I was quite keen to look at the climbing/scrambling on Higger Tor, but once on the top we got completely blasted by the icy wind, and climbing was definitely off the cards. Most the rocks were buried in snow, at one I landed nearly up to my neck in it due to a hidden hole.
We had planned to head straight to Stanage but it felt too early in the day to head straight to our final destination of the walk. Instead we dropped down into the valley and headed through the woods to Burbage rocks. Once out of the woods it initially looks like an easy crossing through felled trees, but between the snow covered felled trees there we hidden bogs. I've no idea how we managed to cross it without falling in, but we did, mainly aided by another crazy person's footprints.
It was freezing by Burbage rocks and I put my microspikes on to get a bit of grip on the icy path. As we passed others slipping around they commented on how our walking poles seemed like a good idea. We saw some climbers boulding at the end of the rocks, their hands must have been freezing!
The sun finally came out as we floundered through yet more deep snow to the bottom of Stanage Edge. We had great fun attempting sledging on one short slope. It was hard to believe we weren't on a high mountain given the fantastic snow conditions. Stanage Edge is 4 miles long and seems to stretch on forever.
Amazingly we didn't see many people on the walk at all, I think some must have been put off by the lack of high up parking, although some cars had made it to the high parking areas. On the initial section the wind was quite strong which was blowing up loads of spin drift which we endeavored to capture on our cameras.
We dropped down off the edge to have our lunch and Steve had a bit of a scramble on the rocks. It was clear he would probably have liked to have been climbing, but we still had quite some distance to go before we headed back to the car. It was brilliant being out of the wind and able to enjoy lunch in the sun without getting too cold (I was wearing all my layers though including a down jacket!)
Our plan was to walk to the High Neb Trig Point to then find a way down off the Edge to pick up the lanes back to Hathersadge. We took a short detour en route to check out a shooting shelter which we had seen from afar. We somewhat regretted it as it took forever leaving the slightly less deep snow of the main path! There were loads of Black Grouse out during our walk - years ago there didn't used to be any formal access to the edge as it was a shooting moor - climbers would bribe the game keepers to be allowed to climb some of the many, excellent climbs situated there.
Once we had visited the Trig Point we needed to find a way down, it all looked quite steep and I was worried we might have to back track a long way to get down. Thankfully we soon found an easy slow slope and enjoyed reaching the path below the cliffs for another outlook of the area. It was clear we could have descended sooner, but it felt higher than it actually was on the top!
Not many people had been a long the bottom of the edge and we soon realised we would take too long to get back it we followed the bottom all the way back to the start so we cut across snow fields to reach the lane. I managed to nearly twist and ankle in an old mill stone which litter the area, the entire thing was covered in snow and I'd just presumed it was a rock!
It was a relief to be on the lane back into Hathersage and we once again missed out cutting over the field paths as we knew it would take too long. It was fantastic to be out in such snowy/sunny conditions and good to see another part of the Peak District particularly an area which has played such a big part in climbing history.
Fantastic photos, hard to believe it's the Peak District! :)
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