Three New Fellrangers

The Fellrangers is a list of Lake District Fells first detailed in the eight “Fellranger” guidebooks written by Mark Richards and published by Cicerone.  There were (note the tense!) 227 of them and I completed them in 2013.

There is a lot of overlap between this list and the Wainwrights and that shouldn’t some as too much of a surprise as Mark was somewhat of a protégé of Alfred Wainwright; anybody ticking the Wainwrights wouldn’t have to expend much more effort to complete the more modern list.  But, as is so often with guidebooks, the routes to the summits subtly change and revision is required to keep the information current.

The guidebooks are currently in the middle of such a revision process and the first two (“Wasdale” and “Langdale”) were published in late 2019.  In the back of each of them is a list of the Fellrangers and the new volumes in which the summits are or will be detailed.  And there are 230 of them!

So, having completed a list I find out that now I haven’t!  But what are the differences between the old and the new?

It didn’t take long to work out, but it really is as simple as the addition of three new summits.  All three are on the Borrowdale watershed, not the famous valley that feeds Derwentwater, but the lesser known Westmorland namesake that can be found between the A6 and the M6, leading into the River Lune.  It’s part of the extension to the Lake District National Park that occurred in August 2016.

The three new summits are Grayrigg Forest, Whinfell Beacon and Winterscleugh.  The first two are on the southern watershed and the third is on the north and they can be ticked in one walk with Richards’ new “Mardale and the Far East” guidebook detailing such a route. 

Now all I have to do is take a trip up north to complete the Fellrangers – again!

An Amended Ticklist

As I approached completing my rounds of Wainwrights and Outlying Fells, my thoughts were turning to what my next walking objectives should be.  I had been logging my ascents of Nuttall and TRAIL 100 summits so it was obvious that these two lists were to form the backbone of my future time on the hills.

After my completions I registered with the Long Distance Walkers Association to mark the achievements – the certificates they issued appealed to my vanity!  I noticed that the LDWA also registered completions of the England and Wales 2000-foot summits and completing the Nuttalls is within the criteria that allow an addition to the register.  At the time I looked at the completer's register and although most of those listed had completed the Nuttalls, there was a significant number of people who had completed other lists at the same time.  The most prominent of those lists were those compiled by Bridge and Buxton & Lewis.

These three lists (Nuttall, Bridge, Buxton & Lewis) became the bulk of my post-Wainwright ticklist.  The Simpsons had already been included because they were first published in a Wayfarers’ Club journal and I was a Wayfarer.  But after a couple of years I started to wonder whether the completion of all of the LDWA's qualifying lists was a possibility.  Browsing the register of completers, there was only one person who had completed all of the England & Wales 2000-foot lists and I thought it would be a good idea to do the same.  So after quite a few hours of research and spreadsheet manipulation, I had an expanded my ticklist that included lists compiled by Dawson, Dewey, Moss and Wright.

Dawson's list is a subset of the Nuttalls so it was, by default, already included in my list.  After checking the summits of Dewey's list I discovered that these were also included in my original list.  The lists compiled by Moss, Wright and Simpson resulted in the addition of 181 summits to my list.  So now, with the administrative exercise done, was the time to start ticking.

Looking at the list, it was obvious that the summits classified by Moss, Wright and Simpson that were not also in any of the more popular lists had small prominence values.  But they were on my list so they were targets to be ticked.

Although, on the ground, some of them had some merit it quickly became apparent that many more of them were either insignificant or non-existent.  Probably the first of them was Gragareth North Top but at the time it didn't set any alarm bells ringing.  Manod Mawr Subsidary Top was impossible to find as there was no (even slightly) prominent ground in the area.  Y Lliwedd West Top was similarly elusive!  It is completely possible that their inclusion was due to a review of inaccurate (old!) maps rather than any active fieldwork which resulted in various spot heights being added.

