My Final Wainwrights

30 years after my first Wainwright, the day had arrived to tick the final fell of the famous 214.

With some cunning planning I had engineered my previous walks to ensure that the final Wainwright would also be my final Fellranger and final FRCC 244 summit.  But before the final tick, I wanted to complete the Outlying Fells.

A restless night’s sleep wasn’t the best preparation for an early start.  I felt like a child on Christmas Eve and I think that nerves brought on by the imminent culmination of a life’s ambition got the better of me.  So, before breakfast, I drove to the top of the Eskdale-Wasdale road crossing the southern slopes of Irton Pike and set off for the summit.

I hadn’t expected the dew and after some bushwhacking through bracken my trousers were soaked.  I rethought my route and decided to follow some forest tracks rather than make a beeline for the summit.  I had the top to myself – not surprising before 8’o’clock – and enjoyed the hazy view up to the head of Wasdale and Great Gable.

So the Outlying Fells became the first major hill-list that I had completed.

I drove back to the Bower House Inn for a well-earned breakfast and then set off for Greendale to meet some mountaineering club friends to walk up and help me celebrate my final summit.

An abortive start (but that’s another story !) was followed by a second attempt and we followed the path up to just below Greendale Tarn.  We aimed roughly for the unseen summit and picked our own paths among the crags and bogs that make up Seatallan’s south-east slopes.  This last thousand feet felt hard in the heat of the early afternoon and I was soon left behind, although they waited for me at the start of the summit plateau.

I was given the honour of topping out at the trig point, even though the true summit was 60 yards to the north-east.  So we quickly bagged the true summit at the small cairn before returning to the pillar to set up the bar.

the Bar !

Quite a few bottles of Thwaites Wainwright had been brought up and the contents were soon shared amongst us.  Wainwright is a superb beer but drinking it on a summit on a hot summer’s day makes it taste even better !

the Beer !

As we were packing up, another walker approached saying “2 down, 3 to go” on his day’s walk but I told him I could do better than that – “214 down, none to go”.  He congratulated me and took a group summit photo before he continued on his big day out.

just to prove I was there

We descended a lot quicker than we ascended and reached the cars in about an hour, with my wife waiting for me with open arms.  Boots were taken off and we all drove to the Bower House Inn for a final celebratory pint.

It was a great day !

“Trainspotting with grass”

This was a club weekend and I was running the meet.  Although there were only a few attendees, there were enough of them to indulge my bagging objectives over a couple of days.

With August Bank Holiday Monday fast approaching, I wanted to get into the position where my final Wainwright and FRCC 244 would also be my final Fellranger.  So, two little known summits became the focus of my weekend.

Friday afternoon saw four of us setting off from the Dobgill car park on the western shore of Thirlmere, following the pitched path up to and past Harrop Tarn before gaining the main central fells ridge.  Bell Crags was the Fellranger summit that was the main objective of this walk and was easily reached, despite some boggy patches.  The walk so far hadn’t lasted very long so we set off for the Nuttall summit of Low Saddle and returned to the car trying to avoid getting our feet wet !

north from Low Saddle

The final view of the day was of a very bright International Space Station gliding silently overhead as we walked back to the hut.  Magnificent !

Showers greeted the next morning but had cleared by the time we had arrived at the Sticklebarn in Langdale,  Three of us headed into the Nuttall-rich territory to the west of Red Tarn with the minor summits of Cold Pike and as my bagging tendencies were being mocked I said that we were all guilty of “trainspotting with grass” as we traipsed untracked ground from top to top.

Little Stand was the summit of my penultimate Fellranger and it is a magnificent viewpoint and worthy of more visitors than it surely hosts.  We could see many walkers on the motorway-like path from Red Tarn to Crinkle Crags with hardly any of them deviating from the well-worn route and missing out on the superb vista from the Dodds ridge to Ingleborough and around to the Scafell massif.

Little Stand

We continued northwards along the Crinkles ridge, taking in the “Bad Step”, to Three Tarns and descended into Langdale to claim a welcome reward – the traditional post-walk pint !

the Scafells

A Bagger’s Paradise

With only one Wainwright and one Outlying Fell left to tick, this trip to the Lake District was to mop up some of my remaining Nuttalls, Fellrangers and FRCC 244 summits.  The broad ridge from Bessyboot to Allen Crags contains a multitude of tops to be ticked.

