15 trigs 2023- 50b450

 Lets address the title first. Yes, this is indeed the 15 trigs- the same thing I did with Chris in 2019, and back in 2011 with Andy, Jules and Dan, but this time it's different. 

Lynne has mentioned over the past few years- since at least before lockdown- that she wanted to give it a go- either as a full one time effort, but walking rather than running, or as a 2 day challenge with a camp in the middle. So as part of her 50 things to do before 50 project, that has been going on this year, one of her things was the 15 trigs. 

To be honest, I thought this was *quite* ambitious, but still pretty do-able. In the past few months she has been getting out and recce-ing various sections of it and was due to do it next weekend with a friend. Next weekend though, I'm not going to be around to help if necessary, and also the weather might end up crapping out. Doing the 15 trigs as a walk is going to be hard enough as it is- doing it in the rain would be horrendous- or it might not happen. I happened to have a day where no-one had booked in this week and so suggested that we might as well get on and do it this week anyway, that way we'd get to have a long walk together, I could help without being external "support"- ie. with a car. 

She called up the person that was meant to be doing it with her next week and got the blessing to do it early with me, we spent half a day working out what we needed, Lynne wrote up a quick 24 hour schedule and 15 mins after my final appointment of the day at 1645, we set off. 

This was going to be a little different to the other times I have done this route. The 2 main differences were that we were doing it as a walk rather than a run, and that it would include an overnight portion. 

Off we set, and took off up Cock hill, bagging the first trig in short order, being careful not to go too fast up the hill. Lynnes 24 hour schedule had an average of 4kmph, so going much faster than that would have been nice, but you don't want to blow up too early. Walking sticks were out- might as well make it as easy as we can as early as we can. The idea of eating every half hour or so was also there- not too much, but just a few mouthfuls. In anticipation of this, we had bought a LOAD of food with us, but not just your standard sweet stuff and energy bars. There were sausages, porkpies, sandwiches, apples etc. so quite a lot of choice. 

Cock hill

Across in the late afternoon sun towards Dog Rock and upward to Shelf stones. It was quite warm, but there was a fair old breeze blowing from the East. Cool, but not chilly, and by the time we were at Higher Shelf trig we were already a sizeable chunk up on Lynnes Schedule. Useful. I was fairly sure we'd get around in under 24 hours, but by how much, I wasn't sure. A brief photo stop at the trig (getting a snap at every trig was one of my primary jobs), and off we went, West, past Overexposed, the B29 wreck, down into Herne Clough and onward. 

Higher Shelf Stones

We took a diagonal line up to the top just before Miry clough and up towards Alport- which stays hidden for a long time, until it pops into view only about 200m in front of you. Still very much daylight here- we were indeed making good time as we dropped down from Birchen hat, muching away on various snacks and discussing the various route choices ahead of us- and looking at the horizon, realising just how far away Back Tor trig looks to be. 

Alport

Down to the boring walk to Kings Tree and across to Slippery Stones, maintaining the "mobile picnic" attitude, but it seemed like I might be getting a blister on my left heel, so just before the ascent towards Outer Edge, I stopped (in a place out of the wind... but, it seems where the midges congregate), and put on a compeed that had been fortuitously placed in my kit only about 6 hours previously. I haven't used compeed in years, but was very glad of the foresight that led to it being packed. 

Outer Edge

Up to Outer Edge as the sun was setting (behind a cloud, so no amazing photos) and back along the boundary path, which was really quite dry and free from immense bog monsters towards Cut Gate and Margery hill. It was this part, and the bit to Emlin that were playing on my mind. You don't want to fall in a bog at the beginning of the night section where it is going to be colder, it sets you up badly. The nav across Emlin was going to be a bit grim in terms of heather bashing- and I've neved done it in the dark, so that was a concern as well.... however, we got to Margery Hill while it was still twighlight, so the first of the worrisome bits was nicely done without head torches. 