It was my walks on Ingleborough and the Howgills that finally prompted me to change my approach.  I wasn't enjoying chasing these minor tops and they were distracting me from the relaxation that I sought when walking.  Which meant more time on the spreadsheets to remove the Moss, Wright and Simpson summits.  My ticklist decreased by 146.

I did some analysis of the LDWA's completion register and now there were only 2 who had ticked all of the qualifying lists – it's not a popular pastime!  There were 262 named completers who between them had registered the completion of 360 qualifying lists (not including Dawson's as it is a subset of the Nuttall list and not including Dewey's list as it quite doesn't have many summits that aren't included in other lists).  By far the most popular list to complete is the Nuttalls.  Next, with about half the number of Nuttall completions was the Bridge list and then came Buxton & Lewis with about half the amount of Bridge completions.  The number of Moss, Wright and Simpson completions totalled less than the number of Buxton & Lewis completions.

It was clear that the Nuttall, Bridge and Buxton & Lewis lists were those that completers targeted, to a greater or lesser degree.  And it was glaring that the Moss, Wright and Simpson lists didn't really capture the imagination of many.  I felt satisfied that the numbers backed up my feeling that these summits aren't really that worthwhile.

So now I have a ticklist that I'm happy with.  There are few lesser lists that contribute to it and they are there to satisfy my urge to visit different parts of the country but it is the Nuttall and TRAIL 100 summits that are my major goals for the future.

The Lure of the List

I’ll admit it, I do like a good list!

To do lists, ticklists and spreadsheets all feature prominently in my day-to-day life, both professionally and personally.  But it is as a hillwalker that they have the most influence.

Most hill lists fall into one of two types; those that are fixed with no possibility of additions or removals and those that define the criteria for inclusion.  For those lists of the second type, there may be the possibility of hills being added to or removed from the list, mostly as a result of ever more accurate surveys.

The hill list that started it all for me is the Wainwrights; 214 fells in Lakeland that were the focus of my hillwalking ambitions for 30 years.  Alfred Wainwright gave no clear definition for his list and although he outlined (literally!) the geographical area to be considered by using the outer limits of the major lakes, he had to tweak the resulting area by extending the boundary to include Caldbeck and Longsleddale.  His list of 214 fells was purely his personal choice and the beauty of the list is that it will never change.  His inclusion of Mungrisdale Common still perplexes many but Andy Beck gives a plausible explanation in his superb book “The Wainwrights in Colour”.

After completing the Wainwrights and to fill my aspirational void, my attention has turned to the TRAIL 100 and the Nuttalls.

The TRAIL 100 is a list of “the finest UK mountains” and like the Wainwrights, it is a fixed list.  There are many of the 100 that are absolutely worthy of inclusion but, having trudged up to the top of Clougha Pike in Lancashire, I wondered whether those that compiled the list were trying to include a geographical balance.

Many of the modern hill lists have specific criteria and the Nuttalls is one of those.  There is a clear definition of location, height and prominence which when combined, produce a popular list for hillwalkers.  There have been occasional changes to the list as a result of surveys of some of the more marginal inclusions (and exclusions) and in the last ten years there have been ten hills added to the list and six that have been removed.  To their credit John and Anne Nuttall (who original compiled the list) welcome the accuracy and have no hesitation in amending their list if a change is required.

Another hill list with specific criteria is the Donalds but its definition is convoluted.  If you want an intellectual challenge you could do worse than to try to fully understand the reasoning; I’ve never properly got to grips with it!

Probably the most famous hill list is the Munros, mountains in Scotland that are at least 3000 feet high.  Sir Hugh Munro never gave specific criteria but there appears to be a broad consensus reached by the Scottish Mountaineering Council which oversees the list and any changes; Robin N Campbell’s book “The Munroist’s Companion” has some interesting reading on the subject.  But in recent years when surveys have judged that mountains previously thought to be higher than 3000 feet actually aren’t, the SMC has been reluctant to comment and officially update their list.  I suspect the reasons are political but it is frustrating that such a respected organisation fails to act on accurate (as confirmed by the Ordnance Survey) data.

