Karen was visiting friends on the Isle of Man and I had another trip to Kinder Scout. The weather forecast was for a dry but cloudy day with a westerly wind around 20 to 30 miles and hour so I decide to walk up vis Grindslow Knoll and then descend via Ringing Roger so that I would have the wind behind me most of the time.
After leaving the car in the main Edale car park I made my way into the village and then followed the start of the Pennine Way before turning off a short while later to start the ascent to Grindslow Knoll.
Near the top I saw a group of 3 oriental people, a young man and two girls who had been in front of me stop and the turn around. They seemed very cold even though they were wrapped up well – it was around 8 degrees with a bit of wind. Then near the higher section with the rough steps a couple were descending and the man told me it was very windy at the summit and pointed to the clouds rapidly being blown down the Gindsbrook valley.
Well, he was right! When I reached the summit of Grindslow Knoll it was so windy it was difficult to stand still. I had been wearing a Paramo Summit Hoodie fleece jacket only so far but with the wind I decided to add a windproof jacket on top so I ducked down in the shelter of one of the small craggy bouldrs and got a Paramo Vista jacket on overt the top.
Instead of walking the path skirting the top of Grindsbrook Clough, I followed the slabbed path leading towards Crowden Clough and the turned right along the slabbed path towards the top of Grindsbrook Clough. Once off the summit, it wasn't nearly as windy, which is what I expected.
So I followed along the edge path as it wended around the northern branch of the Grindsbrook river and then along the northern side of Grindsbrook Clough.
When I got part way between Upper Tor and Nether Tor, I decided to follow a small valley heading northwards and then make my way across the plateau towards Blackden Edge overlooking the Snake Pass.
I made my way along the path on this side of the plateau which has no slabs and hence was more muddy and boggy, but much quieter of course as you get less people around once you get further from Edale.
I could see the trig point at the 590 metre spot height in the distance with a couple of boulder outcrops in between and I then made my way towards the boulders having to make slight detours to get around some rather deep cloughs (the deep channels worn by water in the peat). I lost sight of the trig point but after checking the map I could see there was an indefinite path leading towards Madwoman's Stones, so I just headed that way for a while.
Soon I saw a mountain hare dart off at a gallop as I approached too close. The hare was not yet in its white winter coat and very quickly disappeared.
In the distance I could see Win Hill so I tramped through the rough heather to the right of the hill intending to eventually reach the vicinity of Ringing Roger.
As I approached the southern edge of the plateau, more of the Great Ridge separating the Edale and Hope Valleys grew in view.
I arrived at on of the narrow paths making its way parallel to the edge and after following this for a while, left it for the path which descends from the edge below and to the east of Ringing Roger.
I passed a couple of blokes coming the other way towards The Nab, one with a huge rucksack and the other struggling with a mountain bike. I pointed out that he wasn't really allowed to cycle up a public footpath but anyway I left him to his struggle. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself!
Soon I was back at Grindsbrook Booth and on the way back tot he car park I had a snack at the Penny Pot café next to the train station.
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