We got our dump at last and it’s a good one. The Peak District is blanketed under a deep layer of snow, it is time to get out and go for a slide! Nick was on it, he suggested the Manifold valley, it was a good track and very importantly it was flat.
Footwear was my biggest concern, my SPDs were going to be either cold, wet or more probably both. I had walking boots but no flats, so SPDs it was with Sealskins and plastic bags. It was a sunny day how cold could it be?
This was the first time I had really tried to ride in snow and I was taken aback by just how little snow it took to make progress next to impossible. The sun had softened the surface so floating over the top wasn’t going to happen, fortunately we could follow the land rover and tractor tracks, the crushed snow just firm enough to support our weight. Nick had attached zip ties around his tyres for extra grip, most likely a pro tip he had picked up off the internet however in this soft snow he wasn’t getting the performance gain he was hoping for.
We found a fun downhill, a wide open convex slope, real steep and unbroken. The anticipation was building, how fast would we go? would we slide? would we slip? would we roll? would we carve? we just didn’t know. I set off first building up speed then off the end of the compacted track and into the unknown. It wasn’t steep yet and my speed was soon absorbed by the deep snow, front wheel plunging itself down and down with each revolution.
I kept peddling, this was lung-busting work and I was going downhill! The slope reached its steepest point and I was still peddling, this was not going to be any sleigh ride for sure. Nick followed in similar style although he had the advantage of his fluorescent orange Commencal to burn a furrow into the snow! We both agreed it had been a proper anticlimax.
The sun now disappeared behind the hillside and the temperature dropped. Passing under Thor’s Cave we pulled the Thermos out and supped hot black coffee. In the fading light we turned for home struggling to keep our wheels in the thin rutted tyre tracks. It had been a top ride.