UKC

Hey, has anybody been up around Kinder Downfall in the past couple of days. Its been bellow 0 and was wondering if it would be worth a trip out there but will have to travel about 2hours and don't want a wasted journey. Does anybody local know if its in condition or even if the weather we've had recently would give it any chance of being in if you know the area and hill but haven't actually been out there?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance

Graham

Meant to say i'm planning on heading over friday so hopefully it will have another couple of days to form.

In reply to Graham Stephenson: I've not been up to have a look but there's been snow up there since Sunday morning and I don't think the temperature has got above freezing since then. More snow falling now (well, there is down here anyway and it's only up the road!) and forecast says it's going to stay around freezing for the next few days. It's not going to be fantastic but there may be a bit of a chance for the weekend. C-:

In reply to CarolineMc:
forecast is to warm up back to 7-8 degs in the day friday/saturday onwards so best bet is probably friday morning. I expect you'd need a lot of luck for anythign much to be there though...

In reply to Si dH:

Luck? He'll need a miracle.

In reply to Si dH:

That's a shame, I'm quite liking the white scenery! Haven't really had a chance for proper sledging yet either. C-:

In reply to Graham Stephenson:

Was up there for a walk yesterday and in short - no, it wasn't in condition, although given a few more days below freezing I reckon it'd get there. There was some ice, but definitely not a go-er yet.

i have seen it running with water even after a week of hard frosts. it really does need at least 10 days in my opinion,having done it a couple of times over the last 20 years, especially after the massive volumes of rain we have had. but if you dont go and look........... its a lovely walk anyway

In reply to Graham Stephenson:

Been up today. It's nice and thick.... but liquid. Some good icicles forming on the RH side.
Superb walking weather.

A.-

Was on the downfall today. It's half climbable on thin ice (and a bit of hooking, so is pretty hard and not easy to protect), with a traverse out at half height. Also some gymastic fun to be had ice-bouldering at the bottom. A small watercourse had reasonable ice to the left (but this gets the sun early). 2 lines on the right of the Downfall are just about do-able at IV/V.

Had to break trail as there were no tracks (though lots of walkers were out on the top), though someone had had a nose at a third line on the right which had loads of deep snow and not enough ice on the crux.

Large bits of the downfall were collapsing by 1pm, but it's a cold night up here and there's ice already on the roads, so I expect Friday morning might yield some sporting routes! Turf isn't freezing, but water on rock is. In any case, it's stunning up there at the moment with lots of snow, and there's some fun scrambling to be had up the steep ground left of the downfall and across the top of the downfall on snow-covered rocks.

As for skiing, it was superb on Monday to the top of Kinder, but today there was insufficient cover as it's been blown around.

In reply to pwickens:


Skiied from the top of the Snake up onto Bleaklow today, conditions were great, another chap was doing the same tour, and he was pretty impressed with the conditions too.

My take on the Kinder Downfall thing is that 5 days can be enough, if the temperature is continuously below freezing in the valley, not just freezing on the tops.

In reply to pwickens: Hi Phil, sounds like you saw Ritchie out and about today. There is a picture from today at http://www.jamesthacker.co.uk/reports/reports.html

BBC Forecast for Edale is 5-6 degrees for tomorrow, surely this is bad news for the ice bouldering? What do people think?

In reply to monkey kong: Yes, that is bad. Snow cover was melting fast today along with the ice..