Bessyboot was the day’s first summit and more obvious on the ground than it is on the map.  It is regarded by Wainwright as the summit of Rosthwaite Fell but a higher summit beyond Tarn at Leaves, Rosthwaite Cam, is another obvious summit.  This rocky prominence can provide some easy scrambling if you choose an appropriate route and offers a good view of the ground ahead which is largely untracked and as Wainwright remarked, “a path would improve matters”, adding “this is dangerous country in mist”.

Rosthwaite Cam

The next summit – actually twin summits – is Dovenest Top and is regarded as the summit of Rosthwaite Fell by the FRCC.  Both summits are of very similar height and I stood on the top of both to ensure the tick.  The next summits to be traversed are considered tops of Glaramara with the way ahead looking a lot steeper than it actually is.

Dovenest Top, Combe Door, Combe Head

Combe Door’s summit is obvious but the next top of Combe Head has two possible highpoints, both of which I reached.  They overlook the Combe Gill valley which contains Raven Crag with its classic route of “Corvus”.  Although the views were hazy, some fells were easily identified; Fleetwith Pike, Pike o’Stickle and Great Gable were obvious.

Fleetwith Pike

Pike o'Stickle

the Gables

The top of Glaramara has 3 obvious summits which was a surprise to me as I was only expecting two !  Not far beyond the 20-foot rock step is the Wainwright summit.  A little further away is the Nuttall summit which is higher and slightly beyond that is another top which looks almost as high – I ticked all three !

As Glaramara is almost the highpoint of the ridge, the route ahead looked quite obvious.  Looking Steads, a nuttall, was reached quickly with its boulder summit.  A significant dip in the ridge led to the next Nuttall – Red Beck Top which had four points with not much discernible difference in height between them.  I went to all four and thought about the Wainwright baggers who walk on the path between two of the outcrops, missing the Nuttall summit, and then at some point in the future realising that they had missed an easy tick and arranging to go back to collect it.  Well today, I am that bagger !

Wainwright's "perfect mountain tarn"

Just before High House Tarn Top is the “perfect mountain tarn”, at least in the eyes of Wainwright.  I stopped to take photos and ticked my last previously unvisited summit of the day.

Bowfell

I carried on with good views of Bowfell, Esk Pike and Great End to complete the ridge on Allen Crags before descending to Esk Hause and turning towards Angle Tarn with the pitched path proving unforgiving on the knees.  A few raindrops started to fall so I packed my electronic gadgets away and made my waterproof easily available before walking the length of Langstrath back to the car.  Although the valley is one of the most picturesque in the district, it wasn’t natural beauty that spurred on my weary legs to finish; it was the consumption of my emergency packet of jelly babies !

Wainwrights and other lists

I’ve been bagging Wainwrights for almost 30 years and for most of that time I’ve been aware of the existence of “book 8” – the Outlying Fells.  Most Wainwright baggers are satisfied to complete all of the 214 fells listed in the classic seven books, but I’ve always felt that by including the Outlying Fells, the round is “more” complete.

So for the last few years I’ve been working my way through book 8 and am now at a point where I only have one “regular” Wainwright and one Outlying Fell to tick.  I’ll be completing both lists on the same day later in the year; the Outlying Fells in the morning and the Wainwrights in the afternoon.

There are also a couple of lesser known lists that have a lot of summits in common with the Wainwrights.

The FRCC 244 are the fells contained in the Fell & Rock Climbing Club’s “The Lakeland Fells”, published in 1996.  It’s not a surprise that there are 244 of them !

Another list is the “Fellrangers”.  I’ve attributed this name to the fells listed in Mark Richards’ 8 volumes of Lakeland Fellranger guidebooks published by Cicerone.  There are 227 of these, 228 if The Nab is included as a separate fell.

Because of the overlap across the lists, anybody who is close to the end of their Wainwright round will be close to the end of the FRCC 244 and the Fellrangers – particularly if the Outlying Fells have been getting ticked along the way.  My final Wainwright is also a FRCC 244 and a Fellranger, so, with a bit of judicious planning I can complete three lists on one fell.  Which is exactly what I will do.

