23rd November 2003

Another early start, i got up at 6am after about 4 hours sleep (serves me right for going night laning a few hours previous!). I met up with James Holloway and we drove to Dans house. Dan would be my chauffeur for the day as i didn't fancy taking my truck on the eXtreme laning trip. We set off and met the others at Cat & Fiddle in a lay-by, we were:

• Me & Dan in his Samurai
• James Holloway - Vitara
• Dave 'engine braking' Wright - SJ413
• Andy Whalley - Jimny
• Jamie Cooper - Jimny
• Brett Dukes - SJ413

The temperature was barely above freezing and there was still a lot of ice and frost everywhere. These were far from ideal conditions to go driving over slick rocks that offered hardly any traction.

The first lane on our expedition is Tenterhill. Being an eXtreme trip, we do this lane in reverse, the difficult way!

We lead the way and wait for everybody to catch up, at the bottom of the valley.

Jamie shows off his rock-crawler gears fitted to a Samurai T-case, and new Diamond Backs.

Brett digs an over-sized shackle into the rocks

Followed by Dave

And Andy

We get back up the other side of the valley, some of us taking longer than others, eh Andy? And some of us with a smoking clutch, oh, Andy again!

We re-group at the start of the next lane after we temporarily lost Dave!?

Back on track, heading down a lane near Hollinsclough...

...down a steep hill...

...with some rather quite steep side slopes! They made Dan twitch a couple of times i can tell you!

That lane joins up with another which then goes back up the hill. Only thing is, that half way up is a very serious rocky outcrop, with some awkwardly spaced rock steps that have been worn slick. Made even worse by the ice on the ground. We sent Jamie up first, as his was the only truck with a winch. Even he couldnt get up under his own steam and had to winch himself up off a couple of trees!

Dan attempts it next but the wet and icy conditions mean he doesn't get very far. Its interesting how the weather affects the lanes as a few weeks previous Dan went straight up this lane in the dry. Inevitably Dan ends up being winched up by Jamie.

Brett attempts it in his usual style, and is defeated! Is that the first lane to do this Brett? heehee!

Due to amount of time it would take to winch all the vehicles up, we decide to abort this lane so that we can move onto the next. Jamie and Dan come back down. On the way Dan lands on a rock and makes a 8"x3" hole in his sill! Im not going to say anything about Dans driving...!

Next we go and 'do' Chapplegate. We decide its probably wise to do it the easier way considering the trouble we had getting up the last lane. Once again at the summit there is a nice pool of water, the ground surrounding this is frozen and all the puddles are covered in a layer of ice!

Dave being brave and putting his foot down through the water!

James braves the icy water

Just as we are about to start ascending The Steps, we see another group of 4x4s coming up! We pull onto the side of the track to allow them past. Turns out they are being lead by a rather tidy Samurai (blue one on the left).

After we get to the bottom of The Steps, we make a pit stop for some food. I jump in with Andy for a while to see how the Jimny performs, god it is sooo comfy! I could kill for coil springs! We move on to drive up Stannage Edge, but dont get any pictures. From here we shoot down to drive 'The Hand Of God', only backwards! It is just starting to get dusk, and the camera doesnt have a flash so thats why the pictures are poor quality...

Dan shows everyone how its done first

No problems! This was the quickest and less 'fussy' ascent of the day, and not even the best equiped truck of the 6!

Brett does it (eventully), in his own 'style'.

Followed by Andy.

Jamie breaks out the winch, even after Andys shown him how to do it (in an identical, lesser modified truck, no less)

Finally James, who only JUST makes it!

And thats it! We all leave after a rather spectacular day. James and Jamie follow me and Dan back to his house, where i pick up my truck and lead Jamie to the A38. And James follows me to the A610 on his way back to Notts.