fortunately, having not invested too much effort in getting from home to where I started walking I didn’t feel any great need to push on. The fierceness of the wind was quite a surprise as it was calm in Macclesfield. The next part of my route would have involved walking face into the wind for several miles and that was not an appealing prospect. Every now and again the blowing snow reduced the contrast so that it was not possible to be sure where your next footfall would be. In places there were tall steep-sided drifts and falling off one in low contrast convinced me that I could end up in trouble quite easily. The occasional 4wd went by but I usually saw them twice as they decided not to risk it! Even a farmer on a large tractor had difficulty on on part of the road.
The contrast with conditions in Macclesfield was quite amazing - which fooled many people into thinking they could drive to Buxton - or walk to Shining Tor ;-). Apparently at one stage the police had to physically stop people ignoring the snow barriers.
Every now and again the blowing snow reduced the contrast so that it was not possible to be sure where your next footfall would be.
Definitely out of ones comfort zone and the only option is to get back to safety. It is one thing climbing hills with 30cm of lying snow when it is only breezy and the sun is shining, another entirely in the conditions that you describe and are shown on the video.
As for Joe Public… must be the same person that I saw climbing Hay Bluff in plimsoles and again on Moel Hebog wearing the same footwear. And they wonder why they get into trouble!
Every now and again the blowing snow reduced the contrast so that it was not possible to be sure where your next footfall would be.
You have a high threshold Richard. If you recall, when we turned back from Black Hill last week, I only needed to reach the level of “I would rather be drinking beer than this”!
Yes, I’ve met Joe Public. He was walking up the Old Man of Coniston in torrential rain as Jimmy and I were descending. He didn’t have a rucksack with him, or any proper waterproofs or clothing, but did have his two little daughters in bare feet and plastic sandals, which were always submerged under six inches of cascading rainwater.
I met him again having just left the summit of Y Lliwedd. This time he asked “Am I nearly at the summit?”. I replied in the affirmative, but it turned out he had meant to climb Snowdon!
Perhaps Trail magazine ought to do a feature article about him - “Joe Public - Britain’s Worst Mountaineer”
I saw him and two mates on Helvellyn a couple of years ago, full winter conditions on the hill, they got stuck half way up the steep climb from the end of striding edge up to the summit of Helvellyn, not an ice axe or crampon between them and they found they couldn’t go any further but neither could they retreat, well and truly stuck they were.
He must be the guy I met on Kinder a few years ago. I`d just scrambled up the very icy Grindsbrook Clough to access the plateau at Fox Holes. out of the fog appeared this dishevelled figure wearing jeans and trainers & asked if that was the way down to Hayfield (some 3km wrong). Then his wife appeared out of the fog with a kid in a push chair. Meedless to say the MRT were very busy on kinder that day.
