Bamford/Ladybower/Win Hill: Planning for today's walk started with weather report and chart reviews at Met Office Mountain Weather, Mountain Weather Information Service (MWIS), and MWUK. Low pressure centered west of Scotland from a disintegrating Atlantic hurricane. Windy, with sustained winds of 15-17mph to gusts on summits 25 to 33 mph. High temperature in valleys at 9C, lows at 4C. Two primary targets for this walk were the long stretches of trail along the western spur of Ladybower Reservoir leading to Hagg Farm at Haggwater Bridge, and then the climb up to the ridge and the old Roman Road, Hope Cross, Wooler Knoll, Hope Brink, Thornhill Brink, and up the western approach to Win Hill (463m). I have been up to the Trig Point on Win Hill on two previous occasions. Once on a night navigation training (very dark night), and the other on a heavy cloudy, misty and rainy day with visibility of less than 50 ft. Both were walks from Hope in the valley below, up the southern approach. Today's approach was up the western flank, having started at Bamford and skirted around the northern side to the west. Focus of learning experience was on timing. On the long stretches of the first half of the walk, which was mostly within one or two contour lines. I walked the first hour at 5 KPH pace, which is my common solo pace, but I am working on controlling that at 4 KPH. The second hour was right on 4 kph, then I began the ascent to the upper ridge line and Roman Road. I also worked on 100m pacing. On the relative flat along Ladybower I average between 60 and 64 paces per 100m. Also focused on looking at the surrounding hills to identify geographic features and matching to the map, i.e., Knolls, saddles, re-entrants, ridgelines. Regarding 'risk' for future walks in this area, after the summit of Win Hill I descended off the eastern edge through Win Hill Plantation and then the very steep descent of Parkin Clough, which was very steep, wet and muddy under foot. AT points the descent was over 45 degrees, with a drop of 150m (15 contour lines) in 370m distance on the map I would only take experienced walkers down Parkin Clough. Both planning and execution of the navigation strategy done on the OS OL 1 map. Total Journey Time: 4 hours 57 minutes; Total Distance: 20.18 km/12.29 miles; Elevation gain: 1,617 ft
Area :Dark Peak
Is situated between Sheffield and Manchester. The underlying rock is Millstone grit which is often exposed at the edge of the higher peat bogs for which the area is famous.
Bamford/Ladybower/Win Hill: Planning for today's walk started with weather report and chart reviews at Met Office Mountain Weather, Mountain Weather Information Service (MWIS), and MWUK. Low pressure centered west of Scotland from a disintegrating Atlantic hurricane. Windy, with sustained winds of 15-17mph to gusts on summits 25 to 33 mph. High temperature in valleys at 9C, lows at 4C. Two primary targets for this walk were the long stretches of trail along the western spur of Ladybower Reservoir leading to Hagg Farm at Haggwater Bridge, and then the climb up to the ridge and the old Roman Road, Hope Cross, Wooler Knoll, Hope Brink, Thornhill Brink, and up the western approach to Win Hill (463m). I have been up to the Trig Point on Win Hill on two previous occasions. Once on a night navigation training (very dark night), and the other on a heavy cloudy, misty and rainy day with visibility of less than 50 ft. Both were walks from Hope in the valley below, up the southern approach. Today's approach was up the western flank, having started at Bamford and skirted around the northern side to the west. Focus of learning experience was on timing. On the long stretches of the first half of the walk, which was mostly within one or two contour lines. I walked the first hour at 5 KPH pace, which is my common solo pace, but I am working on controlling that at 4 KPH. The second hour was right on 4 kph, then I began the ascent to the upper ridge line and Roman Road. I also worked on 100m pacing. On the relative flat along Ladybower I average between 60 and 64 paces per 100m. Also focused on looking at the surrounding hills to identify geographic features and matching to the map, i.e., Knolls, saddles, re-entrants, ridgelines. Regarding 'risk' for future walks in this area, after the summit of Win Hill I descended off the eastern edge through Win Hill Plantation and then the very steep descent of Parkin Clough, which was very steep, wet and muddy under foot. AT points the descent was over 45 degrees, with a drop of 150m (15 contour lines) in 370m distance on the map I would only take experienced walkers down Parkin Clough. Both planning and execution of the navigation strategy done on the OS OL 1 map. Total Journey Time: 4 hours 57 minutes; Total Distance: 20.18 km/12.29 miles; Elevation gain: 1,617 ft
