Peak District Scrambles: Chew Valley

At some point in my life, since moving to Glossop, I discovered I had developed vertigo. I first remember experiencing the nauseating dizzy feeling while halfway up a big indoor climbing wall. Weird, I thought. Although I have always had a very healthy respect for heights I'm certainly not afraid of them. In the past I've done plenty of caving trips (technical ropework ones), abseiled off the tall part of Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, paraglided in the Peak District and French Alps and my sport of choice in my early twenties was rock climbing. So why had this developed. Nothing traumatic happened to me. I just couldn't deal with heights. Or so I thought. I also now know it's not a fear of heights, it's exposure that sends me spinning.

Over the cause of the past few years, and more specifically this year, I've been working out what sends my head spinning. For this isn't something I'm just imagining. There have been times on club runs when trying to keep up with the group we've been going over a rocky edge path and I've had to stop and have a stern talking to myself to keep going.

Things that set me off seem to be: moving water, sudden or unexpected exposure to very steep ground / drops, running along an edge where one side of my vision has a different depth perspective.

So, with a good push from Tim and a lot of internal dialogue on my part I've been pushing myself to regain confidence on steep ground by going out and doing some scrambling. What I've discovered is that steep ground doesn't necessarily make my head spin - it's more about the exposure. So I've done a few scrambles in Snowdonia and a little bit in the Lake District. Now it was time for something a bit more local, in the Peak District.

With our passion for fell running, and Tim being keen to combine running with climbing/scrambling we headed out to the Chew Valley for a run and scramble adventure. Parking at Dove Stones reservoir we ran up towards Chew Reservoir along the track, but at the first gate we took a sharp left into Charnal Clough:

The start of the scramble up Charnal Clough

A beautiful dragonfly we saw

Me making my way up Charnal Clough

The scramble up the clough is such that you can easily avoid any rocks at all by hopping onto the grassy banks on either side. I lead some of the way up, finding 'interesting' route choices and sticking to rocks as much as possible. I was also keen to not always choose the easiest option. That included some wonderful encouragement from Tim to go up a boulder (maybe 8ft high) and involved a committing move with foot smears and trusting shoes. I did it on my second attempt, and then with some more encouragement returned and repeated the moves again, topping out directly this time and feeling really chuffed with myself. No photos of that bit, Tim was spotting me - an important part of confidence building.

From the top of the clough we headed left and along a lovely trod, past Bramleys Cot, around Dean Rocks, Ashway Stone and on to the Memorial Cross and Ashway Rocks. The views were magnificent with the sunshine hitting the crags and heather in full bloom.

Bramleys Cot, now roofless but looking very solidly built

View down to Dove Stones Reservoir from Bramleys Cot

Memorial Cross

The black spot is in fact a mole that was happily sniffling around
in the grass, we watched it for a few moments before continuing 

The main reason for choosing this area to visit was to find the Trinnacle rocks at Raven Stones. Here's photos of us stood on it:

Me on the Trinnacle

and Tim

I really wanted to stand on the right hand bit but the hop across looked very committing. I'm pleased I got onto it though, and I like the photo of me as it looks like I'm holding the sky up!

From Raven Stones we dropped down Birchen Clough with the easy run round the side of the reservoirs to enjoy and take us back to the car. On the way down we passed a couple scrambling up which made it look fun. We chatted about returning another time to do this scramble but we were feeling good, and conditions were ideal (low water and dry rock), we decided to do it straight away:

Looking up Birchen Clough from near the bottom

Me stepping up on thankfully dry but green rocks

The shallow section at the top

A super run/scramble was had and we celebrated with an icecream and admiring the view over the dam wall, accompanied by plenty of low flying geese. My confidence on rock is growing, and I'm already looking forward to our next scramble adventure....I do believe we need to visit Kinder Downfall next.