Winter scrambling series

Winter scrambling was advertised, and wintry it was! Eight brave members met in Edale at 7pm, the team consisting of Tom Arthur, Harry Collins (prospective member), Joe Dugdale, Claire Hawkins, Andy Lewtas, Paul Lonsdale, Phil Mitchell and Gareth Williams (meet leader). As we gathered in a deserted car park in the dark, some light flakes of snow began to fall, casually whipped around by the gentle easterly wind that proved somewhat character building later in the evening.

We set off with headtorches merrily lighting the way, reaching the end of the road and turning uphill towards our destination of Ringing Roger. It is said that this gritstone outcrop got its name from a monk who used to run up from Edale each day to ring bells, but it was only the internet which said this, so who knows for sure. There was certainly no running up from Edale this evening, but our team made steady progress. Terrain soon became frozen underfoot and from 300m up, the snow was starting to lie on the ground.

By the time we reached the start of the scramble the wind was making itself known and we were all very well acquainted with it before long. Snow was blowing at us horizontally and collecting on all the ledges and holds. After an easy few moves we reached our first obstacle, a steep slab with a wide crack up the middle, initially some good hand holds but a rounded top-out requiring some nifty balance and boot-jamming skills. Paul was heard to say it's the most fun he's had on gritstone!

Higher up a second steep slab with cracks near the top was overcome in a variety of ways ranging from hand jamming, mantling, smearing (yes, smearing on icy gritstone in big boots), combined tactics and of course the easy option, walking around the side. One of the nice things about Ringing Roger is it's very escapable and you can avoid any bits you don't fancy.

Upon reaching the top we discovered an abandoned pop-up tent, camp pans and food. We cleared up all the mess and loaded it into/onto our sacs to carry back down. We walked a couple of hundred yards to the top of Golden Clough and managed to find a spot out of the wind in a little dip. Here we all donned metalwear on our feet, ranging from brand new day-glo microspikes and a first outing for a new pair of crampons to more seasoned equipment such as yaktrax, allowing us to negotiate the icy clough safely. We kept the spikes on quite a way down over the frozen terrain.

We got back to Edale just as The Old Nags Head was closing, the landlord assuring us that The Rambler Inn just down the road would be open. It was, and they offered us a great welcome in from the snow storm. They stoked up the fire and explained that they has over-catered for their pub quiz, could we possibly help them finish the buffet, free of charge of course. We didn't need asking twice, but we did go back for extra helpings twice. Tom displayed some impressive film music knowledge in the second half of the quiz and would probably have won a prize if we'd stayed until the end.

By the time we left the pub the snow had stopped falling, and it seemed amazing to us all that we'd been out for the exact two and a half hours that the snow had fallen. We all agreed this (and the wind!) added to the evening. Thank you to everyone who came and see you at the next one!

Gareth Williams