Today was the day, we were going up Mam Tor!
I had originally wanted to climb Mam Tor for sunrise, which would have meant waking up at 4am, driving over to park slightly closer and climbing for sunrise which would have been at 5:43am.
However; the weather app has not been our friend so far on this trip, but this has also ended up working in our favour! Each night we look at the weather for the next day, each day the weather is not what it says it’s meant to be!
We looked last night and the weather said cloudy, not even a chance of sun for today. So we decided to do a longer walk at a reasonable hour.
We then woke to gorgeous blue skies and the sun beating down on the van! Typical!
So the weather app was wrong again, not a problem for us! We got out of bed, did a couple of chores, had our coffee and porridge and packed our bags with our lunch made lovingly by Michael last night. We put our boots on, locked up the van and started walking and that’s when the sun decided to hide behind a big cloud!
Still undeterred, we headed for our route which entailed Loose Hill (yes that one from a few days ago that we were pleased we weren’t walking up 🙄), Backtor, Barker Bank and finally Mamtor, of course then coming down our favourite; Winnats Pass.
Up to Loose Hill
Well the incline started almost instantly! Crossing field after field, winding back on ourselves and continuously climbing! We looked back perhaps 2km in and we could see the van at the campsite!
It wasn’t long until Michael’s blister from the 17km walk the other day started to rear its ugly head and give him a bit of jip! But we kept on climbing an unknown amount of steps, taking as much fluid and snacks on board as we could – a mistake we had learnt the other day! Must keep our energy up!
We kept on climbing, it felt more like a scramble in places, until we were at the top of Loose Hill and only 3km in!!! The sun had truly disappeared and the wind had replaced it, it was quite a chill on the final ascent up to Loose Hill!
We didn’t hang about for long, obligatory photo and then carry on to make sure we didn’t get cold!
Trying to teach Bentley that he has to touch whatever is at the top otherwise it doesn’t count!
The ridge to Mam Tor
We started the ridge walk to Backtor, the angle we approached it from was much friendlier than the one most others had come from!
It wasnt until we had carried on and looked back that we saw quite how dramatic it was!
And I can’t even begin to explain the scramble down and onwards to Mam Tor.
Despite the sun not really making an appearance, the views were still giving 😍 and this is what lay ahead of us!
This is Barker Bank and it was a couple of kilometres along this ridge, which doesn’t look as fun or rocky as it actually was!
Such a stunning part of the world! We kept looking back at what we had already accomplished and so close to the top of Mam Tor!
Mam Tor summit
And then we had made it! Promise Bentley did touch the top, just too quickly for our camera!
And the views, they speak for themselves!
Down through Winnats Pass
We then continued on our path down over and down the other side of the mountain. We then understood why most people came up this path! It was only about 1.5km (if that) from the lay by to the top! It was also very nicely paved stones with a handrail! Nothing like what we had scrambled over!
We kept heading down and made our way to Winnats Pass. We had experienced so much in this stretch of road, it was only right we walk through it too.
We came out at the cavern we had enjoyed the day before, all that was left was plodding back through the village to the campsite!
11.25km in under 3 hours and back in time for lunch!
We then had a very relaxed rest of the afternoon only moving to shower, do a load of washing and then moving that load of washing to the dryer! Chores will always be there, whether you’ve walked 11km or not! And then we topped off the eveningwith pie and chips (cooked in the van!) for dinner!
Rest day incoming!