There are a couple of non-Wainwright summits that I need to tick this summer to enable this and I’m looking forward to walking over some new terrain and some areas I haven’t been to in a long time.

Focussed bagging doesn’t really allow for time to revisit old favourites !  I’m looking forward to completing so that I can try some new routes on some old favourites like the Scafell, Great Gable and the Dodds.

Touching Distance

Not words that describe the proximity of this trip’s fells to home, but something rather less tangible – the fact my remaining Wainwrights and Outlying Fells could be completed in 2 days, if I chose to do so.

Today’s objectives were those fells furthest away from home, in the far west of Cumbria – one of them so far west it lies outside the national park !  The end of Nannycatch Lane was the starting point for Flat Fell and Dent; dent being the fell lying outside the national park.  Cool and overcast conditions didn’t detract from the relaxed walking.  The true summit of Dent is rather uninspiring but the lower Wainwright summit is adorned by an impressive cairn.

Dent - the Wainwright summit

Wellington was the start of my walk up Blengdale to the Outlying Fell Ponsonby Fell – which “is very nearly in this category” of “fells not worth climbing” – according to Wainwright.  It’s not the best fell I’ve been to the top of, but its views and isolation lend it some value.  The stroll to Swainson Knott afforded views towards some of the most western of Wainwright’s 214 fells and the walk back to car on the forestry tracks rounded off a pleasant excursion.

Muncaster Fell was the final top of the day, which although climbed previously, I couldn’t be wholly sure that I had reached the actual summit which is listed as a rocky knoll near to the trig point.  From the summit I could see my final Wainwright – Seatallan – looming above a smaller fell which, after checking the map, I found to be my final Outlying Fell – Irton Pike.  This took me by surprise but seemed appropriate that the end of my Wainwright ticking odyssey was in sight, both figuratively and visually.

Muncaster Fell trig pillar

So, my final 4 Outlying Fells are Green Quarter Fell, Hollow Moor, Boat How and Irton Pike – my final 3 Wainwrights are Buckbarrow, Middle Fell and Seatallan.  I’ll be ticking these off, as well as the remainder of the FRCC 244 and Fellrangers, over the next few months with the finish on Seatallan to complete 4 lists on the same day.

I hope the sun will be shining !

Loweswater Fell

Loweswater Fell is an area of high land marked on Landranger 89 to the south of Loweswater.  My interest in it was due to there being five Wainwrights near to each other that I hadn’t previously climbed.  And as I only had ten left to tick, the prospect of knocking half of them off in one walk was too good to turn down.

This particular group of hills is bounded by Loweswater in the north, Floutern Pass in the south, Crummock Water in the east and the national park boundary in the west.  None of it reaches 1900 feet, let alone 2000 feet, so it should lend itself to an easy day out but don’t let that seemingly innocuous statistic lull you into a false sense of security.

Easy tracks led to the screes of Mellbreak’s Raven Crag which petered out on the edge of an impressive precipice, dropping away into an other-worldly gully.  Further up on Dropping Crag were some super viewpoints looking up to the head of the Buttermere valley.

Fleetwith Pike and Buttermere

Two distinct cairns crowned the north top of Mellbreak but which marks was the true summit is open to debate.  Whichever it is, neither is the actual summit of the fell, that honour resting with a rather nondescript flat spot over half a mile away.  Although a little hazy, the views were good and hills as far away as Merrick could be seen across the Solway Firth.



Criffel



I dropped into Mosedale, reluctantly losing the height already gained and rested at the Mosedale Holly Tree – the only tree in the Lake District named on an OS map.  It flourishes in the midst of some very boggy terrain.  I soon gained the bridleway and crossed the footbridge leading towards Floutern Pass but it was hard to take even a single step on dry ground, with the morass being home to common lizards of which I disturbed a couple.  The next dry ground was found only on the south ridge of Hen Comb.  Dropping from the summit, again losing hard-won height, soon found me battling boggy ground again, this time on Whiteoak Moss which was the wettest ground of the day.  Another ascent, although smaller this time, led to the top of Gavel Fell.  At least the boggy ground was behind me now and only a little more ascent was needed as I traversed the tops of Blake Fell (the day’s highpoint), Carling Knott (not a Wainwright but on the FRCC 244 list) and finally Burnbank Fell.  The views were clearer in the early evening sunshine with Criffel defining the horizon.