Margery Hill

Now for a long leg, the reverse of the "new" HPM route down and across the moor to the slabs and then south for the "in and back" of Back tor. Head torches on heads, but not yet on, we made our way down the moor, crossing peat dams and into the grough proper where a variety of semi-trods ended up becoming "the" trod that I knew. The wind was blowing in from the East and it was getting time to turn my warm layer inside out from "breathable" to "windproof"- but I figured I'd do that at Back tor. 

We hit the flags, which were very white indeed and reflected what light there still was in the sky, and so despite the dark we scuttled across the flagstones without headtorches, successfully getting to Back tor Trig just as it was pronounced "ok.... its proper dark now". 

Back Tor

We sheltered in the lee of the stones for a bite to eat, sort kit etc. and headed back to the path where it became apparent that it was a) dark and b) a whole lot colder. Despite wearing a primaloft layer and having primaloft mitts I was cold. Either I'm getting more sensitive to cold, my primaloft stuff is a bit old and isn't quite up to muster, or we were moving at a speed that was a little slower than I'm used to and I wasn't able to keep my core temperature up. 

It was about to be the section to Emlin which was playing on both of our minds - so we worked back down the flagstones to the little lumpy bit where Emlin is about ENE in a line, where my poles got put away, the BIG torch came out, as did the compass, and we set about navigating across to the trig. Now, this isn't all that much of a deal, but there are no decent lines here, the ground isn't all that forgiving and it is quite a broad hill with not a lot of features. Essentially, its a 3k dead reckoning bearing. There were a couple of lights in the distance that we could use as markers, and after quite a while stumbling across various bits of heathery moorland the short uphill to the trig finally appeared and we bashed on up to the top. Emlin- great. 

Emlin

The getting off was a bit of a challenge as I totally missed the very easy line off and took Lynne down a much worse line through heather and burnt vegetation. Oops. We got off though, and had a coffee from the flask I was carrying to celebrate. 

Lynne had been here to recce just a couple of weeks ago, so she took over the directional orders from here. There seem to be a few different ways to get from here to Rod Moor and over to the Sportsman. She knew what she was doing, and I just let her get on with it. The main thing to note about this route was that I lost a bloody waterbottle on this section. No idea where it was, but it was between Gibralter rocks and Rod Moor. Very annoying, and has done nothing to reverse my dislike of this section. 

Rod Moor

By the time we got to the Sportsman it was something like 3am, so unsurprisingly, it was shut. They do have an outside tap, which Lynne had asked if we could use, should we get there at some point when they were closed, which they didn't have a problem with. We had still been moving well at this point, eating up the miles in a slow and steady way, though I was still not warming up- so swapped my old, somewhat threadbare Berghaus primaloft layer with Lynnes less battered Inov8 one, along with a waterproof over the top, hopefully this would improve things. 

The Sportsman (closed at 3am)

A short stop to organise some food, top up water, and make sure everything was ok, and off we went up the road toward Stanage. By the time we had passed Redmires it was becoming daylight, we took off headtorches as we passed Stanage Pole, and it was full daylight as we reached High Neb. Lynne acquitted herself well with the small scramble down off Stanage, but by the time we got to the carpark I was getting a bit of a hot spot on my other heel, so a short faff ensued while compeed was applied. 

High Neb

The next road section was fairly tedious, and as we got towards Yorkshire bridge the inevitable conversation about "if we had a support vehicle here, or if we'd have left the van here with extra water in it, would we have just caved in here?". The answer was that it was good not to have any other option than to just keep on going as the temptation to stop here would probably have been too great. Especially with Parkin clough a mere 100 metres further on. 

Up we went- the most brutal climb in terms of height gain vs distance travelled in the whole thing, but less than 30 mins later we were at Winhill trig point surveying everything we had done, as well as looking toward Kinder and thinking "well, it isn't far to go now". 

Winhill

Still the wind kept battering us- but this time from behind, so at least it was "helping" us along, though it didn't feel like it. Down to Hope Cross, and then the slog up to Kinder and through some fairly dry bog to Kinder East (1957) trig. From here is a long leg over to Brown Knoll, and the distance and time on feet was starting to tell. 

