The Bakery

Winter Walking 2009/2010

As I have done for the past couple of years, I spent a couple of days over New Year with OUSGG on the trip known to those in the know as Winter Walking. This year we went to the Peak District for the week.

Each day of walking seemed to have a theme determined by Mother Nature herself.

The first day it was ice. And lots of it. It took us several hours to walk what we should have been able to do in an hour simply because the path we were trying to walk along had transformed into the world’s longest ice rink. Having struggled along the path for a few hours, we decided to head back over the hills rather than along the valley and ended up in a mini snow storm.

The second day the theme was wind. We had originally planned a lengthy ridge walk along the Roaches, but with winds reaching upwards of 60mph, and snow to boot, we were forced to abandon this plan and dropped into the valley instead. We did go via a pretty impressive chasm though – Lud’s Church – which is worth a visit if you’re ever in the area.

New Year’s Eve’s theme was definitely snow – though fortunately it had already fallen. We decided to attempt the Roaches again, and this time we managed it and were rewarded with some spectacular views for our perseverance. On the return leg of the walk we ended up going through some very snowy fields, with the snow often coming up above knee height. At one point, a helpful farmer had even dug a trench for people to walk through as the snow was so deep. In the evening of New Year’s Eve we had a Christmas dinner and sat around till 0430 playing stupid games and indulging in chocolates, cake and alcohol.

New Year’s Day itself was a slow affair, with many people suffering from the night before. We finally did manage to get everyone up and went for a “walk” around a reservoir (or part of it anyway, by the time we got there there wasn’t enough daylight left to make it round the whole thing).

And that was pretty much my Winter Walking. Any OUSGGers reading this who didn’t come, you missed out and should add it to your calendar for next year now!

As always, all of the photos are up on my Flickr account.