You may have concluded by now that there are many hill lists, each with their own characteristics.  One (or more) can be picked up off the shelf in the form of the many guidebooks available and there is likely to be one that suits your own ability and ambition.  A lot of lists claim to include “mountains”, but what is a mountain?

That’s something I’ll explore in my next blog.

Bowfell

Since completing the Wainwrights and with my focus turning to the Nuttalls, a visit to Bowfell was needed to tick the mountain’s North Top.  Although that was the day’s target, I had also wanted to walk along the Climber’s Traverse and have a close look at the Great Slab.

The Old Dungeon Ghyll was the meeting point and six of us set off in the rain, taking aim for the cloudbase which we met long before we reached the summit.  The path leading to the traverse was indistinct at first and not obvious as it split from the main route, not far beyond the minor summit of White Stones.  As we ascended the way forward became more obvious and much narrower, occasionally having to use our hands to negotiate a number of small rock steps.  The low cloud had persisted with the cliffs rearing above us to the left and the drops to our right being masked by the gloom.

At the bottom of the Great Slab we sheltered for lunch and then walked up alongside it before taking a direct line to Bowfell’s summit.  I would have liked to walk over to its edge but the low visibility wasn’t encouraging an exploration of the edge of this impressive rock feature; perhaps I’ll just have to come back again.

The group followed the path towards Ore Gap but I kept on the higher ground over the Centre Top – which is at the top of Bowfell Buttress – and carried on to the North Top.  In clearer conditions this elevated stroll would make a quieter and more worthwhile alternative to the main path.

At Ore Gap the cloud had lifted and looking back we could see the summit of Bowfell.  Ahead of us, the Gables breached the edge of Esk Pike and the view to the north was clear to Skiddaw and Blencathra.  We decided to head for Esk Pike and upon reaching the summit the Scafell massif dominated the landscape to the east.  Identifying numerous summits without referring to the map gave us a challenge and when we satisfied our curiosity, we walked off towards Esk Hause.

Great End and the Gables

Great Gable and Green Gable

The end of the walk was straightforward, walking over Tongue Head to the outflow of Angle Tarn before testing our knees on the descent of Rossett Gill.  Thankfully, the good path along Mickleden took us directly to some welcome beer at the ODG!

towards the Langdale Pikes

the Great Slab from below

The Glaramara–Simpson Conundrum

After completing the Wainwrights my attention turned to new objectives, particularly but not exclusively the Nuttalls.  Online research led me to the Harold Street website where I stumbled upon the Simpsons, an older list of Lake District 2000ft summits.  FHF Simpson had published an article in the 1937 Wayfarers’ Club journal and as I was (and still am) a member of the Wayfarers’ I decided to add the Simpsons to my own To Do list.  I had already climbed many of the Simpson summits and I worked out which ones I hadn’t climbed using the Harold Street list.

Of those I hadn’t logged as climbed was Glaramara North Top which appeared to be the only summit on the Glaramara – Allen Crags ridge that I had not ticked.  It wasn’t until sometime later that I became uncomfortable with the fact that I hadn’t ticked the north top, particularly as I walked the length of the ridge in 2013 to tick all of the numerous Nuttalls that I had previously missed; so I did some research.

The Harold Street website gives a grid reference that places the north top at the north-east side of the summit dome.  The grid reference that it gives for Glaramara places that summit approximately 200 metres south-west of the north top.  This makes it clear where the north top is, but doesn’t describe what it is.

At this point, I started reading various guides to work out the topography of the summit area.

Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH), Glaramara (entry 2389), Observations:

“Nuttall summit; Wainwright summit (cairn) 160m NE at NY 24722 10561 and cairn 55m W are lower”

Although rather perfunctory, this description states that the summit of Glaramara is a Nuttall but the cairn that Wainwright regarded as the summit does not coincide with the high point and is lower.  As the Wainwright summit is described as north-east of the summit, the north top is probably the Wainwright summit.  There is no separate DoBIH entry for the Wainwright summit.

