By Chris Bowen
A few weeks ago, Brian posted on social media a link to a new “Round” in the Peak District starting and finishing at the Outside shop in Hathersage – 20 miles and 4500 feet of climbing taking in Shatton Moor, Mam Tor, Lose Hill, Win Hill returning to Hathersage via Thornhill and Bamford. You can do the Round at any time and if you complete it while the shop is open you can have your photo taken for the “Wall of Fame” and are awarded a nice Montane buff. You also can have a free cuppa and a cake! What’s not to like!
At the start – outside Outside
Bec, Sarah F-S (plus Pipper, the dog) and I were all available on 18th August and arranged to meet up at Outside at 10am. The forecast was for light rain and wind and Mam Tor wasn’t even visible as I travelled to Hathersage. I was quite worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up as I hadn’t done anything longer than 8 miles since June and I am certainly not running fast! I also thought that The Great Ridge was going to be very unpleasant in a strong Easterly wind. As it turned out, my fears were unfounded!
We set off out of Hathersage, the same way as the Hurtle does, moving at a nice steady pace – running all the flat and down and walking the hills. I was managing to keep up and we were enjoying ourselves, chatting and only occasionally having to consult each other about the navigation. The weather wasn’t as bad as forecast and at least the drizzle was keeping us cool.
On Mam Tor – I think! Difficult to tell!
We took in part of the Tour of Bradwell route in reverse, then over to Oxlow Rake and made our way to Mam Tor. At this point we were half-way round in about 2.5 hours and it was raining quite hard. All the walkers up there were in full waterproofs but it was warm enough for us in T-shirts as we were keeping on running. “Is it August?” someone asked us. We continued along to Lose Hill trying to avoid the slippery slabs and then enjoyed a big descent to Hope and an even bigger (less enjoyable!) climb to Win Hill. By now the weather had improved and we were able to see where we had been. It looked quite a long way!
We thought we had done all the climbing but oh no, there was a sting in the tail as there is another climb out of Bamford before hitting a very nice descent into Hathersage. We suddenly arrived back at the shop. We had done it in just over 5 hours and 8 minutes!
Eventually the clag cleared and the heather was glorious
The staff in the shop and café were very welcoming of three very damp, sweaty runners and a wet dog. They took our photo and we completed their form with the details of our Round. The tea and cake were delicious! We had had a fantastic day out and we can highly recommend this challenge.
The Round is proving to be very popular with at 10 people completing it on the day we did it, including two runners from Steel City Striders who did the double – round clockwise and then immediately setting off to do it in reverse. Impressive! We didn’t ask if they got two pieces of cake.
For more details of the Round see https://www.outside.co.uk/outside-hope-valley-round