UKC

Wimberry Rocks

Does anyone know if Wimberry Crag or boulders have been encompassed by the current Saddleworth Moors fire? Looking at the maps on BBC News and The Guardian it looks pretty close.

Or have any other crags in the area been affected? Tintwistle or Wilderness Rocks?

Could see the fire itself from the top outs at Hobson Moor Quarry last night and looked quite close.

Tintwistle is fine as are Laddow, Crowden Great Quarry and all in between, having been up that way today. The easterly wind is pushing it in the way of no particular crags though as you say, Wimberry and Wilderness are close so keep an eye on it.

wimberry is ok at the moment, but keep an eye on wind direction

I haven't seen many people comment on the fact that the gentle ENE wind has been rather kind in helping to contain it. Tough on the people of Manchester, but if the wind had been the normal SW prevailing it would have been much much worse, I think.

Makes a change from the normal smell of piss and vomit on the city streets. Not complaining. 

the wind direction has helped spare chew valley on this occasion - for the moment - at the expense of the moors running from alphin towards longdendale

in a typical chew season the fires originate at banned bbq spot at chew brook and spread up, as you say on the prevailing SW wind to fan up the moor between dovestones quarry and charnel stones, at the moment this seems like a regular annual event...

That said, had it been the normal SW prevailing, we might normally have had some rain by now! 

It's quite incredible how far the smoke is obviously travelling I'm in South West Manchester, and had to close the windows last night, and can smell the smoke still in the house this morning.

Are you sure someone nearby wasn't having a barbie?
I'm in Chorlton and haven't had a whiff of the moor's smoke all week.

I'm in Bolton and staying with my 92 year old mother for a week, and we could smell it strongly. It makes it difficult to decide what to do with old folk in this heatwave -shut the windows and broil them to death or leave them open and smoke them to death.

Same here, we had the windows open all night. Maybe it just affects "Chorlton Borders"........

MASA  satellite shows it  (smoke). West as far as Formby 

I am finding it quite sad as it's my bit of the world  

http://www.saddleworthnews.com/moor-fires-in-images/

Could smell it in the air tonight by the Cat and Fiddle and driving back down towards Macc could see Saddleworth in the distance and the smoke....quite impressive from a fair distance!

Winter Hill near Bolton is on fire now too.   There was a huge mushroom cloud of smoke billowing up from it this evening, which I could see from just outside Warrington.

And last night a vast bank of smog extending from Manchester westwards past Warrington and beyond from the Saddleworth fire.    

Impressive but scary!

I was on the tops about 15 miles away last night. It looked pretty wild, with a large firefront and huge plume of smoke.

What a lot of commentators seem to be forgetting, is that the moors around Manchester act as a sponge. Absorbing rain during the winter and releasing it slowly all year. Without the covering of grass and heather, the peat will blow away and get washed away, leaving bare rock. This will lead to more erosion and flooding downstream. (Upland peat bogs are a unique habitat for wildlife as well.)

The area supports a lot of dams and reservoirs, thanks to the Victorians. It remains to be seen how they will cope with flash floods and long periods of no water, rather than the continuous feed of water they get all year.

The smell of smoke in the Stalybridge area is quite strong but other than that crag access has not been affected.

Was climbing at wimberry yesterday and the fire is directly at the top of the crag. Very weird belaying experience! Hoping it won't creep around the edges down to the base of the crag and the boulders but looks like it might do.

I'm surprised that they haven't tried to stop people going up there - closing the car parks etc. Did you walk up the normal way from the parking down by the reservoir?

Should keep the ticks down

Yeah, walked up the normal way, car park at reservoir still open. They've got Marshalls there warning people of it though. Helicopter was dumping water on the fire couple of hundred metres away from us as well. 

Not just the pennines.

http://www.deeside.com/smoke-from-large-gorse-fire-on-helsby-hill-affecting.....

There was a fire up on Morridge across from the Roaches this morning.  Road was closed at the Mermaid.

Been up today fire is on the cliffs but not on the boulders 

Has it cleaned the moss carpet off Berties Bugbear yet?

That would spoil the route. Realising that it goes with the moss (when dry) is part of the fun.

It's one of a few routes where I've had a comfortable lie down half way up! 

Is it at the base of the cliffs now and not just at the belays at the top? Wanted to go again on Sunday for trad so wondering if still possible to climb there.

Would you want to risk climbing at a crag where there was a wildfire at the top when you could just go to another crag? It wouldnt take much for a fire to come a descent gully or round the corner of the crag.

Climbed there last weekend when the peat fire was smouldering at the top and it was absolutely fine, spreads very slowly. The only problem was the occasional smoke blowing our way when belaying at the top.

Anyone around next week Monday to Friday I'm up from the Midlands and working in chadderton any evening would be good for a boulder or some low end trad. I have only sport lead and second trad 

Cheers 

Cj