Training starts

Training started on 30 December 2011, 5 days after the deal was sealed on Pounding the Pennines. It was always going to be strenuous walk to help burn off the Christmas overindulgence - but not quite as difficult as the end result. We headed over to Hayfield to do a 10 mile circular over Kinder Scout although this ended up more like 15 miles after difficult conditions led to “several differences in navigational opinion” resorting to map and Garmin. It was pretty hairy up there as the mist dropped on the plateau, in came the snow and then we rescued a lost crocodile Dundee look-a-likie from Oxford. This was my second experience of coming in off the tops in the dark – the previous time involved Mountain Rescue – I am no more fond of it. All good learning and practice for the big one – washed down with some local ales in the Kinder Lodge.