On the face of it, a 12,000 foot week at the start of a BGR training campaign is not bad going, but the truth is it's not been a wholly great experience. So much so I almost thought about binning it.
After tight calves plagued me all week after a fantastic fast run on Moel Famau last Friday, I though I'd limit the training sessions but make the ones I did really count. So I did 7 all-run Tattenhall railways in the soaking wet on Tueaday with calves still smarting a bit and that seemed to go well. This gave me some confidence to support Richard Gilbert's BGR on Saturday, starting at midnight. I was down to navigate leg one and decided I would do leg 2 and even a bit of three and maybe make my way back to Keswick and the car.
First off I should say well done Richard, he made it in 23:20 - superb stuff :-))
Richard wanted to take the east ridge off Calva and the Doddick Fell route off Blencathra, so armed with these instructions, Richard, a couple of Daves and I set off. I felt fine, although I did have three litres of fluid for Richard and myself so felt weighed down, but happy enough. I had to hold RIchard back a little on Skiddaw but we still made it 8 mins up on schedule. I was blowing a bit but felt OK. Calva arrived 41 mins later, a leg I do in 39 when i'm going well. I felt like i was going no better than ok.
Blencathra arrived bang on schedule 70 mins later and i picked a very efficient line up there in the dark (no rain thankfully). I felt OK. Dropping down to Threlkeld I felt very hungry. I was glad to run in to some noodles which were waiting for me (thanks Emma!). We were about 14 mins up. No sooner had i changed my top, had some tea and started a nibble, Richard set off, about 6 mins after arriving. I decided to eat quickly and catch up. Big mistake. I shoveled the food in, didn;t really eat that much though, and sprinted off. I was bombing along the road and caught them just before the farm at Newsham. As soon as we started that horrid climb on Clough Head, I felt ill. I started to get dropped a little after the stile. Before I knew it, I was diving into a little hollow where I had a bit of an emergency pit stop. I felt terrible. I carried on and ran over Clough Head summit, with Rich and two fresh pacers ahead by about 100 yards. I plugged up Great Dodd and cut across before the summit to intercept them on the way to Watson's Dodd. I still felt rough and cited my intestinal issues as an excuse. My stupid pride wanted them to know I was fit enough!
Onwards to Stybarrow and i felt ill again. I was determined not to be dropped and stayed towards the front of our little posse. I felt like the legs were ok, but the rest of me wasn't. I moved well but then my pride gave way to the required selflessness that comes with supporting a round. I'd ceased to be of use to Richard and with 9,500 feet of climbing in the bank on the top of Helvellyn, I bid them a temporary farewell and headed down to Dunmail.
As soon as I left them, I had to retreat behind a rock this time for another little break. My guts were convulsing and then suddenly OK. As I took a beeline to Raise Beck, I felt stronger than I had done for hours and arrived at Kirsten, Emma, Morgan, Yiannis et al feeling like a wimp. It was nice to report that we'd been nibbling away at the schedule on leg two having taken a fair amount off leg one, but I felt like if i had any mental strength in me, i should have still been up there.
I realised as I stood with fellow BGR veterans that as much as i'd enjoyed helping Richard, I was a bit BGR'd out. I've done leg one and two half a dozen times this year, and about 20 odd times in all and was just a bit sick of it. I was also gutted that I wasn't strong enough to do two legs.
I resolved to reconsider my plans because doubts are the last thing you need to achieve this. I was seriously thinking about jacking it in now and stopping wasting peoples time.
Chastened, I went home via a shower and full English at Tebay and two hours kip in the car. That night I went out with the neighbours for a curry and was seriously naffed off.
Sunday came and i was still moody. I went out on my bike for an hour to a friends BBQ. Some of Tattenhall Runners were there, and they talked about my impending winter round and how the club's Christmas Meal was going to be arranged to miss my appointed date. I didn't voice my doubts and thought about it some more. It lit a little flame and I got excited again. Some home truths landed...
- I'm at the start of this training programme not the end, I have got a lot of big days to come where i'll get stronger.
- It's OK to have to work hard to keep up with a motivated, trained, unladen and fresh BGR contender for two legs. Esp if you're ill.
