A while ago I spent some time creating a wall map of the Lakeland Fells. I wanted something I could hang on the wall, something that would help me track my progress through all the Lake District hill lists and above all, something that looked good. In short, something that...
Increasingly that’s how I’ve come to think of myself, a slave to the list. “The List” in question being the 214 Lakeland fells described and documented by Alfred Wainwright – known colloquially as the Wainwrights. Beloved of many fell walkers, myself included; the Wainwrights are a collection of the best...
Route Description: Bridgend, Brothers Water, Hartsop Hall, High Hartsop Dodd, Little Hart Crag, Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Fairfield, Cofa Pike, Deepdale Hause, Deepdale, Bridgend. Notes: Beautiful day, only slightly spoiled by the high winds. Biting cold on tops with -19C wind chill recorded. I can feel my fitness waning as I walk...
Two more Wainwrights have been dutifully ticked off this weekend. Two of the lower fells, as I didn’t think my legs or lungs were truly recovered from the Man Flu of the past few weeks. As it was I got a splendid walk in, with some fantastic views and the...
Route Description: Armboth, Thirlmere permissive path, Sippling Crag (The Benn), Castle Crag, Raven Crag, Forest track, Middlesteads Gill, Armboth Fell, Fisher Gill, Armboth There is a car park at Armboth (along with one at the Thirlmere dam) and it has toilets, but it also has a pay and display machine,...
Route Description: Scawgill Bridge, Spout Force, Darling How Plantation, Graystones, Kirk Fell, Widow Hause, Broom Fell, Lord’s Seat, Barf, Ullister Hill, Seat How, Tarbarrel Moss, Whinlatter Top, Whinlatter, Scawgill Bridge A rather odd walk, quite contrived to bag all the summits in the area, but as a result I was...
I had the pleasure of spending some time recently with Matthew Hillplodder, during which he spoke of his idea to create a topology map for the Lakeland Fells. He has started the project, which currently covers the Far Eastern Fells, and provides him with an “at a glance” idea of...
Early last year I began ‘Project Wainwright’, which was my way of officially beginning the collection of all 214 Lakeland fells classified by Alfred Wainwright. This is a bagging list that many thousands of people are probably working through and many more thousands have already finished. In fact I’ve met...
Probably the toughest walk of the year for me yesterday (Sunday), what with the heat and the choice of route. I’d elected to walk-in through Eskdale and then ascend via Little Narrowcove bringing me around the back of the Pike and offering the chance to do Scafell as well, without...
The hottest day of the year so far saw Tex, his friend Mark and I on Great Gable today. We walked up from the Slate Mine at Honister, over the little visited Grey Knotts and Brandreth. It was so hot I ended up getting burnt on the arms and face, mainly because...
I noticed the BBC announced the death of a walker on Jack’s Rake last week. Having done the scramble only recently it makes me wonder just what he was doing at the time he fell and where he fell from. I can imagine it’s a tricky route if it’s wet...
Well what a marvellous week of weather we’ve had up here in Cheshire, its been sunny all week, with no rain and very little wind to speak of. I was half expecting the good weather to break just in time for the weekend and dump a load of rain on...
