Stanton Moor

There was still plenty of snow on the ground, although the roads are largely clear, and the sun was shining.
I left Karen transferring some old cassette tapes to her PC and went for a local walk to Stanton Moor.
Leaving the house I walked across Main Street and then through the jitty opposite hoping the very large icicles on the guttering above didn't chose that moment to break off and fall on top of me!
Following the Public Footpath down the large field, I stepped over a stile and then continued through the small wood until I reached a track which leads to the Elton – Winster road and pops out opposite Winster Cemetary.
Turning right, I followed the road for a few tens of metres the right to the narrow road of Birchover Lane.
Following Birchover Lane I reached a small crossroads where Birchover Lane crosses Clough Lane and again turned right. Passing a farm I saw some Shetland Ponies out in the snowy field enjoying the sunshine despite the cold.
At the side of the large barn next to the track were some birds you normally wouldn't expect to see in the Derbyshire countryside: emus!
Continuing down Clough Lane, I passed though a squeeze style into a large field with some cattle and made use of the groove they had worn in the snow to reach another farm and then following the continuation of the Public Footpath through the farmyard then through the farm's empty camp site to reach the lane leading past Birchover Quarry.
There is a stile a short way along the lane which is an access point onto Stanton Moor and I stepped over this to follow the path across the moor which led to the small circle of standing stones known as the Nine Ladies Stone Circle .
Luckily either a groove had been worn through the snow by others, which made the walking through the snow easy, or I just made use of the deep foot steps left by others.
Leaving the Nine Ladies, I followed the route of another path which crosses the moor to arrive at the Cork Stone. This isolated pillar of gritstone was equipped with footholds and metal staples in Victorian times to allow those who want to to climb on top.
Passing the Cork Stone, I followed the path which soon leads onto the same lane which I had been on earlier, leading past Birchover Quarry.
There is a Public Footpath which leads through the Quarry Car Park to bring you at a bend in the road at the Druid Inn pub in the neighbouring village of Birchover.
I followed the track which leads past the pub and the church to the lane leading to Rocking Stone Farm, then up the slope leading to a higher track. Following this track for a short distance passing a house, then through a stile by a gate leading to a Public Footpath which follows a small ridge with views across to Winster.
After several stiles I arrived back at the crossroads with Clough Lane and Birchover Lane. I continued along Clough Lane following the same route I had taken earlier and where I had previously gone through the squeeze stile on the left into the field, I instead passed through a gate to the right which leads across another field until I arrived at a path leading down through the small plantation of Stoop Wood.
The path now dropped down a slope to another stile into a larger field. Hereabouts there is a path laid with narrow gritstone slabs which was the route miners from Birchover used to take to get to work many years ago when the Winster lead mines were still being worked. Today there were no sign of the slabs as they were buried under snow.
At the bottom of this very wide and shallow valley, there is another stile and a path leading past the Winster village pond then back into the Main Street by the Village Shop.
I then just had to follow the Main Street for a hundred yards or so to arrive back home.
The weather was perfect for something I haven't worn for ages: my Buffalo Mountain Shirt. I've had this for years and it is basically a fibre pile smock with a pertex cover which is warm even when damp and is easy to ventilate as it has a zip at the neck and also a zip either side leading from beneath the armpits down to the hem at the bottom. Although it kept me warm all the time, despite only wearing a thin thermal shirt underneath, I never got too hot due to the excellent ventilation provided by the zips.

