❄️ Frozen Ground, Edges and Cloughs
- bootsandbanter
- Jan 4
- 5 min read
A winter solo walk in the Peak District: Dead Edge and Ramsden Clough
Date: 03 January 2026
Location: Peak District, Langsett / Winscar
Time: 5 hours 30 minutes
📍Route: Winscar Carpark → South Nab Trig → Dead Edge End → Britland Edge Hill → Snailsden Pike End Trig → Snailsden Pike End Ethel → Winscar Reservoir → Winscar Carpark
📏 Distance: 17.65 km
⬆️ Ascent: 585 m
Weather: Bright sun, biting cold, -10°C wind chill
Mood: Determined, focused
First Hike of 2026
This hike was 66 miles away, so 132 miles round trip.
I parked at Winscar Reservoir, free parking, always a win, and started at 10:20 in what felt like bitter cold winter day.
South Nab trig looked so far in the distance, the kind of far that makes your brain do the maths and immediately accept, yep, this is going to be a long day.
And that was the point.
I didn’t want a gentle start to 2026. I wanted distance, cold, and time on my feet. I needed a day that would make me feel switched on again.
📍 South Nab Trig and Peak Banter Energy
I headed towards South Nab trig and pretty much straight away I realised how deeply frozen the ground was. I love frozen ground. It turns the Peak District from an ankle-sucking swamp fest into something solid and reliable.
There wasn’t a soul on the way to the trig. No fences, no private land stress, just me and a frozen landscape that felt completely empty.
Then, on the way back, I saw a guy in the distance with a dog. We started talking and somehow ended up chatting for at least 20 minutes in the freezing cold.
Peak banter energy. Neither of us willing to be the first to say “right then…” because the conversation has hit that sweet spot where strangers become temporary trail allies.
So 2026 officially started with a trig tick and a random conversation in the middle of nowhere, which honestly feels like a very good sign.
🧊 Frozen Ground, Empty Moor
After that I retraced about 2 km and then turned towards Dead Edge. What a name. No romance, just bleak honesty. Aggressively honest name - you are now entering bleakness, good luck 😅.
At 12:00, I ate my breakfast, a pain au raisin, while crossing Dead Edge End, still walking through frozen bog.
Pretty much straight away I knew this was going to feel remote. The scenery was like desert, not sandy desert, just empty, low heather bushes, frozen bog, and little mini lakes locked solid with ice. It looked horrid, and in non-frozen conditions it would be even worse.
For hours I had one thought looping in my head:
Thank god this is solid frozen.
Even though I could see the ice was solid in most places, I still had to probe a few times. Because if it breaks and I get soaked, that’s game over for comfort in feel factor -10.
🧭 Precision Over Romance
Britland Edge Hill doesn’t announce itself. No cairn, no sign, no feeling of arrival. Just moorland that looks the same in every direction.
So I did what I always do. I zoomed the Ethel app right in, aligned the blue dot with the pinned location, and stood exactly where it said the summit was.
No guesswork, no “close enough”.
I’m not taking any chances with invisible summits. I do not want to come back here again to redo it.
In any other conditions that area of these 2 ethels would be an absolute horror show. Bottomless bog, ankle-sucking grass, morale erosion by a 10 000 wet steps. Frozen though? Suddenly it’s navigable, almost elegant, even if it still looks horrid.
🥪 Fuel Without Stopping
I turned back and ate a tuna sweetcorn sandwich while walking, obviously. There was no chance of stopping in that cold.
One gloved hand holding the packet, one hand bare and eating fast. Efficient, quick, mildly ridiculous, and necessary. My hand was freezing.
The Peaks are such a good training ground because they can look deceptively tame. Then when you are out there in a blank brown expanse, features erased you realise, yep, this is where habits get built.
🌄 Ramsden Clough, The Unexpected Reward
Then the landscape changed.
Heading towards Ramsden Clough felt like stepping into a different world. After hours of bleak moorland, the ground suddenly dropped away into a dramatic valley. Ramsden Rocks appeared and I was genuinely stunned.
I was happy in a way that surprised me. It felt so worth it in that moment. I’d never been here before and I loved it instantly. The area of the rocks was stark, sculpted, almost theatrical. After hours of flat, empty moorland, my eyes finally get something to feast on.
I wouldn’t repeat the earlier Ethels, but this place? This I would happily come back to.
🗺️ Snailsden Pike End: The Trig Trap
From there I turned towards Snailsden Pike End. I did the trig, then opened the Ethel map and realised the Ethel wasn’t actually at the trig.
So I went hunting.
The correct spot was about 400 metres away, roughly 20 metres into the bushes off the path. I lined up the blue dot with the pinned location again, stood on it properly, and called it done.
Mission accomplished.
🌒 Light, Urgency, Solitude
I saw only two people on the path later on, and that was it. The first people since the first trig, then nobody again until the end.
I skirted around Winscar Reservoir on the long side and then noticed the time creeping up. It was going to be 16:00 soon, sunset time.
It always feels more urgent when I’m solo and that realisation lands, middle of nowhere, no one around, daylight fading faster than you’d like. Not panic, just focus.
Scotland training, basically.
🌕 The Finish
I finished just minutes after 16:00.
And then, the moon rose low over the hills, soft pastel sky, quiet land, the day finally exhaling.
🧠 Final Thought
Nothing special happened on this hike. And that’s exactly why it mattered.
No sheep, no humans, nobody to accidentally validate my existence.
No drama, no stories, no moments of doubt. Just cold, distance, precision, and quiet self-trust. A reminder that I’m comfortable alone in empty places, and that my brain still knows how to stay calm, careful, and capable.
“This is good for mental strength” I was telling myself.
A solid way to begin 2026.
⛰ Ethels bagged 73/95:
⛰️Dead Edge End
⛰️Britland Hill Edge
⛰️Snailsden Pike End
⛰ Trigs bagged 61/87:
South Nab, Dead Edge, Snailsden
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