I did this route with Darren Ellis and Tony Draper (both previous LSW walkers). We started at Upper Booth and made our way up the relatively gentle start up towards Crowden Clough. The fun started when we began a gorge scramble up the river towards the top. This was a mixture of picking my way through rocks and climbing small sections of waterfalls! This was loads of fun and also distracted me from how far I had gone and how high I had climbed. After walking, climbing and scrambling for quite some time we reached a small pool of water with a waterfall coming down into it which was very beautiful. After having some lunch and Tony and Darren had finished messing around on the closest rock face we tackled the final longer scramble to finish our route.
I was nervous at first as I am not great with heights but I had come a long way up to that point and there was no way I was going back!! In the end it was much easier than it looked and I shot up it leaving Tony (who was behind me to make sure I was safe) far behind me. We could have left the river at this point and continued on to the summit of Kinder but Tony insisted we follow the river all the way up. This lead to a spot of weaselling - I did choose the easiest gap to get through but it was still quite hard work as the rocks to push yourself out with were quite high (sore arms!)At this point we had reached the plateau of Kinder and it was extremely windy! So much so some of the waterfalls were going upwards. Walking along the top in that wind would have been hard work if it hadn't been pushing me along in the right direction. Must have been a sign!
The worst part of this walk was tackling the peat bogs. Walking through them was tough. Just like walking through snow or sand, but much dirtier! There was a treat on the plateau though. There is a group of rocks which have formed very strange shapes up there, including one which resembles a giant mushroom. The largest concentration of these rocks is called The Woolpacks and is really quite something to see. We paused for a couple of minutes to have a bit of a play on them and have a bit of a climb.
Then came the long trudge to the trig point. It was a little disheartening as I could see the trig point for ages before I got to it and there was a large area of peat to walk through just has I got to it. But it was worth it.There were a lot of people up on the top and we had a quick chat to a couple who were doing the Edale Skyline, which Darren has told me I'll be doing in the spring as one of my last training walks. We wished them luck and started our walk down. We followed part of the skyline route and then broke off towards Jacob's Ladder. This was a long steep staircase type path which made my knees ache going down it. I turned round about half way down to take a look back up and it made me glad we didn't go up that way. At the bottom of the ladder it was a simple flat ramble back to the start point.
I thoroughly enjoyed this walk and, combined with the inspiration I got from the presentation night, I feel more motivated then ever! I even agreed to tackle Snowdon some time soon.
I'm feeling really positive about my training at the minute and can't wait for my next walk. I'm planning on taking on more distance next time as the walks I have done so far have been relatively short.
Charlotte.
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