A Wainwright – A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Book 4, The Southern Fells, Glaramara, The Summit:

“Twin summits of rock rise from a surrounding ocean of grass, each within its own circle of crags.  They are much alike, and of similar elevation, but indisputably the finer is that to the north-east...”

Wainwright makes it clear that there are two summits and he regards the north-east summit as the true summit.

Mark Richards – Lakeland Fellranger, The Mid-Western Fells, Glaramara, The Summit:

“The name Glaramara belongs to the summit.  Which summit you ask?  Well the more northerly.”

Richards agrees with Wainwright which is not surprising as he was friends with the original chronicler of the Lakeland fells.

John and Anne Nuttall – The Mountains of England and Wales, Volume 2: England, Walk 5.4:

“Descend to a grassy col and follow the main path to the west top of the twin summits.  Wainwright prefers the east top for its better position and view, but the west one is the higher of the two.  The highest point is the cairn set a little back from the edge, though another cairn on the edge itself marks a better vantage point.”

The Nuttalls also agree that there are twin summits and acknowledge Wainwright’s opinion although they stick to the convention that the highest point is the true summit, reinforcing the DoBIH position that the (south-)westerly is the actual summit.

Bill Birkett – Complete Lakeland Fells, walk BOR2:

“Next to be ascended and lying dead ahead is the middle top of Glaramara – Looking Steads.  Two rocky points rise above the summit; the north easterly of these is the Glaramara summit.”

Birkett also acknowledged the twin summits of Glaramara and agrees with Wainwright and Richards that the north-eastern summit should be regarded as the true top.

It is obvious that the summit area of Glaramara has two distinct tops and that Wainwright, Richards and Birkett take an opposing view to the Nuttalls and the DoBIH as to which should be considered the true summit.  As the DoBIH is a data-based source and not swayed by opinion, the south-western top should be regarded as the true summit.  It is unfortunate that the DoBIH does not have a separate entry for the north-eastern top as such an entry would have prevented my confusion.

At this point, the summits had been identified, but had I actually climbed the North Top?

As Wainwright regards it as the summit, surely I must have done as I’ve completed the Wainwrights!  But it wouldn’t do any harm to double-check.  Reading my blog entry for the day that I walked the length of the ridge, I found this:

“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!”

And that’s about as conclusive as it gets; I have ticked both tops and now I can remove Glaramara North Top from my list of unclimbed Simpsons.

It’s not often that I find a summit that I can tick as a result of some detective work rather than putting on my boots, which means that, almost inevitably, I have joined the ranks of Armchair Mountaineers!

The Joy of Old Friends

My first time up The Old Man of Coniston was almost 31 years ago and I’ve been to the top a couple of times since then, but never in the company of so many good friends.  Eight of us started walking from opposite the Coniston MRT headquarters and headed for the quarries.  The good weather had brought out the crowds and we saw plenty of families making the most of their day out.

Low Water and Wetherlam

As we reached the zigzags we encountered some snow patches but they were soft and avoidable.  Some youngsters were running down them to quicken their descent and some of the older heads amongst us commented that they may just be hastening a mountain rescue callout!

Old Man summit approach

Brim Fell from the Old Man

At the summit we sat and ate lunch with the rest of the crowds.  For most, the way down is simply retracing their footsteps but for those who are a bit more serious about their hillwalking, there are quieter options.  As we headed towards Brim Fell I sought out Buckbarrow Crag; a Simpson summit.  I found a point on the edge of the cliffs which met the listed description but not the grid reference which would have been a point on the footpath with no prominence.  I’m claiming the tick!

Although a Wainwright, Brim Fell is not really a major summit and we quickly reached it and turned our attention towards Dow Crag.  A small snowfield led to a snowball fight before we started the ascent from Goat’s Hawse and the scramble to the very highest point.  There were a lot less people here than on the Old Man, which we could see still had crowds on the top.

