Snake Pass in the Media

Why is Snake Pass so well known?

Snake Pass is much more than a route between Glossop and Ladybower Reservoir.

Its steep climb from Glossop, exposed moorland scenery, sharp bends and high Pennine setting have made it instantly recognisable to generations of drivers, cyclists and visitors to the Peak District.

The same geography has also made the A57 particularly newsworthy. Winter snow, landslips, accidents and major roadworks regularly bring Snake Pass back into local and national coverage.

Over the years it has appeared in professional cycling, music, film, television and motoring journalism, giving this relatively short stretch of A-road a cultural profile far beyond its size.

Snake Pass and professional cycling

Snake Pass has a long association with cycling.

The climb from Glossop is approximately 3.2 miles long and has an average gradient of around 7%, giving it the length and character of climbs more commonly associated with European stage racing.

That has made Snake Pass an obvious choice for competitive cycling events and one of the best-known road climbs in the Peak District.

Snake Pass has featured in the Tour of Britain, with the road used as a King of the Mountains climb during editions of the professional race.

Snake Pass in the Tour of Britain

When the Tour of Britain returned in the 2000s, Snake Pass was one of the major northern climbs used to test the professional peloton.

The road featured in the 2004 Tour of Britain alongside other major British climbs including Holme Moss.

It returned in 2005 during the stage from Leeds to Sheffield. Riders tackled both Holme Moss and Snake Pass, with Snake Pass classified as a first-category climb.

Welsh rider Julian Winn reached the summit first during that 2005 stage as part of his successful King of the Mountains campaign.

The combination of the climb, open moorland and roadside spectators helped establish Snake Pass as one of the recognisable Peak District roads associated with British professional cycling.

The Tour de France Femmes is coming to Snake Pass

Snake Pass is set for one of the biggest international sporting moments in its history in 2027.

Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will travel from Manchester to Sheffield on Saturday 31 July 2027, passing through Derbyshire and taking riders along both Snake Pass and Winnats Pass.

The race brings together many of the world's leading professional cyclists and attracts an international television audience as well as thousands of spectators along the route.

It means images of Snake Pass and the surrounding Peak District will be seen by cycling fans around the world.

The Snake Pass Hill Climb

Professional stage racing is only part of the road's cycling story.

Snake Pass is also used for a dedicated hill climb organised by Glossop Kinder Velo under Cycling Time Trials regulations.

The course starts on the Glossop side and covers approximately 3.3 miles, climbing more than 300 metres towards the summit.

Tejvan Pettinger set a notable course time of 11 minutes 51 seconds in 2014.

The event continues today, keeping Snake Pass firmly established in British hill climb culture.

Cycling culture on Snake Pass

Long before modern professional racing, Snake Pass was attracting recreational cyclists.

Newspaper accounts from the beginning of the 20th century already described cyclists travelling over the pass and enjoying the long descent towards Ashopton.

Since then, the route has featured in club rides, hill climbs, sportives and organised cycling events.

British Cycling events such as the High Peak Hog have included the climb from Glossop, while other Peak District cycling routes combine Snake Pass with famous climbs including Holme Moss, Winnats Pass and Mam Nick.

Snake Pass in music

One of the most distinctive appearances of Snake Pass in popular culture came from Manchester band Inspiral Carpets.

The band filmed the video for their 1990 single This Is How It Feels at the summit of Snake Pass. The song became their first UK Top 40 hit, making the moorland road part of one of the recognisable music videos of the Madchester era.

Snake Pass has also inspired music directly.

Sheffield band The Human League recorded a track called The Snake, which has been linked to the road, while electronic musician Squarepusher also released a track titled Snake Pass.

Comic musician John Shuttleworth has even performed Incident on Snake Pass, a characteristically comic story involving a motoring accident on the road.

Snake Pass in film and television

The dramatic Peak District landscape has also attracted film and television productions.

Snake Pass was used as a filming location for the 2007 British drama And When Did You Last See Your Father?, starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent.

The wider Snake Pass and High Peak landscape has regularly appeared in television, travel programmes, motoring features and documentaries, where the road's combination of open moorland and sweeping bends makes it an obvious visual representation of the Peak District.

Snake Pass in motoring media

Snake Pass has long attracted motoring journalists as well as cyclists.

Its combination of bends, gradients and scenery means the A57 regularly appears in articles about scenic drives and Peak District road trips.

Top Gear magazine, for example, has used Snake Pass during road tests and driving features, including a feature taking a Rolls-Royce Dawn through the Peak District.

The road's popularity with drivers and motorcyclists is part of its appeal, although Snake Pass is a public road rather than a driving circuit and conditions can change rapidly.

Why Snake Pass appears in the news so often

For many people outside the Peak District, Snake Pass is most familiar from weather and travel reports.

Derbyshire County Council describes Snake Road as one of the highest roads in the Peak District and says weather conditions can be extreme during winter.

The council says it is often one of the first roads in Derbyshire to close because of snow and ice.

This makes Snake Pass a natural location for journalists covering heavy snow and difficult winter driving conditions. Images of the winding A57 surrounded by snow-covered moorland have become a familiar sight in regional and national weather coverage.

Snow and winter closures in the media

Winter weather produces some of the most widely shared images of Snake Pass.

Heavy snow can make conditions at the summit very different from those in nearby Glossop, Sheffield or lower parts of the Peak District. When the road becomes difficult or impassable, closure announcements and images from the pass can quickly spread through news outlets and social media.

Snake Pass was proactively closed in January 2026 ahead of significant snowfall associated with Storm Goretti, providing another example of the road becoming part of wider severe-weather coverage.

The 2022 Snake Pass landslips

One of the biggest modern Snake Pass stories followed Storm Eunice and Storm Franklin in February 2022.

Heavy rainfall caused significant ground movement at several locations along the A57, including Alport, Gillott Hey and Wood Cottage.

The resulting closure became a major local news story because of the uncertainty surrounding the road's future and the disruption caused to people travelling between Glossop, Sheffield and the Hope Valley.

The landslips have continued to generate coverage as Derbyshire County Council investigates permanent engineering solutions.

Snake Pass returned to the headlines in 2026

Snake Pass again received significant news coverage during 2026.

In June, Derbyshire County Council closed the road between Glossop and Ladybower Reservoir for three weeks while engineers investigated the Doctor's Gate landslip.

Two drilling rigs were used to create boreholes around 10 metres deep so engineers could examine the soil and rock formations beneath the road and work towards a permanent repair.

During a temporary weekend reopening on 20 June, the road was closed again after a fatal motorcycle collision near the A6013 junction for Bamford.

The combination of planned engineering work, landslip concerns and emergency incidents demonstrates why Snake Pass remains a frequent subject of regional news coverage.

Where does Snake Pass closure news come from?

News organisations are useful for explaining what has happened on Snake Pass, but the original source of closure information is often an official organisation.

Derbyshire County Council is the highway authority responsible for Snake Pass and publishes information about planned roadworks, landslips, weather closures and major engineering projects.

Derbyshire Police is an important source for emergency incidents and serious road traffic collisions.

Local and national news organisations then provide additional reporting, photographs, interviews and information about the wider impact of a closure.

Because the status of Snake Pass can change quickly, always check the latest live road information before travelling rather than relying on an older news article.

Snake Pass remains part of Peak District culture

Few roads of its length have built the same identity as Snake Pass.

It is simultaneously a working A-road, a famous cycling climb, a scenic driving route, a film and music location and one of the Peak District's most closely watched roads whenever winter weather arrives.

With the Tour de France Femmes due to cross Snake Pass in 2027, the road is set to receive another major moment in the international spotlight.