Wednesday July 6th

 The Edale Skyline

I'd wanted to do "The Edale Skyline" for ages and when Caroline of Pro-Mountain offered a guided walk of the route, I jumped at it- we did it almost exactly one month ago. You can read about it here. Unfortunately, we were weathered off and descended Jacob's Ladder. It was still a great walk with good company and we had the benefit of coffee and cake at The Newfold Farm Cafe.

The first time that I'd heard The Edale Skyline described, the team that I was talking to said that it started in Yorkshire Bridge. I'm sure that it's all quite arbitrary, but starting there (or thereabouts) would give the extra frison of going up Parkin Clough and "a full ascent" of Win Hill, so I parked up at Heatherdene for the sake of convenience. As I was putting my boots on, I was accosted by a very cheeky local.

Cheeky Local, touting for food
Having said that I'd do a "full ascent", I took the bridle path (the remains of the railway for the construction of Ladybower dam?) which traversed across to the Parkin Clough path. The first significant stop is, of course, the summit of Win Hill.
Win Hill summit trig point with glimmerings of the Edale Skyline
The weather was fairly variable all day and, after a few minutes, I could get a good view of much of the walk that I was yet to do.
From just below Win Hill: Lose Hill on left, Crookstone Knoll on right skyline
The walk northwest from Win Hill takes you over Hope Brink to Wooler Knoll with its tree plantation. There's a line of spindly trees that, depending on distance and weather either look as if their canopies are hanging, unsuspended, in midair, or remind me of the palm trees in the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now.
Spindly trees at Wooler Knoll
Next landmark is Hope Cross, which more or less marks the start of the grind up to Crookstone Out Moor.
Hope Cross
It's a fairly steady climb up to Crookstone Out Moor but I was in luck in that I had clear views back to Win Hill and forward along The Great Ridge.
Looking back to Win Hill (left); Lose Hill and Back Tor to the right

The Great Ridge: Lose Hill, Back Tor, Hollins Cross and Mam Tor

Once Crookstone Out Moor is reached, it's a matter of following the path around the northern edge of Kinder, which is pretty clear for the most part. After about 500 metres of the path is a view down Jaggers Clough, and this seemed to be as good a place to have lunch as any, and as I'd been walking for a couple of hours by then, that's what I did.

Jaggers Clough
Ringing Roger is our most frequent route up to the Kinder plateau and it's always interesting to look down on it. A direct ascent feels very scrambly but looking down on it, it looks very tame. That's perspective for you!
Ringing Roger; Hollins Cross directly above, Mam Tor just right
Kinder has an extensive collection of weathered gritstone; one day, I'll take my "proper" camera out with the express purpose of photographing as many as I can, but for the moment, here are two.
Weathered Grit (I); Grindslow Knoll in the background

Weathered Grit (II)
By the time I arrived at Crowden Clough, the mist had rolled in again so the walk had become... atmospheric.
Crowden Clough in the mist, with the outline of Crowden Tower
Beyond Crowden Clough are The Woolpacks- more weathered gritstone. The shapes looming in the mist add a certain interest. The ground underfoot is usually deep, boggy peat but it was firm going, which shows how dry it has been recently.
A selection of woolpacks
Rather than traversing directly around to the top of Jacob's Ladder from Noe Stool, I thought that I'd go via the Kinder Low trig point as it was only a minor detour of 500m. I was delighted that, by using my compass, I was able to get there directly, despite the mist and tempting alternative paths. I find trig points hard to resist.
Kinder Low trig point
From Kinder Low, it was a matter of following the Pennine Way, past the rocks of Swine's Back, down to the head of Jacob's Ladder and onwards towards the path off to Brown Knoll.
Rocks of Swine's Back in the mist
Part way up to the path to Brown Knoll turned out to be half way through the walk, although psychologically, passing Jacob's Ladder felt that it was the midway point. Brown Knoll trig point was an ideal place to have the second sandwich of the day. It was clear enough to see across to The Woolpacks.
Brown Knoll trig point with The Woolpacks on the horizon
The section between Brown Knoll and Rushup Edge is fairly uninteresting but from the top (eastern) end of Rushup Edge, the view over to Mam Tor is impressive, with all its landslips and workings, and (of course) the Mam Tor Road.
Mam Tor and the Mam Tor Road
Mam Tor has, of course, the obligatory trig point but also a view of where I'll be going, and where I've been.
Mam Tor trig point with Lose Hill (left) and Win Hill (right) just visible
The Great Ridge descends from Mam Tor to Hollins Cross and then up to Back Tor- more or less the last steep ascent of the walk (see later re. route choice).
Back Tor; even the trees seem to find it an effort...
After Back Tor comes Lose Hill, the last summit of The Great Ridge. This was a point to take in the views, reflect on where I'd been, and... the way I'd go back to my starting point. As you'll see from the photo, Win Hill looks a very long way away, and Heatherdene, where the car was parked was on the far side of Win Hill. 
Lose Hill summit, with Win Hill in the (far?) distance
I had then to decide exactly how I'd go back to the car. There was a clear and straightforward route down to the Hope Valley and then back up to Win Hill but that entailed losing all the height from Lose Hill (which was inevitable) but then having to climb Win Hill, which could have been an additional 300m. This violated the corollary to one of Paul Bannister's Rules of Navigation- Never Lose Height, the corollary being Never Gain Height Unnecessarily. (The other rule, by the way, is always go in a straight line). Regaining all that height really wasn't very attractive, but the alternative was fairly convoluted and included a little road walking and, most importantly, would be a route that was entirely new to me. Nevertheless, I took the low(er) level route which may be seen on the screenshot of the OS map. All in all, it was another c.8k/5miles back to the car. There were a few interesting sights to be seen:
Rather decrepit finger post, rather fetching gate closure

Foot tunnel under Hope Valley railway line
I will admit that the Ladybower Dam was a very welcome sight, with only another ½k or so back to the car.
Ladybower dam and reservoir; level much lower than last time we'd passed by in February
OS Maps Flythrough:



23 Miles/28.8km; alleged ascent of 2219m, but that didn't really seem realistic although a check of the .GPX data in Excel suggests that it's about right, give or take 20m.


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