Hope Valley and the Great Ridge

I finally made it out for a proper fell run, the first proper run for six months.  My return to running after a three month lay off was inauspicious, the pain behind my left knee returned almost immediately.  However, as the rest of my knee had had a good rest, I found that I could feel the pain from the worrying injury in a more critical way.  After a little experimenting, I found that it was the last few degrees of movement of my leg as I propelled myself forward that caused the pain.  I found that running with a shortened stride, i.e. 'recovering' my trailing leg before it has fully straightened, seems to stop the pain getting too bad.  Of course, this has had a rather detrimental effect on speed.

How did three months turn into six?  Well, I was tapering just before the lay off anyway,  I also sprained my ankle soon after starting back, then went over on it again a few weeks later.  Although running again fairly soon, I did not feel confident enough to test the ankle in a remote location in winter.

I planned my run to be scenic and challenging, but to be in a popular area and not too far from roads just in case.  I had some inkling that there were uncharted paths along the top of Winnats Pass western edge.  I recently found a description so decided to piece this into a route taking in Mam Tor Great Ridge.  I added a few zigs and zags to get the distance up to around 15 miles, and threw in Winhill to get the ascent up to around category A.

Winnats Pass

I started out from Mam Tor car park, it wasn't too difficult to find the route to the uncharted path along the top of the pass's craggy southern skyline.  When I arrived visibility was so poor that I could barely see the road below.  Fortunately the mist lifted in less than a couple of minutes.

Peveril Castle - looking just a stones throw away, but actually the other side of Cave Dale.

Picking up the right of way at the other end was a little harder, but no great challenge.   I soon left that RoW to follow a permissive path to the edge of Cave Dale and get a great view of Peveril Castle before descending into Castleton.

The Hope cement works from Dirtlow Rake, not pretty, but interesting in its own way.

I had decided to run up Cave Dale then back down Dirtlow Rake.  This part of my route was illogical in terms of progress, but added some interesting views, distance and ascent.  I then picked up the minor road to Hope, crossed the main road then crossed the river and railway to start the ascent of Winhill via Twitchill Farm.  This is a steep ascent not to be underestimated in terms of effort, though never technical.

Stricken tree - on the ascent of Winhill.

Striking tree - on the ascent of Winhill.

Summit of Winhill - Ladybower Reservoir far below.

I ran west then north west along Hope Brink, finally turning  a sharp south east to follow the path back down the Brink to Twitchill Farm then down into Hope to start up Lose Hill and the beginning of the ridge.

Lose Hill from Hope

The ascent of Lose Hill was very hard work.  Mud had been a problem all day, on Lose Hill it doubled the effort required, sliding back to the start point of any particular stride was not unusual.  A few fingertip touch downs were required to stay upright.

The summit of Lose Hill and a nice couple I met while there.  The ridge can be seen snaking into the distance at the left of the picture

I met a nice couple on the top of Lose Hill who offered to take a photograph of me, I explained that I didn't want to risk damage to my camera.  I took a photograph of them with their phone before setting off along the ridge.

Vale of Edale from the ridge.  The path very close to the edge on this section, descending to Hollins Cross.

Mam Tor from the ridge.  The light was against me by now, I grabbed a chance to take this shot when the sun went behind a heavy cloud.

Running up to the summit plateau I approached another runner coming down.  Suddenly a dog came out of the sun passing the runner then me and going like a bat out of hell.  It was a medium sized dog and unlike most fell running dogs it was quite a burly breed.  Whatever it was it seemed superbly adapted to descents, I'll swear it sported a smug grin or maybe that was just the effect of acceleration.  It was a real treat to see a creature having so much fun, the memory of it is enough to make me smile.

Mam Tor summit - enduringly popular at only 100 meters above and little more than 500 meters away from the car park.

All together my route was just shy of sixteen miles and six feet short of category A (I ran from the car park down to the road and back again to make it up, honest).  In a sensible form (best line from Castleton to Winhill and Winhill to Lose Hill) the route would be around twelve miles.