Ticking Off More Of the Wainwright Summits

When you have some holiday to use and a willing friend, the only answer as to whether we should book another trip to the Lake District to tick off some more of the Wainwright summits, is of course yes!

Accommodation

We chose to stay in Keswick again as it is such a central base for so much in the area. This time we stayed at 15 The Plosh and bonus it had two bathrooms and parking! If you know the area and most of the cottages that are available to book you will understand that having parking is such a benefit.

Kit Update

I had a few changes to my kit for this trip as below:

• New boots and I went for the Merrell Accentor boots. I got these in Sweden and they are so comfortable and perfect if you have a wider foot. I always opt for Gore Tex just to make sure I am not caught out with wet feet as that is never fun, although on a couple of the walks I did end up with very wet feet!
• Osprey Tempest 20 bag. I am a big Osprey fan when it comes to bags but I wanted one a little smaller and this is perfect although an easy to access pocket on the front strap for the phone would be good. I also struggled to get my bottle in and out of the side pouch without either taking off the bag or getting some help from my friend.
• I got two new pairs of hiking leggings from Revolution Race and really impressed – my first leggings with pockets on the leg, which came in super handy, the fit was comfortable with no movement or having to adjust. I updated a previous post on hiking leggings with the details of these and you can read that here.
• I borrowed my husbands trekking poles from Leki. He got these when he did the Half Marathon des Sables and I had got a cheaper pair to try (anything to help with the uphill) but they are in a packing box somewhere so I borrowed his. I am not sure if they did help but mainly because I am not sure I was using them to get the most benefit so need to practice a bit more I think.
• Not quite kit but after doing a lot of consecutive long days we added a bottle of coke to our bags for a little added sugar/red ambulance if we felt it was required at the top of the summits (and after starting this I found I always returned back with an empty bottle)! Obviously another bottle of liquid is added weight for what could already be a heavy bag but I find I get bored of electrolytes very quickly and sometimes you want something else aside from water after multiple hours.

What Wainwrights Did We Complete This Time Round?

We actually made really good progress on this trip. We came this time having completed 27 summits previously and we left increasing the total to 57, which included:

• Armboth Fell
• Bakestall
• Bessyboot
• Binsey
• Bleaberry Fell
• Brae Fell
• Brandreth
• Carl Side
• Fleetwith Pike
• Gowbarrow Fell
• Great Cockup
• Great Sca Fell
• Great Mell Fell
• Grey Knotts
• Hay Stacks
• High Rigg
• High Seat
• High Tove
• Little Mell Fell
• Little Sca Fell
• Ling Mell Fell
• Longland Fell
• Long Side
• Lonsdale Fell
• Meal Fell
• Raven Crag
• Rosthwaite Fell (Bessyboot)
• Scafell Pike
• Skiddaw
• Skiddaw Little Man
• Ullock Pike
• Whinlatter

Best and Worst Of This Trip

Least Favourites:

• Fleetwith Pike – we started by Gatesgarth Farm and it is clearly signed. You pass a white cross, which thankfully I did not know the meaning of before we started the ascent – it is a memorial for Fanny Mercer who fell from the top and died. This route is more direct, I believe, but it is a lot of scrambling and false summits although I was thankful to the cloud coverage as it meant I could not see the full extent of it. I am not a scrambler and I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest, which was coupled with my Garmin watch unhelpfully telling me I was at threshold heart rate – no sh*t!
• Skiddaw – we ascended up the northern approach from Long Side. It was very steep and very loose underfoot with shingle, slate, scree, gravel. I had a meltdown as I felt like everything I stepped on or reached to hold moved, there were tears and my friend Lee guided me across the path to where there were some better stable rocks to use as hand holds. Poor Max (one of Lee’s dogs who hike these routes with us) came down to check on me and I snapped at him to go away (I apologised at the top).
• Scafell – we didn’t manage to tick this summit off as our route went from Ling Mell Fell to Scafell Pike and then over via Mickledore. Mickledore is a grade 1 scramble and we ended up going down to Foxes Gyll but I did not have the confidence or nerve to climb up the Gyll so unfortunately we ended up having to go back up Mickledore and trace our route back.

Favourites:

• Raven Crag – the steps up to the view and the sunset through the trees as we descended was super pretty.
• Scafell Pike – this is the highest point in England and one that I wanted to tick off for a long time so was super pleased to get this one done even if the steps back down to Wasdale were a killer on the knees!

How Did We Get On By The End

This trip covered:

• 92 miles hiked
• over 27,000ft of climbing
• one instance where I nearly got taken out by a sheep
• 3 walks where I had a cry (I need to work on this)
• 30 Wainwrights ticked off the list

This takes our total now to 57/214 so made a really decent dent but a lot left to do! We actually met a man who was running some of the fells and he had completed the full list at the start of May but said it had taken him over 8 years to complete when he was further away from the area and that he had moved to the West coast and since then completed the remaining half in one year!

What Next?

You know when you look at kids and they have no fear? I feel like since I hit 40 I get more fear every year. I had multiple times when completing these Wainwrights where I don’t think I can do it, don’t want to look down, panic before I even start a scramble, huff and puff my way up and find the descent harder. My head almost always wins and I need to work on that and my confidence.

But for now, I need to rest my very very very very very tired legs and feet!