Estimated net time	5-7 hours
Difficulty	No difficulties, but the path can be a bit boggy in places.
Drinking water	Plenty of running water, but liquid of this colour should be produced north of the border and have alcohol content of at least 40%.
GSM coverage	Poor coverage throughout the route (July 2008).
Parking	Room for plenty of cars if the Snake Pass Inn's car park is open. If not then several cars can be parked along the road.
Start height	315 metres
Vertical metres	800 metres for the roundtrip
Trip distance	24.2 km
GPS-file	X
Map
Route photo	Route along Fair Brook up to the Kinder plateau.

From the round-about in Glossop drive 10.5 km south-east on road A57, through the Snake Pass, until you get to the Snake Pass Inn. Either park by the inn, or find parking along the left hand side of the road less than 100 metres further along.

On the right hand side of the road, at the edge of a small forest, you will see a signed path. Follow this path through the forest, and cross the river on the bridge. Turn left after the bridge and almost immediately turn right up the valley, along Fair Brook. Follow this path all the way up to the Kinder plateau, and then turn right. Follow the edge of the plateau, on a clearly visible path. 8 km after entering the plateau you will get to a concrete cairn. This is possibly not the highest point on the plateau, but is probably the highest marked point. From this point keep following the path along the edge of the plateau until you see a second concrete cairn. Fork left off the main path when you see this cairn, walk across to the cairn, and then short-cut across to the edge of the plateau again by walking west. Continue another 4.7 km from this cairn, and you will be back at the point where you entered the plateau, completing the round-trip. From here follow the ascent route back to the car.

07. July 2008

I flew into Manchester this Monday, in order to drive to Derby for a couple of meetings the following day. In stead of the normal route down M6 to Stoke and along A50 to Derby, I drove through the Peak District in order to pay a visit to the highest point in this National Park; Kinder Scout.
During my drive from Manchester it was raining heavily, but when I got to the trail head by the Snake Pass Inn the weather improved a little, and made the decision whether to take on the hike or not an easy one to make.
After about 300 metres of the hike, in the forest before crossing the river, any hopes of staying dry and clean vanished; I plumped into deep mud almost up to my knees! I later found out that my idea of staying dry and clean on this hike was a bit optimistic anyway.
When I got up onto the Kinder plateau I realised that my biggest challenge for the afternoon might be to locate the highest point on the plateau; it was an almost perfectly flat plateau, and the visibility was quite poor. After about 1:30 hours of hiking a met a couple, but they were not of any help when it came to pointing me to the actual summit. The only signs of a summit point I managed to find were two concrete cairns. The first one of these I got into view at the same time as it started to rain heavily, again, so more than one compulsory photo was out of the question. To me, from what I was able to see, this looked like the highest point on the Kinder plateau, located in the south-western corner. The second cairn made me deviate from the main path, which actually saved me from an even longer hike in the pretty awful conditions.
As I descended back to the car I decided to ask at the Snake Pass Inn if I could pay them a little in order to let me have a shower. Disappointment was therefore considerable when I found out that the place was closed. That meant changing into dry clothes behind the car parked next to A57. Luckily it wasn't raining at the time.
I know, based on what I have read and pictures I have seen, that the Peak District is a nice place, but my four hours encounter is not a memorable visit. However, it's not fair to judge a place based on the weather one day in July, as anyone living on the Norwegian west coast can verify ...

Photos 07.07.2008