UKC

Anyone know if anything in, or am i getting too excited ? Considering venturing upto redbrook as its been minus degrees in the high ground peaksfor 3 days now, doubt the downfall is anywhere near

In reply to Swiss Tony:

I'll hopefully be checking out Crowden, Grindsbrook and maybe Blackden brook tomorow. Red Brook always freezes pretty fast as there never seems to be that much water in it.

In reply to Swiss Tony:

I'd say its going to need afew more days.

With the snow forecasted for today and the freezing conditions for the next few days, sunday looks good

In reply to xplorer: Agreed. Was out on Kinder yesterday- whilst there is plenty of ice forming in Grindsbrook it is nowhere near frozen up properly. Beautiful for walking up there at the moment either way.

In reply to peak pie eater: went up Grindsbrook around 4pm, half way to last quarter of rock fall was frozen solid so had a play at the top but nothing of significance, snow 2 inch at 400m + and comming down heavy on way down around 5pm.

I reckon with the low temps and heavy snowfall tonight that tommorrow could see some action, may be the main pitch on Crowden but the water may be too fast to freeze at that height, might be worth a look at Wildboar or Shinning, worth a look at the downfall / redbrook sat / sun but we need sustained low temps to get anywhere near.

In reply to Swiss Tony:

Cheers, I'll go and have a have a play around anyway I think.

In reply to peak pie eater: How did you go on ?

In reply to Swiss Tony: Swiss Tony.

I went up Crowden Clough from Barber booth,It was about 2 degrees in the valley and felt warm in the sun, lots of snow from about half way up but not much ice. The ice that was there had the look of ice on its way out not in. The scramble to the side was fun, snow plastered rock and turf which required a lot of clearing.

I didn't bother checking out any other Cloughs as in my experience crowden is usualy one of the first to freeze.

The top is heavy going in places and I fell in to drifts up to my crotch a few times, lots of powdery snow being blown about.

Stunning day to be out though, the only other footprints I saw belonged to a hare, top day! But if anybody wants ice to climb I think it may require a good while of freezing temperatures to bring anything in.

In reply to peak pie eater: Sounds fun, give me a call if you ever want to head out, i live in the peaks & can go in the week & weekends at short notice if there's a possibility of conditions, even swallet in the evening is a possibility-07970 835737 -simon

In reply to Swiss Tony:
Was up there on sat Kinder downfall has been climbed!!! we saw a team on there.The downfall wasn't fully frozen. We did Red Brook more snow than ice but great fun.

In reply to trish1968:

It might have been climbed but looked more like a golden shower climb than an ice climb.

Gullies and buttress's looked good though.

In reply to nbonnett:
yep I wouldn't want to do it yet it was still flowing in the middle.

In reply to trish1968: anybody had a look today? Looks to be a continuous freeze over next couple of days.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
If people keep going up and kicking the sh1t out of it before it has a chance to freeze properly, it's going to take an awful lot longer!

In reply to Toreador: Was asking if anyone had had a look, not if anyone had kicked the shit out of it.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
sorry meant to reply to the earlier post

In reply to Toreador: thats cool.
Fingers crossed for these promised low temps.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
It's all going to melt on Friday

In reply to Toreador: booking thursday off. Lots of icicles hanging from leaky overflow in stoke this morning. So that means central icefall direct in the pass is in too.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Here's a couple of pictures from sat

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90859066@N04/sets/72157632218692923/

In reply to trish1968: someone climbed that as kinder downfall in winter nick! Christ on a bike it's not the northern corries hoar frost mixed, it's a snow/ice route.

In reply to smithaldo: Also what were they 'kicking the s&%t' out of? the rock underneath?

In reply to smithaldo: are you mistaking the red brook photo for the downfall photo? Yes the downfall isnt properly formed there but your comment on it not being a mixed line makes me think you may be looking at the wrong photo.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Besides that, I can't believe anybody climbed it in that condition.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Yep sorry i popped a red brook photo on there as well in case anyone was intersted in the condition of that. We went up red brook more snow than ice fun though. The left hand side was climbed we saw the climbers and my friend got a picture of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90859066@N04/8263355077/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90859066@N04/8264424278/in/photostream/

In reply to trish1968: doesn't look too bad from that angle. It's really cold today. Cant wait see what its like later in the week.