Loweswater - Millennium Sculpture



Grasmoor



  The descent to Holme Wood and Loweswater

  gave good views of the west “face” of Grasmoor

  and the final plodding kilometre of roadwalking

  was only interrupted by a short diversion to the

  discretely impressive Millennium sculpture at

  Loweswater village hall.









After the Wainwrights

I inadvertently started bagging Wainwrights in 1983 but it was in 1988 that I considered that bagging them all would be a goal worth pursuing.  Since then I have had long periods of abstinence from the hills interspersed with times of focussed bagging.

But as I approach the end of the Wainwrights my thoughts have turned to other ticklists.  When I decided to concentrate on the Wainwrights I wanted to include the Outlying Fells in my round.  I didn’t want some smart alec asking me if I’d completed book 8 once I’d finished the 214.  Over time I think that I might have turned into that smart alec as having spent a lot of time on the Outliers, they feel like a logical extension of those fells listed in the 7 Pictorial Guides and they definitely give a greater appreciation of the geography of the Lake District.  My plan is to finish the Outlying Fells and the “regular” Wainwrights on the same day.  But once that day has passed, what next ?

Although some earlier attempts had been made to compile lists of the Scottish 3000-foot mountains, arguably the first ticklist was the Munros, published in 1891.  Since then there have been many other lists compiled – so many that I’m expecting somebody to publish a ticklist of ticklists!  I did toy with the idea of graduating to Munros but, to be blunt, the biggest barrier to completing them is the cost of petrol.  I’ll still visit Scotland and climb the odd Munro or two, but as a whole they are too numerous and too far from home to make “compleation” a realistic goal.

So what lists could be realistic?  The Fell & Rock Climbing Club published “The Lakeland Fells” in 1996 listing 244 fells; the list becoming known as the FRCC 244.  If I complete the Wainwrights and the Outliers, there are only 8 of the 244 that would not have been climbed – not exactly the biggest challenge.  Because of the huge overlap between Wainwrights and the FRCC 244 I have incorporated bagging those extra 8 into plans to finish my Wainwright round.

Bill Birkett wrote “Complete Lakeland Fells”, listing 541 tops with a height of over 1000 feet.  During my Wainwright round so far I’ve walked to the top of a few of these, but many are fairly insignificant bumps.  Ullister Hill near Lord’s Seat is one of the most unrewarding tops I’ve ever visited (even on a sunny day!) and Thirdgill Head Man near Wandope looks very impressive from the ridge below but as it only has a reascent of 2 metres, it’s a very minor bump on a ridge.  And Lad Hows on the south flank of Grasmoor was hardly noticeable!  To complete the Birketts would mean aiming for uninspiring summits – my time on the hills can be far better spent.

I’ve come to the conclusion that once I’ve climbed the Wainwrights, Outliers and FRCC 244, the Nuttalls will become the active ticklist to follow.  Nuttalls are mountains in England & Wales with a height of 2000 feet or more, with a reascent of 50 feet (15 metres).  I’ve already bagged quite a few and I want to spend some time in areas that I’m not too familiar with – I’m not looking forward to some of the rounded Pennines but the Brecon Beacons look like some wonderful peaks to aim for.  And this new quest will not fully take me away from the Lake District as there are a few Nuttalls that I need to reach the top of, the Glaramara ridge and the area south of Crinkle Crags being two areas rich in unclimbed summits.

As well as the Nuttalls I’ve got an eye on the TRAIL 100, a list published in TRAIL magazine in April 2007 listing, in their own view, the best 100 summits in the UK.  There are quite a few in Scotland, but the numbers are more manageable than the Munros.

So with the Nuttalls and the TRAIL 100 to come into focus soon, and maybe adding the Irish 3000s and Scottish 4000s to my targets, I reckon that the next 10 years or so of hillwalking is already accounted for.