Its been quite a while since I’ve been on regular wildcamps, and the news that the BMC were organising a line of walkers lighting the Great Ridge above the Hope and Edale valleys seemed to be a good excuse to go somewhere high and get a few panorama pictures of the event. I was thinking of a wildcamp somewhere high which could just about overlook Mam Tor, such as Kinder Scout. With that in mind, I posted on walkingforum.co.uk a suggestion for anyone to join me on a wildcamp and started organising my gear.
Gear List:
Vango Solo Plus 100 Tent
Alpkit Mountain Ghost 200 Bag
Alpkit CloudBase Mat
Jetboil Ti Stove
Lowe Alpine Airzone 35:45 Sack
One of these days my rucksack might look like its not full of bricks
Evening:
The weather that evening started excellently. I met-up with Nathan (WF: route2rock) at Grindleford, compared rucksack weights (both heavy :-[ ) and headed to Edale, arriving at the Car Park at 1830
After slapping on some sunscreen / insect repellent to keep off any evening invaders, we headed up Edale road to Grindsbrook and got our first sight of golden light on the plateau.
The picture from the Moorland Centre past the Church to Ringing Roger and Grindsbrook has to be one of the most common photos in the area, but hey – its a lovely view that always makes me smile
Crossing the stream, we turned onto the flagstone path. I was for some reason determined not to get my camera out and take any photos – a big mistake as the light and the views were stunning. Instead I got a few short bits of GoPro video – excuse the droning voice, that’s me :-
After the short scramble, we turned towards Grindsbrook Gnoll, suddenly aware of an increasing, cold wind coming in from the west. My idea initially was to drop a few meters off the top of the Gnoll, find a couple of hollows to pitch tents and then setup cameras to see what shots we could get of events on the Ridge directly opposite.
Despite the sky being clear, the wind was cold – surprisingly cold. And we noticed that within the layer of haze there was a growing cloud of what we thought was cloud, but would soon reveal itself to be heavy, wet mist.
Mindful of the wind on the Gnoll, we dropped down onto flatter ground and decided to pitch by a broken down wall which would give us shelter from the wind and also give something nice in the foreground of our photos
Evening sunlight on a drystone wall, Kinder Scout
Even as we were pitching our tents, you could feel the air becoming damp, and see condensation forming rivulets on the both the inner and outer sheets. Behind us, over Ringind Roger the whole of the moorland plateau was beginning to be covered with thick mist. Because of the strong breeze coming in from the east, the air was becoming colder and less able to handle moisture rising from the warm ground – it was going to be a different night compared to the day.
I think by nine o’clock I’d put on all my layers. gloves and a woolly hat and it was still cold. To stay warm, I setup my cameras (an EOS M and an M3) to get some timelapse going, setup my sleeping bag and wandered up and down the wall line to see where the best viewpoint for the lights was going to be.
By 2130 you could start to see lights on the ridge, offset by hazier lghts from Hope Cements walks and the valley behind, but my camera was really struggling. Both of them were saturated with condensation and the mist had started to obscure the Ridge.
I decided to grab a couple of photos looking north towards Crowden Tower where there was still a glow from the sunset
I think we spent a few hours until after 11 getting what snaps and timelase we could of the line of lights. What we hadn’t realised was that the path was predominantly on the south edge of the ridge, so a lot of what we and our cameras were seeing was nowhere near as good as what we’d see if we were looking at it from the south, say from Castleton or even from the ridge on which the Castle sits.
route2rock Taking photos of lights on the Great Ridge
By 2330 the lights on the Great Ridge were finished. I hadn’t really got anything useful other than a few mobile phone snaps, but as it got darker before the cold and the wind drove us into our tents and sleeping bags, we had a play with head torches and lights
Fogged up lens but still not bad one of a break in the mist
Morning:
I woke a few times during the night, but think I got a good 5 hours – my sleeping bags a good one and I wasn’t expecting too much sleep after coming off a 12 hour night shift the day before.
Crawling out of my pit, the sun was rising, and despite being obscured by the thick low-lying mist you could tell the morning was going to get better as the morning got older. I think both Nathan and I rushed to get photos as the light was so good.
I got a good timelapse of morning mist rolling across the top of Crowden Clouugh
..and a few pictures with my M3 which I’d dried out a bit in the tent.
That done, revelling in what was turning into a warm early morning, we dropped down onto the Pennine Way and headed back across the fields towards the Car
roypollard 