Snow, Sledging and Skiing

What an absolutely cracking wander up onto Bleaklow. Today was guaranteed to be blue skies, low wind and stunning views with the blanket of snow that is laying over the hills, all the way down to Glossop town. Utterly irresistible to get out there, yet for the majority of our walk/ski/sledge on Bleaklow we had the hillsides to ourselves. Bliss.

Myself, Tim and Dave wandered over to Mossy Lea together, then they put on skis+skins and headed over to James Thorn via Doctors Gate. Me and my walking boots (sledge in bag for the downhills) headed up to the pond at the back of Shelf Benches. None of us found the going easy with snow drifts ankle, knee and even thigh deep in places. The guys on their skis had to contend with tufty grass and uneven surfaces - it looked easier on the way up than down! Massive fun though, well worth the effort. I took lots of photos, this is just a small selection (possibly not in order), though still numerous....enjoy!

Fluffy snow

The snow was falling in light flurries as I ran from home, heading out towards Bleaklow. White, light, fluffy flakes drifting down and settling momentarily, before being warmed and melted in the bright winter sun. How glorious to live just a few kilometres from the edge of Bleaklow. I wasn't planning a long run, just a leg stretch after the two races at the weekend (Park run on Saturday and Lambs Longer Leg fell race on Sunday) and a hard gym session yesterday. I knew it had been cold enough to put some ice down so I packed my Christmas present, a pair of katoola microspikes and the camera. I planned on seeing how the spikes coped with whatever conditions I met. And also how I got on with them.

It turned out that today's snow was too fluffy for my katoola microspikes, but I gave them a good go for their inaugural run out onto Bleaklow. The main issue was fluffy snow balling up underneath. Unlike standard crampons on boots where you can just give the boot a good kick and the snow falls off, with the microspikes the snow seemed to get moulded into a snowball with the metal in the middle of the ball. Kicking to release the snow had no effect. This meant I had to stop and literally scrap the snow off with the other spikes, and hence had a disjointed run. I took them off to see how my kanadias would cope and found running on the same angle/terrain had me slipping around a bit more so they were definitely helping to keep me stable, but not very efficient or smooth running.

I didn't mind the distraction of sorting out the spikes, I was too busy enjoying being out in the snow, the sun shining and not much of a breeze blowing. I had the hill to myself, and I was distracted with loads of photo opportunities and just soaking up the views. Here's a few I snapped:

Looking back down from the end of Shelf Benches

Me with James Thorn in the sunlight behind

James Thorn in all it's glory

Shelf Benches to the left, James Thorn in the sunshine

Looking south (more or less) from the end of Shelf Benches

Just a bit of balling up of snow here; at other times it made 3inch diameter sized balls

Yellowslacks across the valley