Blue skies, brutal gusts, and the stubborn streak that carried me through nearly 8 hours of the Edale Skyline.

A solo circular walk from Grin Low to Oliver Hill, featuring Solomon’s Temple, panoramic views, spontaneous route changes and the quiet freedom of hiking alone.

Clockwise Edale Skyline in January was a choice. 31.6 km, 1,306 m, 3°C (feels like -4), five hours of fog and savage wind with no views until km 20. Hope Station to Lose Hill wasn’t a warm-up, the Lose Hill trig was being hogged, Brown Knoll was bog theatre, and Kinder Low tried to exfoliate my face. Somehow it turned into a PR by 3 minutes. Unplanned. Unhinged. Loved it.

A fog soaked November hike in the Peak District that turned bad weather into atmosphere. I set off from Tittesworth Reservoir and climbed the Ethel Gun, then wandered across the Roaches and over to Hen Cloud. Mist hid the world and revealed the landscape in a new way. Drizzle, silence and rock shaped the day, proving that visibility may disappear, but imagination and wonder certainly do not.

A violent-wind, bright-sky day in the Peak District ticking off four new Ethels: Mt Famine, South Head, Eccles Pike and Chinley Churn. A route from Hayfield with cow stand-offs, Highland cows, an overgrown “path”, a missing trig ripped out by a farmer, and a winter-grade wind that felt more like February than late October. Finished cold, feral and satisfied. Still convinced the Peak District is my endurance training ground and still full of surprises.