1957

The pace along the south edge was slowing a bit, my shoes were filling up with dead bits of heather (I thought there was a bit of a stone in my shoe, so took it off and was semi-surprised to find nearly the entire shoe was full of heather). The rocks and stones of the southern edge are not conducive to speedy travel, even though there are sections of flagstones and it seemed like it took an age to reach Brown knoll. 

Brown Knoll

Now it was a significant proportion into the morning, people were on the hill, and the wind was getting up- a significant breeze from the East- our right- was making it quite difficult to walk well, especially with our levels of fatigue. I still wasn't warm, despite the sun coming out, and was only just holding off being a bit shivery. Up onto Kinder and Kinder Low trig, followed by the long and indeterminable walk around the edge to Kinder Downfall. 

Kinder Low

I was beginning to fade quite a bit by here. Up until now I was the one trying to buoy up the mood, making sure that we were eating and drinking etc. but by now, the wind was really taking its toll. Head down and keep walking, check up on Lynne every so often to make sure we were in touch with each other and nav was good. Out to Sandy heys trig, and now only one left to get.

Sandy Heys

The journey off Kinder corner was torturous, and the leg to Harry Hut was pretty much the slowest that we did. Sun beating down, so theoretically warm, but with a strong wind blowing, so actually kind of cold. Still trying to eat and move but with a really strong sensation of just wanting to sleep. There were a couple of moments where I caught myself dozing off midstride- but not far to go now. 

As we approached Harry hut my watch buzzed- I looked and it told me I had an appointment coming up in 30 mins. No. What? Hallucination? Apparently not. Someone had somehow managed to book an appointment on our online booking form despite it being blocked out for the entire day. How on earth? No idea, but the priority to was to call them and somehow make sense while talking to them in a severely sleep deprived state. But... not enough signal to get a coherent conversation... so on the way up to Harry Hut I was there trying to type a message while dodging holes and heather and hold it all together while trying not to fall asleep. Great fun.

Harry Hut

I sent the message as we hit the trig- took the obligatory photo- and noticed there was a note under a rock on the trig, but thought nothing of it. As it turns out, it was a note left for Lynne by the person she was going to do it with in a couple of weeks congratulating us on the round- she had been following our progress on GPS the whole way around... but it was just a note and I had no thought or inkling that it might possibly be for us! (how British... don't want to pry into other peoples letters....)

What followed was pretty much a sleepwalk off the hill down to Derbyshire level. Our targets were getting smaller and smaller. Instead of "just need to get to that trig", it was now down to "just get to that road", "just get to that tree" etc. 

Derbyshire level took a while... it was still hot/butcold/buthot. Sleep deprivation was high on the list of "not goods", and although getting home was a bit of a blur, it did not go fast. 

Finally we got to the door- 91kilometres in about 20 hours 15 mins. We had done it!

Neither of us in a good state- but remembered to turn off the garmin and save the activity, followed by a really bad shivering fit, a brief shower and I think I was literally asleep AS my head touched the pillow.

I'm so impressed with Lynne for her ability to keep going through this challenge, despite her doubts and misgivings. I never thought that we wouldn't get around, but had no idea about what kind of time we would do it in. It was never meant to be a run, but more of a "just get around" round. Our speed never really dipped much below 4kmph, so the early slightly faster kilometres certainly helped with the overall time being less than 24 hours. 

As for me- having done this before, I was surprised at how beaten up I was at the end and how much I needed to dig into my reserves for the last few hours. It appears to be an indication that yes, the distance is indeed a factor for me, but not nearly so much as the amount of time awake. I'm certainly not going to rush to do something else where I need to be awake and alert for anything like 24 hours- 17 or so is my limit for peak awareness, ability and enjoyment. Beyond that it becomes a death march. And although I know I can do that, there is no pleasure to be derived from it. 

Despite doing this in the midst of summer, I spent much of this being cold. Something to do with not moving fast enough to keep me warm? Maybe I rely too much on the ability to move to burn energy to keep me warm, rather than actually carrying enough to keep me warm? Interesting, and something to look into and be aware of. 

Still, now all is said and done, all is grand. We finished, Lynne has another one ticked off and I was glad to be of help in completing it.