Blackden Brook meet report today, Nov 26th

8 of us ranging in age from 13 to 70+ arrived for the meet on a dry, coolish morning with intermittent sunshine, not quite the glorious weather enjoyed by the navigators yesterday but perfect for a steepish ascent.
After a fairly gentle start, with numerous crossings of the stream, we eventually reached the waterfall that precedes the start of the scramble. Unfortunately the path had suffered a minor collapse over a 25 foot steep drop, so various options were taken to avoid too much tension. Reconvening above the Falls we set off up the Grade 1 scramble, continuing interest was enjoyed, especially with a large amount of ice/verglas.
The Kinder plateau was reached just in time for lunch, after which we turned North, with a few options available to complete the trip. After some while it became fairly obvious that the longer options would leave us in the dark at the mercy of a single head torch between us, so the consensus was to drop down Fairbrook, see if we could find a path back to the cars (we couldn’t) or walk down the road. Having almost got a lift, but not quite, we walked the mile or so back to the cars.
7.75 miles, much ascent/descent in almost 6 hours, no navigating happened, thanks to all that came, lovely to be out on the hills again.
Pictures on walking WhatsApp page.
Paul Gibson.