 Looking back at the jitty leading from opposite our front door

 An icicle on a tree

 Tracks on Stanton Moor

 Some of the stones belonging to Nine Ladies stone circle

 Emus on a farm near Birchover

Looking back towards Winster in the distance

A Walk Along Abney Brook

We had a bit of a lay-in this morning and after a phone call from Eileen Morton, I drove over to the Orpheus CC Cottage to pass a message to Ken. The morning was clear and sunny with no wind but very cold (the car thermometer was showing -7°C) and no more snow had fallen overnight. The track to the Cottage was clear but most cars were parked in the first field near the gate as their owners had believed there was the possibility of further snow overnight.
Afterwards I returned home to pick up Karen and we drove through Grindleford and up a snowy and icy road leading to Sir William Hill to park at a track leading off the road leading from Eyam to Grindleford via Sir William Hill.
We started of f up the unmetalled road passing the large ariel tower and the chimney of Ladywash Mine until we reached a minor road at a bend.
We branched off from here onto another track, and soon we passed through the drive of a private house at Nether Bretton on a Public Footpath which led us along one side of the house, over a stile next to the ruin of a lovely old house with mullioned windows, and then across a field. After another stile we started on a steep path with steps which led down to a valley bottom.
We crossed a stream by using a footbridge and started up the other side of the valley. Part way up the other side we had a sit down to have lunch.
We continued on our route soon reaching the hamlet of Abney. After following the road through Abney for a short distance we turned onto another Public Footpath which led us down the Abney Brook valley.
This led us to Stoke Ford where we crossed another footbridge and then followed a rising zig-zag path giving views both back along the Abney Brook valley with the autumnal colours of beech and larch trees, but also Hathersage in the distance along with the gritstone crags of Stanage Edge and Millstone Edge. We followed along the top of the valley then crossed a stile in a drystone wall onto the moorland which we crossed to soon reach a stile onto the track where we had left the car.
Afterwards, we stopped off at Outside at Calver crossroads for a meal and then home.
I wore my Rab Vapour Rise Stretch with TrekMates Merino Wool shirt underneath, Polar Buff (as a hat), Icepeak X-Treme trousers, Asolo Powermatic 200 GTX boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.
I found the Rab Vapour Rise Stretch top excellent. I was always warm and never too hot despite some short steep climbs. There was no wind but despite being sunny, the temperature was never above freezing all day.

Another Return to Kinder

The original plan was for the two of us to do a walk from the King's Tree in the Derwent Valley, especially as the weather forecast was for a cold but clear and sunny day.
We were woken in the morning at nearly 0800 by noisy jackdaws in the garden and when Karen had a look out of the window and saw that around two inches of snow had fallen overnight. This wasn't in the weather forecast. The first snow of the winter!
As the planned walk involved driving along a minor road and then a stretch of road which leads to a dead end and is only open to traffic at weekends from October onwards, we thought it might be best to avoid this route if there was any snow about.
So, we changed the plan to do a walk on Kinder instead.
The roads were fine as they had been gritted and when we got closer to the Edale valley we could see that there was less snow lying on the ground than back home in Winster, which was a bit of a surprise.
We parked in the large car park at Edale village (Grindsbrook Booth) and could see that it was still very overcast and not much like the weather forecast.
Anyway, we got our boots on and readied ourselves for the walk. By now there were at least blue patches of sky.
As we approached the centre of the village, Karen was a bit cold and still a bit hungry after a light breakfast so I suggested a hot drink and a snack at the café at Coopers Farm campsite.
It was warm in the café and Karen was soon warm again and once we had finished our food, we continued on our way with the plan to do the same route I had followed last week but in reverse, as there was a cold wind and we would get better shelter and have the wind in a more favourable direction.
The cloud cleared and the sun made an appearance as we climbed up the zig-zag path leading to Ringing Roger. We found a sheltered spot amongst the gritstone rocks to have a quick hot drink then continued on our way following the rising path leading to the Kinder plateau.
Once we reached the path along the edge, we continued along this with views back down to our starting point across to the small peak of Grindslow Knoll.
We found another sheltered spot in the lee of rocks and sat in the sun with views across to the Great Ridge of Hope Valley and miles beyond where we ate our lunch.
Continuing along the flagstone path with the odd icy patch, we followed around the edge then after passing the top of Grindsbrook Clough, followed the path leading to the summit of Grindslow Knoll. Here the wind was quite strong and again we sat in the shelter of rocks to finish off our hot drinks before dropping down the path back to Edale.
On the way home, we stopped at Outside at Calver Crossroads for a meal.
I wore my Buffalo Mountain Shirt, Polar Buff (as a scarf), Lowe Mountain Cap, Icepeak X-Treme trousers, Asolo Powermatic 200 GTX boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.
As expected, the Buffalo Mountain Shirt was ideal for the conditions. While we were stopped on the top of Grindslow Knoll, I put my Paramo Torres Gilet on over the top and was more than warm enough.

A Walk from Ashover

This was a walk arranged by Paul Chandler which was on a weekend for a change so I could join in.
We met in Ashover village car park next to the Village Hall and Medical Centre (which appeared in the television series “Peak Practice” some years ago) and along with Paul, there were five others.
We followed a circular walk as far as Ogston Reservoir of about 9 miles stopping for lunch at some benches overlooking views into the distance. Luckily there was only a little light rain.