Dow Crag

Windermere behind the Old Man

Old Man summit crowds

Walking down towards the Walna Scar pass was a promenade of easy terrain and turned out to be one of the most enjoyable miles I’ve walked in Lakeland.  Although I’ve walked up this way before, I was taken aback as to how good it was.

Goat's Water

Above Buck Pike I tried to locate Dow Crag South Top, another Simpson, and walked over every minor prominence that was a candidate.  Again I found a location that met the description but not the grid reference but I was confident that I could claim the tick.

Goat's Water from above the Dow Crag gullies

Dow Crag from the south ridge

Crowds on Coniston Old Man

Blind Tarn under Brown Pike

From the pass, it was a relaxing stroll down the Walna Scar road in the afternoon sun to the cars where we stowed our sacks and boots.  The obligatory post-perambulatory beverages were provided by the welcoming Sun Hotel, the headquarters of Donald Campbell’s doomed attempt to break the world water speed record.

A 2013 Summary

The major achievement of the year was the completion of 4 hill lists.  This sounds more impressive than it actually is because 3 of them started and finished on the same summits.

Those lists were :

• The Wainwrights

214 summits listed in Wainwright’s 7 Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells

• The Fellrangers

227 summits listed in Mark Richards’ 8 Fellranger guidebooks

• The FRCC244

244 summits listed in “The Lakeland Fells” published by the Fell & Rock Climbing Club

• The Outlying Fells

116 summits featured (but not all named) in Wainwright’s guide to the Outlying Fells of Lakeland

Overall I :

            went on             18                                walks

            walked              111.9                            miles

            ascended          36,050                          feet

            walked for         76 hrs 46 mins              (including rest stops !)

            reached            45                                 individual summits that I hadn’t been to before

            reached            12                                 individual summits that I had been to before

            drove                2479                             miles on trips to and from walks

I don’t think that I did a lot in 2013 but the completion of the Wainwrights after 30 years makes up for a relatively quiet year.

Happy New Year and be safe on the hills in 2014!

My Wainwright Round – Facts and Figures

It’s almost two months since I completed my rounds of the Wainwrights and Outlying Fells and my thoughts are turning to what next – but that’s for a future blog entry.

To put a seal on my Wainwright completions, I thought that compiling a few facts and figures wouldn’t go amiss.  This blog entry is mostly for my own enjoyment and while I recognise that there are some of you who love this type of stuff, I appreciate that many will find it too dry and ultimately, boring.  If that’s the case, it’s time to look at my blog index for something more appropriate.

A cautionary note !

All of the figures quoted relate to my first ascent of each of the Wainwrights and Outlying Fells.  Subsequent ascents play on a tiny part in what you are about to read.  Which is a shame because I had some good days out on my 4 extra trips to the summit of Pavey Ark !

How long did I take ?

For the Wainwrights, 10958 days which equates to 30 years.  Exactly !  That means, on average, I bagged a new Wainwright every 51 (-ish) days.

For the Outlying Fells, 8509 days which is 23 years and 108 days.  That means a new OF was bagged about every 74 days.

Direct ascents

For many Wainwright baggers, once they have completed the 214, their aim is to ascend the fells by a “direct ascent”, that is by a route that doesn’t pass over any other Wainwright summit on the way.  I’ve not seen any mention of this philosophy for the OFs but there are probably 1 or 2 odd souls out there who will be doing this.  Completion of 214 DAs is not a goal for me but I decided to look at my log, out of curiosity only you understand, to find out how many of my 214 had been reached by a DA.  It turned out to be 74.  (The actual total of DAs is 87 because of 13 repeated fells.)

Miles walked and height gained

Although reasonably comprehensive in the latter years of the round, my log does not have enough information about my early walks.  So to give these figures I would have to make some fairly big guesses.  And as I’m a fan of accurate data (it’s part of my job), guessing data goes against the grain !

