An Epic Day on Kinder Scout

An epic Kinder day of over 20 miles of Kinder at her best. She really gave me a show today, sunshine, poor visibility, strong winds. The only thing missing was the snow.

A year to the day exactly since we'd last played together I finally had a chance to get reacquainted with my favourite English mountain.

Kinder Scout holds a special place in the hearts of walkers in England. It is on this mountain that the mass trespass occurred in 1932. This protest by the people of Manchester and Sheffield is what began the road to giving us the freedom to roam our countryside. Arguably the Peak District and Pennine Way wouldn't exist without this act of civil disobedience.

Today I decided that I was going to do a circuit of all Kinder's edges.

Yes, I really thought that would be a good idea.

It's a long, long walk but really gives you an appreciation for the size of the Kinder Plateau. This mountain isn't very tall but it certainly is huge. Kinder dominates the landscape here and when you view it from the Great Ridge or Rushups Edge it's clear why it is such a magnet for hill walkers.

Parking in Edale the day started with glorious sunshine for my climb up to Grindslow Knoll.

On reaching the top I was met with great views of the Edale Valley and strong winds racing across the plateau towards me, trying desperately to knock me over.

I headed out westward along the southern edge, not venturing too close in the winds.

The wind was a constant throughout the day, making a long, hard day even harder. The clouds drifted in and visibility soon dropped, a common theme on Kinder at any time of the year.

The cloud only started with me for the Southern edge though and turning at Crookstone Knoll to walk out onto the quieter, Northern edge the views soon opened up again. The wind wasn't going away though and it was now blowing into my face.

The Northern Edge isn't as well walked as the other edges of Kinder and possibly this makes it the best part of the day. You feel like you're out here all alone. The views over to Bleaklow are fabulous and the rock formations are wonderful to look at and play on. The edge does seem to go on forever though, every time I looked at my map it seemed I was only a few miles from the end but that end never seemed to get any closer.

Finally, after what seemed like days, I find myself on the Pennine Way and turning for the final edge. Also what was to be the highlight of the day. The strong winds had me thinking that I might get lucky enough to see Kinder Downfall doing her thing, I wasn't to be disappointed. Arriving at the waterfall which flows off the edge of Kinder I got a soaking. The strong winds were blowing the waterfall back up hill. Beautiful, I've been wanting to see this for many years.

An absolutely fabulous day out on Kinder.

But, it was a tough day out on my knees following my fall in the Galloway Hills the previous week.

My knees were very unhappy by the end of the Northern Edge.

By the time I got to the trig point at Kinder Low any sort of descent was hard work. Uneven paths were making it even harder on the knees and I had to slow down a lot, wincing with each step.

Then I took the wrong path for half a mile. The only thing that made me check my map was looking at the hills around me and thinking "this isn't what I should be seeing right now, that hill definitely shouldn't be where it is. Did they all move while I've been up North." Having to reverse direction to climb back up before coming down the correct path was not a whole lot of fun.

The descent at Jacobs Ladder was very painful. I was working 5 metres at a time, just to break the descent down into easier chunks, so I could get myself down.

The descent was slow and painful but I finally made it down to a relatively flat section and was able to move a lot quicker.

A great day out. I was very grateful to make it back to Edale and my car. I think until my knee has fully recovered I'll be sticking to ten mile hill days for the foreseeable future.