- Doing the first legs of someone's BGR is a lot harder than the later ones. Worth remembering.
- I live between 60 and 90 mins from various parts of Snowdonia. It might be an idea to starve myself of the Lakes and train in Wales for a few months. I don't need any more recceing of the route and it would be good to do the round whilst chomping at the bit to get back to the Lakes and the BGR.
So it's been an interesting and difficult start, but the legs are feeling OK after such a long day out. Can't be bad as starting point.
So, Snowdonia beckons!
Mark
Week summary:
Tuesday - 7 all-run railways - @2,500' ascent and descent
Saturday - BGR leg one and leg two to Helvellyn and then to Dunmail - 25 miles? 9,500' ascent/descent.
Sunday - 45 mins on the bike, 14 miles. Worked quite hard.
Total ascent/descent - 12,000'
Monday, 26 July 2010
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
"Get it out your system"
I have really got to make it in under 24 hours this time. It's the last chance i'm going to get for a few years to do a big round. My wife has stated, with an eyeball rolling fatigue well known to the spouses of people like me, that I have to get it out of my system NOW. This is because, I can now reveal, she's expecting our first baby on the 25th January. She better hang in there, early arrival is not in the script for all manner of reasons, including this jaunt!
She had a scan today (Tues). So far, all is going well, no sickness etc. She has also been ok!! :-)
So, if that doesn't focus the mind, nothing will.
As this escapade is concerned, it's now or not for the remotely foreseeable.... Better get on with it!
She had a scan today (Tues). So far, all is going well, no sickness etc. She has also been ok!! :-)
So, if that doesn't focus the mind, nothing will.
As this escapade is concerned, it's now or not for the remotely foreseeable.... Better get on with it!
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Week Zero: A Head Start
Since getting back from the world's lowest lying country on Thursday (highest point 2.5 metres!) I've managed to put in three days hill running training. The idea was to start training on Monday (July 19), which is week one in my plan.
Last year I started training for my midwinter BGR at the end of July. I wasn't that fit when i started either. On Friday, I wanted to see how fit I was and so I ran a standard route around Moel Famau and compared my times. Last year I ran my 'double Moel Famau' run in 1:30 in late July, getting fitter throughout the summer and autumn to run it in 1:15:14 in November. I had recently been made redundant and was working long hours, so knew i was not in top shape. THis year, despite working away, i've been road training and keeping fit so i knew i'd beat the time from a year ago. What shocked me was that i beat my pre-Bob Graham time and ran 1:14:30. This was the quickest i've ever run that route. It felt great.
On my failed midwinter BGR, it was the descending that got me. That run off Scafell will live with me forever - the pain and fear it created were new experiences for me. So i decided to push hard on the descents on Friday and i will do in all my training now. They are often taken as a rest, but i need to get my downhill legs strong as well as the climbing legs. Preparing for this round is all about lessons learned.
Saturday was an easier run around the Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen and Sunday was a good railway session, with six all-run reps of that brutal climb. The railway is quicker if you run the first half and walk the second half whilst pushing down with your hands on your knees for extra power, quicker than running the whole thing. But running them all is harder, and requires more power - it's like doing leg weights in the gym. For my successful summer round i ran them all - for my less successful midwinter round i ran/walked them and patted myself on the back for knocking out faster times. It might be faster to run/walk them, but the greater training effect is gained by running the lot, and that's what i did today. Another lesson learned. Seven next time...
What is encouraging about these runs is that they tell me i'm starting from a better base physically, and i'm stronger and better equipped mentally. Today i ran those railways with sore legs from Friday's fast tough run. That's good going.
Next week i'm helping a Bob Graham attempt and will do two legs. Looking forward to that, fingers crossed for the weather. It should be fine though - the only bad weather i've ever had on BGRs have been on my own two rounds, and i've helped about a dozen others. I feel my luck could change...
