Peak District skiing and snowboarding never got this goodSteve Fisher, who just so happens to be the manager at Snow+Rock at Manchester's Chill Factore, sent us this update from Britain's big freeze
Kinder Scout is a mountain in the loosest sense of the word. Standing at 2,087ft it's the highest point in the Peak District and is accessible from the villages of Hayfield and Edale, in between the cities of Manchester and Sheffield. In the midst of the UK's Biggest Freeze for 100 years with the weather as clear as the Alps just after a snowstorm, it's snow covered peak was beckoning, so I had no choice but to conquer the 'mountain' on my doorstep!
A motley crew of my brother Colin and two mates Adam Jowett and Pete Cable met on the frozen back roads of Hayfield with a mission, much to the dismay of locals in 4-wheel drives trying to just get on with life.
To get up onto Kinder it’s a steady walk around the reservoir base of William Clough before you start the main walk-in. Once round at the Bridge, you take the direct route up what could be described as the ridge of Kinder bowel, it’s steep but it’s the fastest way to thesummit. Benefiting from a perfectly clear day, we could use the slow walk-in to scope our lines for the decent, as well as take some detours off onto smaller play lines that just couldn't be missed.
An hour and a half later we were on the plateau taking onboard the all-important nutrition: left-over Christmas cake loaded with Brandy and neat shots from the Hip-flask to boot. With energy rebalanced it was time to play. We spent the next hour or so jumping off the wind-lips against the best backdrop you could imagine.
By 3pm light was starting to drop and so was the temperature. Each of us prepared for the lines we had scoped and with one meeting point planned just below the steep upper section, we dropped in for the best the Peaks had to offer.
Congregating back at the Bridge we were all beaming and it was obvious we'd picked lines that we were happy with. Following a small walk down to the cars for a spot of Rally practice we made it to Hayfield for that all-important Après ski beer (without the Euro exchange rate!). Perfect day!
There was a time when a city suffered far worse, climatically speaking, than Britain has these last few weeks. It was New York during the Great Blizzard of 1888
Posted by name - Thu, 14/01/2010 - 5:07pm
Steve Fisher, who just so happens to be the manager at Snow+Rock at Manchester's Chill Factore, sent us this update from Britain's big freeze
Kinder Scout is a mountain in the loosest sense of the word. Standing at 2,087ft it's the highest point in the Peak District and is accessible from the villages of Hayfield and Edale, in between the cities of Manchester and Sheffield. In the midst of the UK's Biggest Freeze for 100 years with the weather as clear as the Alps just after a snowstorm, it's snow covered peak was beckoning, so I had no choice but to conquer the 'mountain' on my doorstep!
A motley crew of my brother Colin and two mates Adam Jowett and Pete Cable met on the frozen back roads of Hayfield with a mission, much to the dismay of locals in 4-wheel drives trying to just get on with life.
To get up onto Kinder it’s a steady walk around the reservoir base of William Clough before you start the main walk-in. Once round at the Bridge, you take the direct route up what could be described as the ridge of Kinder bowel, it’s steep but it’s the fastest way to thesummit. Benefiting from a perfectly clear day, we could use the slow walk-in to scope our lines for the decent, as well as take some detours off onto smaller play lines that just couldn't be missed.
An hour and a half later we were on the plateau taking onboard the all-important nutrition: left-over Christmas cake loaded with Brandy and neat shots from the Hip-flask to boot. With energy rebalanced it was time to play. We spent the next hour or so jumping off the wind-lips against the best backdrop you could imagine.
By 3pm light was starting to drop and so was the temperature. Each of us prepared for the lines we had scoped and with one meeting point planned just below the steep upper section, we dropped in for the best the Peaks had to offer.
Congregating back at the Bridge we were all beaming and it was obvious we'd picked lines that we were happy with. Following a small walk down to the cars for a spot of Rally practice we made it to Hayfield for that all-important Après ski beer (without the Euro exchange rate!). Perfect day!