In reply to Swiss Tony: Anyonebeen up today ?

In reply to Double Knee Bar: I know which one is the downfall and in the original pic it looked like a very thin layer of snice but on the actual climbing pic it does look much better. Although neither the original nor central route so a new combo!

In reply to Swiss Tony: Thinking of going for a look at Wildboar clough and/or Wilderness gullies Thursday, anybody interested?

In reply to cragtyke:

Wilderness gullies looked extremely thin/not in at all looking at it from the main path today. Though i appreciate i didn't get up close so i can't tell for certain. What i can say though is that it didn't look like there was much ice, there is almost no snow to speak of and it was quite warm on the sunny side of the valley with plenty of melting going on. Certainly nothing like the photo on your profile. still time yet maybe?

In reply to Toreador:

Well said. I wish more people took this attitude.

In reply to Swiss Tony: Had a mooch up and around wilderness yesterday. It was very crevasses, but not much frozen on the individual steps. It did not seem that cold in the mist either. Still fun though!

In reply to Swiss Tony: not crevasses but verglassed, bleeding phone!

Went for an optimistic wander up towards the Downfall from Hatfield this evening, didn't go beyond the reservoir inlet which was running strongly and the ground was thawing out quickly. Doubt it was frozen solid a few hundred metres higher but there were head torches moving around up high so maybe someone got something done? Temp had gone up 4 degrees when we got back to the car. Lovely evening to be out though. =o)

I went for a walk around the Kinder plateau yesterday. The ground is generally frozen in most parts however I don't think it's very deep as the walking poles managed to find soft peat underneath a couple of times. There is quite a bit of ice formed on the top where there has been still water, but the streams are generally still flowing relatively freely under a couple of centimetres of ice. There was also some hoar forming on the north facing rocks too at the highest levels.

As for the downfall and the cloughs, from the state of them it's going to take quite a lot more freezing for them to come into any decent condition. Whilst I didn't go for a close look there's a lot of free running water as well as some ice forming around it but nothing particularly inspiring. That said the cloughs on the Northern aspects look to be holding some nicely consolidated snow and may provide for an interesting walk on some steeper ground (maybe just grade I?).

In reply to Swiss Tony: Ventured out to the fall, its nowhere near climbable, nice place for breakfast though, it needs at least 2 more days of below zero but looking at temps comming up this is unlikely.

We did get one of the national newspaper photographers take a pic of us checking it out, im the one with the santa hat on if it gets in the papers NOTE - we did not climb it !!! so no elitist comments please.

Had a wander up redbrook and the last 500m was in good nick,a small consolation and an excuse to get tooled up.

If anyone is going out i would recommend Crwoden Clough etc as from the frost in Hayfield compared to Bakewell it seems far colder on the eastern side of the plateau


Will post some photos later

In reply to Swiss Tony: Pics as promised

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247450/UK-weather-Rivers-frozen-so...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91059271@N04/8270507980/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91059271@N04/8270510618/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91059271@N04/8269452581/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91059271@N04/8269450071/in/photostream/

In reply to Swiss Tony: been out today on kinder, crowden cough was good fun and in reasonable condition then went to the downfall which is formed ( more than yesterday looking at the photos but still not climbable ) if the forecast s correct then it probable be worse again tomorrow , still nice day for a walk though!

In reply to Swiss Tony: Did you see Rod(the photographer)'s post the other day? http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=530145&v=1#x7125781 ? For what it's worth I went up Wildboar Clough and Wilderness East today, both were thin and verglassed so harder than usual but enjoyable nonetheless, they might last overnight but not for long.

In reply to cragtyke: Yep that was the same guy

In reply to Swiss Tony:

Bad luck mate, I thought you'd have had a good chance today. I'd still rather have been out with you than at bloody work though!