Summary:
Friday - 7.5M, 2300' - 1:14:30 fast
Satursday - 4.5M, 1200' - 55:12 easy
Sunday - 6 railways, @3M - 2200' all run
Total 15M, 5,700', 3 workouts
Last year I started training for my midwinter BGR at the end of July. I wasn't that fit when i started either. On Friday, I wanted to see how fit I was and so I ran a standard route around Moel Famau and compared my times. Last year I ran my 'double Moel Famau' run in 1:30 in late July, getting fitter throughout the summer and autumn to run it in 1:15:14 in November. I had recently been made redundant and was working long hours, so knew i was not in top shape. THis year, despite working away, i've been road training and keeping fit so i knew i'd beat the time from a year ago. What shocked me was that i beat my pre-Bob Graham time and ran 1:14:30. This was the quickest i've ever run that route. It felt great.
On my failed midwinter BGR, it was the descending that got me. That run off Scafell will live with me forever - the pain and fear it created were new experiences for me. So i decided to push hard on the descents on Friday and i will do in all my training now. They are often taken as a rest, but i need to get my downhill legs strong as well as the climbing legs. Preparing for this round is all about lessons learned.
Saturday was an easier run around the Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen and Sunday was a good railway session, with six all-run reps of that brutal climb. The railway is quicker if you run the first half and walk the second half whilst pushing down with your hands on your knees for extra power, quicker than running the whole thing. But running them all is harder, and requires more power - it's like doing leg weights in the gym. For my successful summer round i ran them all - for my less successful midwinter round i ran/walked them and patted myself on the back for knocking out faster times. It might be faster to run/walk them, but the greater training effect is gained by running the lot, and that's what i did today. Another lesson learned. Seven next time...
What is encouraging about these runs is that they tell me i'm starting from a better base physically, and i'm stronger and better equipped mentally. Today i ran those railways with sore legs from Friday's fast tough run. That's good going.
Next week i'm helping a Bob Graham attempt and will do two legs. Looking forward to that, fingers crossed for the weather. It should be fine though - the only bad weather i've ever had on BGRs have been on my own two rounds, and i've helped about a dozen others. I feel my luck could change...
Summary:
Friday - 7.5M, 2300' - 1:14:30 fast
Satursday - 4.5M, 1200' - 55:12 easy
Sunday - 6 railways, @3M - 2200' all run
Total 15M, 5,700', 3 workouts
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
It’s all Wainwright’s fault
All of this Lake District peak-bagging is Wainwright’s fault, more so than Bob Graham’s. His seven masterpieces have been staple reading for millions of walkers, runners, climbers and lovers of the Lake District fells in general since they were pulished between 1955 and 1966. I stumbled upon them aged 13 and they’ve been my bibles ever since. If it wasn’t for the little handwritten and hand-drawn obsessions of a Lancashire cum Lakeland accountant, I’d probably be four stone heavier and hanging around train platforms or something. As it is, another midwinter round beckons, as does all that training :-)
I first read these little marvels at my Venture Scout leader’s house, having never even set foot in the Lakes, although hillwalking was finding its way past football thanks to Scout camps in the Yorkshire Dales. I was hooked at once. I’d never read or seen anything like them (and still haven’t). I was suddenly crying out to see these fells just from reading these books. I finally went there aged 14 on another Scout camp and was mesmerised, a bit like AW must have been on Orrest Head. For me it was a wintry climb up Skiddaw. Since then, the fells of the Lakes have been my Mecca, despite seeing and climbing bigger, harder, more spectacular mountains in the UK and the Alps. It’s the Lakes I’m missing even now, sat on a beach in the Maldives.
Readers will probably know that the gruff, Blackburn born accountant Alfred Wainwright handwrote and drew seven exquisite guides detailing the natural features, ascents, views, ridge routes and much else besides of 214 fells in the Lakes which he considered to be worthy of a separate chapter, because they were, by his arbitrary and shamelessly inconsistent logic, fells in their own right. Despite what you might think about his choice and definition of what makes a separate fell rather than a ‘top’ (for example, I am staggered that Mungrisedale Common, Watson’s Dodd and Armboth Fell get chapters but Ill Crag, Broad Crag and Little Stand do not. There are many other bones of contention...) his guides are pre-eminent. They are immensely popular and loved as artworks and love letters to the Lakes as least as much as they are as sources of information. They are in my view quite simply the best guidebooks ever written. They are dating now, and yet remain strangely timeless. They will probably never be out of print (they are being updated but you can still purchase the now increasingly inaccurate but no less terrific originals). As you can tell, I love these little books. I also adore some of his many other works (his Pennine Way Companion is superb). They are the reason that I got to know the lakes so well and wanted to see every nook, cranny and especially, every summit.
