Kinder Killer 2023 (summer)

 I was meant to be doing Wasdale this weekend, however, there is a weather warning in place, and there is no guarantee that the race will e going ahead. Even if it does, there is no guarantee that we might get to Pillar and the marshals might have decided that it is unsafe to sit on top of a mountain in an impending thunderstorm (and rightly so), and might send us down a shortened route. None of this is the race organisers fault, don't get me wrong- but neither Chris nor I were particularly excited about driving for 4 hours to do a shortened version of the classic race. 

We decided that we still wanted to get a decent run out, Chris needs the miles and ascent for training for a race he has coming up in 5 weeks time, and I'm just a sucker for long hard days out, it seems. The Kinder dozen was suggested, but what with the time of year, every ascent and descent would be covered in head high bracken. The Kinder Killer was taken as the next option 30 odd miles and 2500m ascent, which, although some of it would be covered in bracken, not ALL of it would be. 

Great. 

We started at the relatively relaxed time of about 7:30am (I was meant to be riding over to Chris's for 6am, so was very appreciative of the lie in). He told me that I was bounding ahead somewhat on the first climb, up Fairbrook Naze- which is always a surprise to be told that by him, so chilled my beans a little. The sun was out, and it was already pretty warm, but there was something of a promise for thunder later in the day, along with some rain. Still, we hit the top of Kinder and pootled along the northern edge, before plunging down William clough, and a left turn at the bottom, across the top of the reservoir, before gaining the somewhat bracken entangled path up towards Kinder Downfall. This was utterly un-runnable in this state. You couldn't see the floor, and so we resorted to fast walking. (and talking). 

You get the idea. 

Up to the downfall, and we took a line up the crags on climbers left of the falls to gain the top, and ran across the top, and from there, down the Kinder Trog/Downfall line straight down the western edge to Kinder Low trig- follow the path, and the lovely descent off the nose, and then round the bottom and up to Edale cross and then join the rather busy tourist path that takes us straight down to the bottom of Jacobs ladder, where I fill my bottle up for the first time today. 

(I have a salomon filter flask, which makes me very confident indeed about just picking water up out of pretty much any stream. I know we don't need to be *too* careful in the UK, but it is nice to have that peace of mind). 

From there it was across the stream and up the hill to Crowden tower. I had a moment of hesitation as we looked over to the Woolpacks that we were going up the wrong side of a grough valley, but my initial route choice was correct, and we headed up and curved around the contours to get to a runnable section up towards the tower. It was getting hot on this section, as in hotter than we thought it was going to get- which might be a problem later in the day... however, it was meant to cloud over soon. A moment on top, before going straight down the clough. Although there are lots of paths on this route, they are not actually all that runnable. Far to many random bits of rock, stone and debris scattered around certainly make it an obstacle course rather than a "trail run". 

At the bottom, a curve around the hill until we hit a vague trod going back up Grindslow Knoll- where it continued to be hot and sunny- and worries about being sunburnt by the end of the day, despite using P45 at the beginning of the day were at the top of my mind. The path up this side is long and a bit patchy. We ate as we climbed (I had some of Chris's "Precision fuel" energy chews- which were very very good indeed). As we got to the top, my legs were pretty much only good for walking on the incline, while Chris skipped away up to the top. Definitely stronger legs than me at the moment. 

Down into Edale in the sun, and we agreed to stop for a quick refill of water at the campsite, a fizzy drink and a calippo from the General store. (they had amazing sourdough bread as well, but I didn't have any space for a loaf). 

This Fell running lark is hard work.

Then it was up the grind of the tourist path, certainly one of the most tedious portions of this entire route- followed by the next tedious bit- along the southern edge around to Druids stone before the drop down to the YHA- generally quite good fun. Today.... head deep bracken with not even a trace of a trod through the whole lot. The descent took almost as much time as it would have taken to ascend it in the autumn/winter/spring - this is the main section that really means the Killer probably should be avoided in the summer (unless you have a strimmer- or have "attended" to the  line prior to actually doing it). 

Once down at the YHA, we refilled bottles AGAIN, and then set off around the hill to Jaggers, which although has a LOT of bracken, also has a pretty decent trod up the side of the stream. Don't get me wrong, this is not runnable, but at least when you put your foot forward, there is generally a trod to go along, rather than having to wade through a tripline of bracken on every footstep. 

Up to the top in rather humid weather, and then as we began to drop to Crookstone barn, the long promised rain started to fall. We very much welcomed it, but didn't bother to put on waterproofs- and it was indeed, over and past us pretty soon. Back to paths again round the bottom of Kinder, down Potato alley and along to the barn at the bottom of that horrendous climb- and then more bracken. The route continues around the bottom of Kinder to Blackden clough. Essentially this is through a ridiculous amount of bracken. Luckily, I'd kind of done this portion a couple of years ago when on the New Glossop AL time trial, and knew there was most likely still quite a decent sheep trod all along the wall around to Blackden. 

Blackden

So we stuck to the wall, and with head high bracken, hugged into the sheep trod, in and out of a few cloughs and eventually popped out at the bottom of Blackden- the final climb. Always a delight to head up Blackden clough, watching out for the dodgy bits underfoot (there is a section to the side of a pool and waterfall that is particularly ripe for giving way/ dropping you down a sizable fall). 

All the way to the top, a short run along to the top of Gateside clough and a final drop to the bottom, and a well deserved leg wash in the bottom of Fairbrook. 

It certainly wasn't the fastest Kinder Killer ever, but it wasn't meant to be. A longish day out with a friend, time on feet, and a whole lot of bracken bashing. Great fun. 

Time for tea and cake