The Kinder Walk is organised on behalf of the Derbyshire County Scout Council and is open to all members of the Scout and Guide Associations, subject to the various trophy categories.

The Kinder Walk itself is approximately 29km and the Kinder Challenge is around 16km. The Walk is aimed at older Scouts, Explorer Scouts, Guides and members of Scout Network. It is a challenge of map reading and stamina in this exciting and rugged area of the Peak District.

The walk is a team event – for teams of between 2 and 5, see Categories and eligibility for details. Times vary between 3 and 8 hours, maybe this will be the year to break the record and yours could be the team to do it!!

The Next Event

The date for the 2010 event is now confirmed for Sunday 26th September.
The 2009 information book is now available by clicking here. The 2010 handbook will be available in June 2010.

The 2009 Event

We had a total of 44 teams entered for both events – 23 for the Walk and 21 for the Challenge.
This was a significant increase from previous years, the main increase being for the Challenge (up from 13 teams in the first year) mainly from the Scout section. We still aim to attract entries from Girl Guiding – so tell all your friends in our sister movement.

Fastest time for the Walk was 3 hours 13 minutes by Phoenix Fellowship.
Fastest time for the Challenge 2 hours 48 minutes by Chapel Scouts ‘A’ Team.
This is 39 minutes off the previous record – which we said “would take some determination to beat”!

My thanks are extended to all those who helped in the event and hope to see them back in 2010.

Dave MacAlister
Chairman

History

The first competition was held in October 1967 for the newly formed section of Venture Scouting. It was organised by the then Blagreaves Venture Scout Unit for Venture Unit teams from the Derby Area, there were a total of seven teams took part with the winning team being Derwent VSU in a time of 7 hours 56 minutes. The route was a circular one of 26 miles starting and finishing at Chapel en le Frith by way of Edale, Kinder, Hayfield, Buxworth and Combs. The weather for this first event was rain, rain and more rain!! The entry increased in 1968 to eleven teams with entries invited from beyond Derby, even one team from Huddersfield. Winners that year were Derwent 'B' team in a time of 9 hours 31.

In the early years the route was not disclosed until the day of the walk, a different route being used each year. After a lapse of two years the event was resurrected in 1993 using basically the same route we have today. Over the years the trophy categories and their eligibilities have changed, the current categories reflecting the changes in age ranges in the Scout Association.

In 2008 we introduced the Kinder Challenge in an effort to encourage the younger members both into walking in the Peak and to participate in competitive walking events.