Whilst peak bagging in the lakes is down to AW, doing so at any kind of pace is down to Bob Graham. What Bob Graham has done is provide a challenge that knits together some great places that Wainwright has introduced me to. It’s like a natural progression from “Wainwright-bagger” to “Bob Grahamer” I suppose.
So these two men therefore have had a major part in influencing this whole episode. I sometimes wonder if the two ever met or were even aware of each other’s exploits. Does anyone know? The timings suggest that they might – Bob died in 1966 just as AW was penning has 7th and last in the series which was by then very much awaited by an eager public. I’d be fascinated to know. I can imagine that Bob Graham would have enjoyed AW’s guides, but I’m not sure any appreciation would have been fully reciprocated.
I suspect AW would have admired the effort required to do the BGR. Sometimes he’d suggest routes much shorter than the BGR as being major undertakings for “supermen” or on one occasion “for those specimens with strength enough to tackle Everest”. Despite this, I suspect he would have been uncomfortable with the principle (he didn’t think the mountains were for racing amongst) and the prospect of doing a round (he was, by his own admission, “14 stones and getting as fat as a pig” when he wrote The Western Fells, the seventh book, despite all the fellwalking he was doing).
The detail and comprehensiveness of AW’s guides show that they are the very essence of what all consuming obsession is about, something Bob Graham and all subsequent BGR-ers know all about. As a tribute to his guides, and a challenge to me, I’m going to ensure all 214 of the “Wainwrights” feature in my preparation for my second tilt at a midwinter BGR.
I’d already bagged them all at least once before I started fellrunning in 2003, collecting summits in a trainspotter fashion over many years, ticking them off my list. My final ‘first ascent’ that ensured a fully ticked list was Harter Fell in Eskdale, a great peak to end on. I’ve done many of them many times since. Now I’ll do them all again between July and December 2010, probably a book at a time over the course of seven huge days out. We’ll see...
To keep track of which ones are done and remain – I need to list them, but am on holiday and they aren’t to hand. To see if I could, and to prove what a saddo I really am, I decided to try and remember them all and type them all out without looking at the books or internet just to see how many I could recall from memory. Well, they’re all there, all 214. It’s more than a little worrying that I can just type them out, and it’s no good saying I should get out more – that’s kind of the plan... Troutbeck Tongue took me ages to recall, ages after getting all the others, but I got there!
Interestingly (well to me anyway), Bob Graham counts three summits Wainwright doesn’t, namely Helvellyn Lower Man, Broad Crag and Ill Crag. Meanwhile Bob didn’t list two fells as summits on his round that get full chapters in AW’s books. These are Scoat Fell (depending on how precisely you hit the spur to Steeple from Red Pike, it’s entirely conceivable you pass over this summit twice on the BGR but you will almost certainly pass over it once on the way to Pillar and yes I’m aware of my clockwise bias here) and Mungrisedale Common (many people, including me, pass within 200 yards of this but don’t touch the cairn, but it’s easy to include it. In fact I recently, and a little inadvertently, took Dave Hindley right over the cairn on leg one of his successful round). This means that you could claim a 44 peak round if you added AW’s extra summits in, but then you’d have to take his three chapterless summits out, leaving 41...
To further complicate matters, I can think of three summits that neither Bob or AW count that are both on the round and are reasonably significant eminences (certainly more so that Mungrisedale Common, which is a slight swell in the northern flank of Blencathra – my skinny backside is more pronounced!). They are Calfhow Pike (which is bypassed, but by yards only), Black Crag on Pillar (again, now missed by yards via a neat trod cutting across the Mosedale flank) and High Crag between Dollywaggon and Nethermost Pike. Why these aren’t recognised as summits by either man is unclear.
Whatever the inconsistencies, I think the best thing about Bob’s and AW’s lists is that they are cast in stone. There’s no need to nervously await the results of a resurveying mission like Munro-baggers have had to in the past. It’s what these two great men decided felt and looked right. They decided and we observe – and that’s it. I wouldn’t change it one bit.