The productivity of years

My round took exactly 30 years, but as I didn’t start it on 1^st January, it was spread over 29 full years and 2 part years.

In 11 of those years I bagged no Wainwrights.  Of those 11 years I had a continuous gap of 7 years that were barren, being distracted by a combination of beer, women, snowboarding and rock-climbing.  In 8 of the active years I bagged 3 or fewer summits – not very active at all really.  I bagged double-figures in 7 of the years with my best year resulting in 41 new summits.

My round of the Outlying Fells had similar gaps.  Spread over 22 full years and 2 part years, there was a gap of 4 years and then another of 7 years with occasional bagging occurring before the list got the better of me and I bagged 81 summits over the last 5 years.  My best year resulted in 25 new summits.

Popular days

Wainwright bagging is a leisure activity and we all need time off work to pursue our hobbies.  So it comes a s no surprise that Saturday was the most popular day for bagging (72 summits) followed by Sunday (49 summits).  Oddly though, the next most popular day was Thursday (30 summits).  The least popular days were Monday and Tuesday (12 summits each).  Tuesday isn’t such a surprise but it’s now obvious that I didn’t take full advantage of bank holiday weekends !

On the Outlying Fells Sunday was the most popular day (38 summits) followed by Friday and Thursday (26 and 25 summits respectively) with no OFs being bagged on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.  Maybe they were just not attractive enough for me to make a midweek trip.

Popular months

The most popular months for Wainwright bagging turned out to be May, August, April and December (37, 32, 30 and 21 summits respectively).  It should come as no surprise that these are the months with the most bank holidays, allowing me to snatch at least one day out on a 3-day weekend.  June was the least popular month, probably because there was no itch to scratch following all of the activity in May !

March was the most popular month for bagging Outlying Fells (26 summits) which can be explained by taking advantage of lengthening hours of daylight but on some less challenging fells when the higher fells might still be under snow.  July (!) and December were the least popular months – if I was out on the hills I was taking advantage of long sunny days or playing out in the snow and ice !

Walks per book

Some of the books are bigger than others – in size, area covered and numbers of fells listed.  I’ve always thought that the Central Fells (book 3) was the smallest with either the Southern fells (book 4) or the Western Fells (book 7) being the biggest.  So I wondered how long it took me to complete each volume.

I was a bit surprised that the North-Western Fells (book 6) was completed in just 8 walks, but the many ridges allow a lot of fells to be quickly bagged on many horseshoe walks.  The Central Fells were completed in 9 walks.

Three volumes tied for the most walks – the Eastern Fells (book 1), the Far-Eastern Fells (book 2) and the Western Fells – all taking 13 walks to complete them.  The Southern Fells needed 12 walks.

The Outlying Fells volume is a bit different as the 116 summits aren’t listed individually but as 56 walks – possibly 57 if Newton Fell is split into two !  These were completed in 49 walks as there is opportunity to link neighbouring walks.

Overall, I completed the Wainwrights and Outlying Fells in 127 separate walks.

Days per book

Following on from the number of walks per book, how many days were needed to complete each book ?  As most walks lasted a full day, there was only one difference – the Eastern Fells – the explanation being that 3 walks were needed to tick Gowbarrow and the Mell Fells were tagged onto days containing other walks.

As many of the Outlying Fells are shorter walks, 2 or more can completed on the same day.  I took 33 days to complete these.

Overall, I completed the Wainwrights and Outlying Fells on 105 hill days.

Number of fells per walk

Obviously, with the number of walks taken to complete being less than 214, there must have been walks with more than 1 Wainwright being ticked.  Walks that I did varied from ticking 1 Wainwright (23 walks) up to 7 Wainwrights (1 walk).  A common tally was 5 Wainwrights, this occurring on 11 walks.

