My Wainwright Journey
Or perhaps that should be odyssey, as it is taking so long!
Many in the walking fraternity engage on a mission to complete the two-hundred-and-fourteen summits as detailed in Alfred Wainwright’s seven-book guide to the mountains, fells and hills of the Lake District national park of England, often as part of a New Year resolution! For me, it was always about doing a select few, a special handful. For me, to drive to the Lake District each weekend is an arduous task, I hate motorway driving and I find driving more than sixty minutes at a time incredibly difficult, I don’t trust other people, given that I’ve been in a few traffic collisions one can foster some degree of empathy with my plight? So, I was only ever going to go for the top-ten highest summits and possibly a few of the more famous ones. With this in mind and being inspired by Skyworks’ / The BBC’s “Wainwright Walks” series, I was motivated to tackle Catbells in 2009 when I was in my first none-smoking, fitness surge. On Mayday, bank holiday Monday, 2009 Chris and I headed off to Keswick to ascend this picturesque little peak, after all it’s not even the same height as Winter Hill – easy! No? Well, no, especially not in the rain that we had, and that we would continue to have every time we went to this sodden corner of England. The ambition was waning, I might never have done another Wainwright fell (we never actually got to the top of Catbells owing to mist).
Then, following several meetups with some of the members of a walking forum my desire to climb the greatest English peaks was ignited once more by the drive (quite literally) of Karl who invited me to ascend the mighty Scafell Pike with him on the first of June 2013. Further trips with Karl included Skiddaw and Helvellyn (again in the mist, although our trip over Skiddaw was in 27C blazing sun!) and the hardest one of all: Scafell – seriously, this is a mountain which cannot be lauded enough. By 2016 I was making regular trips with Karl, accompanied by Sue (who’s map-reading skills are beyond reproach) and often meeting up with others from the circle of walkers.
As I write this, fourteen years after the start of the journey, I have completed just sixty-one of Wainwright summits, I think we can say I am in it for the long haul, it’s been four and a half years since my last one: Blencathra but if this (for some reason) were to be my last Wainwright (let’s hope not) then what a fell upon which to finish! So, here is the list of the summits I have ticked off the 214 list: The Fat Goat, December 6, 2023
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