Quick Recce blog.

Set off early Sunday morning to Recce three more CP’s of the dreaded Trigger race. 

We covered possibly miles 14-22 on race day.

The main purpose of this recce was to find a good line down to CP5 a old plane crash site on the base of Kinder, and get some needed time on my feet (hopefully four hours).

I met with a few experienced club Fell runners at the top of snake pass, on a fairly pleasant but cold December morning.

The other guys all more experienced than me had plans to try find different routes down to the CP having previously done a Recce the Weekend before. (In Clag)

I decided I wanted to do my own thing to the first CP, so after about half a mile we split up and I took my own line to the crash site. 

Crossing a couple of cloughs and rivers, following a bit of trod I hit the wreck bang on 2 miles from the main road, to my surprise I couldn’t see the other lads, started to think they had headed on to the next CP.

After 2-3 minutes I could see them making their way towards me from the clough, not sure what they had been doing but was feeling a bit pleased with myself getting to the CP a good 5 minutes before them.

 IC commented “bloody road runners” when they arrived looking a little sheepish. 

Anyhow I put that down to begginers luck, we headed on some trod to CP6 fence corner, the ground runnable but starting to get steep as we headed to the top of Kinder.

We had a bit of a chat about which corner then fence corner actually was?  took some tourist photos and plodded on to the PW.

My confidence over rocks totally gone since my falls in the summer.

 The PW over Kinder is very runnable but feeling unconfident it’s a maze of sharp and slippery rocks which seem to never end.

The weather was kind, and so were the views amazing 👍

We moved on to Kinder Downfall, at this point stripping off our windproofs, the winter sun was low on the horizon and we was all feeling a little warm.

 The sun causing another hazard for me as I couldn’t see much without using my hand as a shade.

We made it to Kinder Low CP7, Took another tourist snap.

The other guys looked very strong over Kinder bouncing about like mountain goats, I felt I couldn’t go much faster because I was petrified of falling, weirdly in the summer before my falls I did a race over this route and at a fair pace so I’m hoping I have that confidence back by race day.

We moved on towards Grindslow knoll, at this point I had no idea where I was going other than a vague idea of direction. (The wind started to bite and on popped our windproofs) 

 SS & IC lead the way down a slight decline of peat and bogs towards Crowden Tower this stuff I enjoyed running down it’s like soft fluffy dirt coulds, I managed to bounce along with SS.

 IC took a different line going further out, I was loving this until we suddenly reached a sheer drop of rocks and a river flowing steeply down to Edale, breaks on and I turn back into Danger mode, I see IC, RM at the other side of this drop, I’d obviously taken a crap line, somehow SS had already bounced across and was disappearing with the other lads JT a little less apprehensive than me climbed down the rocks, crossed the river and got to the other side, I slowly fumbled over.

As I crossed I saw there was actually a path/ steps heading across the river at the side I had left, so the scramble across to IC wasn’t needed, I think a wider line on race day could be a good  idea to dodge the ascent.

We then reached slabs and bobbled along to Grindslow Knoll, the lads gave me some advice on the trod to take down to Edale, noticing a can of heneiken under a rock (all I could think is how/why would someone be up here with beer, and why leave their rubbish behind). 😦 

 We headed back the way we had come to Snake, back over Kinder following the PW. Tried to retrace my steps from the Plane Wreck.

3 hours 50 min, incudling stoppages, 15.3 miles 1950ft of ascent and a great day out.

Bring on race day.