The majority of Outlying Fells walks ticked just 1 summit, but such is the nature of these fells.  But the OFs did give me my biggest tally for any walk – 9, on the Bannisdale Horseshoe.

Companions

Wainwright-bagging is ultimately a selfish pastime, with a lot of summits that are not usually popular, so it comes as no surprise that 158 of the 214 Wainwrights and 95 of the 116 Outlying Fells were done on my own.

But I did have some companions.  24 individuals accompanied me up the remaining 56 Wainwrights and 12 on the other 21 OFs.  As 2 people had been to the top of both Wainwrights and OFs, the actual number of people who bagged some summits with me were 32.

It’s interesting to note that of the 32, 23 of them were members of the mountaineering club l joined 13 years ago, showing that there is some value to being in a club when looking for like-minded souls.

Conclusion

I’m not sure there is one really.  There are some obvious outcomes within my round and some less so.  But what I’d like to do is thank every one of the 32 who I stood on the top of a Wainwright or Outlying Fell with, many of whom didn’t realise at the time that they were helping me fulfil my personal 30-year quest.

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 Lake District Road Trip

The eighth and final volume of Mark Richards’ Fellranger guidebooks has just been published by Cicerone with the majority of his 227 “Fellrangers” being either a Wainwright or an Outlying Fell.  But one of the few exceptions is the lowly Wallowbarrow Crag in the Duddon Valley.  I’ve climbed here on a few occasions but never stood on the summit despite a couple of top-outs being very close.  A simple hour’s walk gave me the “tick” and served as an easy warm-up for the day.

Harter Fell, BowFell & Crinkle Crags from Wallowbarrow Crag

On the hottest day of the year so far, I drove north over the Dunnerdale fells, through Coniston and Ambleside and via the western Thirlmere road to arrive at the Old Sawmill Tearoom at the bottom of Dodd.  I took advantage of the steadily rising forest road to quickly gain height, soon reaching the tree-line.  I had last been on Dodd in 1994 but that was in the days of complete conifer coverage.  More recent times have seen the top of the fell being cleared of trees leaving a clear view from the top – something previously not available for a person of average height !

Although I had ticked Dodd before, I just wanted to walk up it again in its new guise before completing my round of Wainwrights and it made a welcome distraction from my recent campaign of ticking previously unvisited summits.  I took the green track as recommended in the Fellranger guidebook which leads to a super viewpoint overlooking the Lake District’s only lake.  I heard a branch cracking in amongst the trees and edged my way to the track’s edge to spot a Roe deer, which decided to avoid my gaze by bounding off into the woods.

From the viewpoint, a clearly worn but narrow path winds its way amongst the stumps and felled tree trunks up the northwest ridge.  Although it was hazy, the summit afforded a magnificent southern view of many of Lakeland’s major peaks.  I took the more orthodox way down on a good path and then the forest roads to make a very quick descent.

Driving to Patterdale from the A66 is one of the great routes of the district, leading eventually to the Kirkstone Pass.  A busy car park (and pub !) greeted me at the start of the route up to Caudale Moor.  Almost 25 years had passed since I walked up here in less than ideal December conditions with my polytechnic room-mate Andy and although I have claimed the tick, a thought in the back of my mind had long been nagging me that we may not have visited the actual summit, despite there being no nearby ground above us.

Atkinson Memorial, John Bell's Banner

I soon passed the scramble up to St Raven’s Edge, chatting to a Geordie about the stifling heat and then a Scouser who was waiting for his friends to catch him up.  The wall led unerringly uphill and I cut across to the monument on John Bell’s Banner before reaching the minor summit of the moor.  A simple stroll past the tarn led to Stony Cove Pike and the summit cairn, stated as the summit by both wainwright and the Database of British and Irish Hills.

Froswick, Ill Bell & Yoke

Stony Cove Pike summit

At last, on this glorious summer’s day when Andy Murray became the first Briton to win the Wimbledon men’s singles championship for 77 years, I could lay my Caudale Moor doubts to rest !

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 !