Walk on Kinder Scout

We had planned on a walk in the Derwent Valley but in the morning Karen was feeling unwell and decided to spend the day at home. So we decided to postpone the planned walk for another day and I would spend the day on Kinder Scout.
I drove to Edale and parked in the main car park (which is £5 for over 4 hours which is pricey) and set off towards the Old Nags Head Inn and the start of the Pennine Way.
At the junction with the path leading up Grindslow Knoll, I stopped to remove the hood and sleeves section of my Paramo Third Element jacket and got the walking poles out before beginning the walk up to the summit of Grindslow Knoll.
From her I followed the edge-side path leading back towards Ringing Roger and stopped in the shelter of some gritstone boulders on the plateau edge to eat my lunch.
I continued onwards and followed the path down from the edge heading towards the top of rocky outcropping of Ringing Roger where I had a second short stop to finish off my flask.
Once that was done I dropped down back to Edale and back to the car park.

DCRO Rescue Practice at Alderley Edge

It was an early start as Leaders and Controllers were asked to be at the National Trust Car Park next to the Wizard pub at 09:30.
Karen 'manned' the entrance to Wood Mine with radio and entry log while I marked a route to the mine with red and white tape while a small group including Brendan the Doctor and Alan Berry, both DCRO and Derbyshire Cave Club member led the way to Rabbit Cavern where the story was four cavers had entered the mine in the morning after a night out drinking and eating and two had fallen ill.
Once they had been examined by Brendan, it was decided to walk out one casualty who was 'not ill but feeling anxious about being underground'.
Meanwhile on of the two ill casualties was worsening and it was decided to bring him out on the SKED stretcher.
Meanwhile another group of four had gone to a different part of the mine and hadn't returned so another DCRO team were carrying out an underground search.
Back at the entrance, we were told that the other group of four had been found but two required evacuating on a stretcher. So the modified Neil Robertson stretcher was sent in.
While we were getting ready to move out with the stretcher, a message arrived to call a halt to the exercise and head to the surface. It was about 13:00.
We had a lunch break and afterwards had a search exercise looking for missing cavers. I took a group while being led by a DCC member to see the entrances to Cobalt Mine and Engine Vein Mine to see if there was any indication of entry into any of these: there were none.
After radioing for further instructions, we were told to return to control.
Once there, we were told that someone had fallen down Church Quarry and myself and Brendan were sent to examine the casualty and report back with requirements.
The casualty seemed alright but 'tingling in the legs' indicated possible spinal injury. A request was made for the spinal board and Oxygen plus a stretcher party.
The spinal board and stretcher party arrived and after the casualty was loaded on the board, he was carried back to the vehicle and Control in the car park.
This brought our day to an end and after the remainder team members arrived after a separate search, we had a de-brief and some of us who were returning via Buxton stopped off at the store to help tidy up the gear which had been used.

A Walk in the Goyt Valley

Parking at the car park next to Errwood Reservoir, Karen and I walked along the road next to the reservoir the along a path which gradually rose on rough grass until turning to the right a path beside a drystone wall led us to the top of Shining Tor.
It was a dry, sunny and windy day, quite cool but with a cold wind so as there was a wooden bench in the shelter of a corner of the wall right next to the Trig. Point on the summit, we took the opportunity to sit on the bench where we sheltered from the wind and had a snack.
It was good that the weather was so clear because there were views into the far distance practically in all directions.
After the short break we followed the route along which was furnished with large slabs of stone across boggy ground dropping a little and then rising again to the rounded summit of Cat Tor.
Soon the path dropped down to Pym Chair with views across to Windgather Rocks. We finished the remainder of our lunch in the shelter of a wall next to the minor road.

Next, we followed the minor road for a while, mainly on the rough grass verge then left it to follow a path which led back down to the road next to Erwood Resrvoir.
We then just had to walk back along the road for a short distance taking us back to where we had started.
In the evening we met Keith and Pete Collins for a meal in the Miners Standard. They were up to do a bit of digging in Water Icicle Close Cavern and told us about the state of Cherty-Two Choke which had suffered a collapse in the past week or so.
After the meal, we walked back to our house as Keith and Pete returned to the OCC Cottage.