Stiperstones

Sunday 6 December; Stiperstones (SO368986)

Whilst the weather forecast had been unduly optimistic about the dryness of the day, the prediction of falling winds was correct and thus by the time we made our way (via an interesting route) back up to the same car park as we had abandoned at 1.30 on Saturday morning, it was looking to be a suitable day for my final Marilyn in Section 38A.

Considering that we didn’t get moving until gone 11am, there were far fewer people out and about than I had expected on this distinctive hill in a popular walking area, and we passed just three duos as we made our way via the shortest route to the top.

Catching sight of the trig point I adjudged it to be the most impressively placed one I have visited this year – and, upon clocking the small size and exposed position of the top, also realised that there was absolutely no chance that I could have made my way up to it in Saturday’s >50mph winds, even if I had battled my way up the hill:

We even got a shot of both of us on the top (also showing off nicely the nature of the summit), thanks to a random act of kindness by a passing stranger, who shouted up to us that she would take a photo and send it to us. This was the result:

Thank you kind stranger, should you ever see this!

Even though the day was a bit damper than expected (albeit only drizzle) we didn’t simply retrace our steps on this one, as a number of obvious circuits presented themselves. The one we chose was modest, taking us northwards for a while before dropping down to the Shropshire Way, which took us to and along a track, back to our start point. It was in the final few hundred yards of that track that we rued not setting out five minutes earlier as the drizzle turned to heavy rain.

With all of our intended hills now visited, and with 24 hours still at our disposal before we needed to head home, we consulted the map and pondered where to go next …