A Cautionary Tale

A cautionary tale for those of you who are out running on the hills in this wintery weather.

I waited for it to start snowing last Saturday afternoon and set out on a 10-12 miler up over Totley Moor, White Edge Moor, with the aim of eventually heading on to Burbage and Houndkirk. I love this weather for running in and it was fantastic having your face cleansed by tiny bits of snow blown on a strong wind.

I was following the footsteps of a walker over White Edge Moor until just before the White Edge Lodge.

White Edge Lodge

Normally I'm pretty good at judging what's underfoot but I suddenly hit a patch of snow-covered ice and went straight over. There was a loud crack from my left ankle as I went down. I won't tell you what I shouted out, but you certainly wouldn't say it polite company, and possibly not even in front of other fell runners!

Managed to get back on my feet, but it became clear after a couple of minutes that I wouldn't be running any further. Luckily there were some people staying in White Edge Lodge, so I disturbed them with my sorry tale and they kindly allowed me inside to put on an extra layer top and bottom in preparation for struggling back to the main road for my wife to pick me up. A quick call to Mrs W and I was hobbling along the track to the main road.

Now, I should say at this point that despite the blasting I was taking from the wind and snow over the moor, I was quite warm - wearing a thick top and my OMM jacket and a pair of Gore Windstopper tights. So what I layered up with in White Edge Lodge was a pair of windproof walking trousers, an extra fleece between the running shirt and OMM top and a pair of thick gloves. Sounds like I should be toasty in that.

Well, it turns out that in the 10 minutes it took me to curse my way the 400m to the entrance gate and then the extra 5 minutes standing waiting for Mrs W to turn up, the clothes I had on were not enough. My legs were actually warm, but the heat was soon sucked out of the 3 layers I had on top by the wind and I ended up rather cold by the time rescue arrived.

Anyway, enough of the waffling. The cautionary tale is not, as you might think, about being careful where you put your feet. We fell runners are almost always careful about that, but stuff happens. No, the cautionary tale is about carrying enough layers to keep you warm in the event of an incident like this. Normally I carry waterproof over-trousers and an extra top layer (fleece or similar), but yesterday for some reason I stuck my walking trousers and thick gloves in my pack as well as a slightly thicker fleece. That was good luck, as was falling right outside White Edge Lodge where I could get some shelter whilst I changed - and could probably have got a lift back to Sheffield if necessary.

Not everyone will be that lucky! I know that some of you run without packs or with small packs containing just the bare essentials on training runs. I'd like to present this slightly wandering tale to you as a reminder that in winter you *need* to carry extra layers - top, bottoms and gloves. I think most of you would be surprised - as I was - at how quickly your body temperature drops when you aren't running. I've always thought that if anything happened, I could slip the extra layers on quickly and then drag myself to a road. Firstly, you need thick or multiple layers, secondly you don't just "quickly" strip down in the middle of a snowstorm to add extra layers - especially with an injury and finally it takes much longer and is much more painful than you imagine getting even from a trail to the road, so imagine how long it would take, say, from the middle of a moor or top of a mountain.

Bear in mind also that even if you do get a phone signal and manage to call Mountain Rescue, you have to be able to keep warm whilst waiting for them to find you!



After a couple of days limping round the house, my wife persuaded me to go to casualty for a checkup. It turns out that rather than a bad sprain, I actually have a spiral fracture of the fibula and a small fracture at the bottom of the tibia. I am in a cast now for 6 weeks whilst it heals.