Mark
-oOo-
The 214 Wainwright Peaks
Eastern Fells
1 Great Mell Fell
2 Little Mell Fell
3 Gowbarrow Fell
4 Clough Head
5 Great Dodd
6 Watsons Dodd
7 Stybarrow Dodd
8 Raise
9 White Side
10 Helvellyn
11 Nethermost Pike
12 Dollywaggon Pike
13 Hart Side
14 Sheffield Pike
15 Glenridding Dodd
16 Birkhouse Moor
17 Catstycam
18 Arnison Crag
19 Birks
20 St Sunday Crag
21 Fairfield
22 Hart Crag
23 Dove Crag
24 Low Pike
25 High Pike
26 Heron Pike
27 Nab Scar
28 Great Rigg
29 Stone Arthur
30 Hartsop Above How
31 High Hartsop Dodd
32 Little Hart Crag
33 Middle Dodd
34 Red Screes
35 Seat Sandal
Far Eastern Fells
36 Sour Howes
37 Sallows
38 Shipman Knotts
39 Kentmere Pike
40 Harter Fell
41 Mardale Ill Bell
42 High Street
43 Thornthwaite Crag
44 Froswick
45 Ill Bell
46 Yoke
47 Caudale Moor
48 Wansfell
49 Troutbeck Tongue
50 Gray Crag
51 Grey Crag
52 Tarn Crag
53 Hartsop Dodd
54 Branstree
55 Selside Pike
56 Kidsty Pike
57 Brock Crag
58 Angletarn Pikes
59 Beda Fell
60 Rampsgill Head
61 High Raise
62 Wether Hill
63 Loadpot Hill
64 Steel Knotts
65 Hallin Fell
66 Arthurs Pike
67 Bonscale Pike
68 Place Fell
69 Rest Dodd
70 The Nab
71 The Knott
Central Fells
72 High Rigg
73 Raven Crag
74 Walla Crag
75 Bleaberry Fell
76 High Seat
77 High Tove
78 Armboth Fell
79 Grange Fell
80 Great Crag
81 Ullscarf
82 High Raise
83 Seargeant Man
84 Eagle Crag
85 Seargeants Crag
86 Thunacar Knott
87 Harrison Stickle
88 Pavey Ark
89 Loft Crag
90 Pike o Stickle
91 Blea Rigg
92 Loughrigg Fell
93 Silver How
94 Helm Crag
95 Gibson Knott
96 Tarn Crag
97 Steel Fell
98 Calf Crag
Southern Fells
99 Black Crag
100 Holme Fell
101 Harter Fell
102 Green Crag
103 Hard Knott
104 Dow Crag
105 Coniston Old Man
106 Brim Fell
107 Swirl How
108 Wetherlam
109 Great Carrs
110 Grey Friar
111 Cold Pike
112 Pike o Blisco
113 Lingmoor Fell
114 Crinkle Crags
115 Bowfell
116 Rossett Pike
117 Esk Pike
118 Great End
119 Seathwaite Fell
120 Rosthwaite Fell
121 Glaramara
122 Scafell Pike
123 Scafell
124 Slight Side
125 Lingmell
126 Illgill Head
127 Whin Rigg
128 Allen Crags
Northern Fells
129 Binsey
130 Longlands Fell
131 Brae Fell
132 Great Sca Fell
133 Meal Fell
134 Great Cockup
135 Knott
136 Great Calva
137 High Pike
138 Carrock Fell
139 Bannerdale Crags
140 Bowscale Fell
141 Mungrisedale Common
142 Souther Fell
143 Blencathra
144 Latrigg
145 Dodd
146 Lonscale Fell
147 Skiddaw
148 Skiddaw Little Man
149 Bakestall
150 Carl Side
151 Long Side
152 Ullock Pike
Northwestern Fells
153 Sale Fell
154 Ling Fell
155 Barf
156 Lords Seat
157 Broom Fell
158 Greystones
159 Whinlatter
160 Grisedale Pike
161 Hopegill Head
162 Whiteside
163 Grasmoor
164 Barrow
165 Outerside
166 Causey Pike
167 Scar Crags
168 Sail
169 Eel Crag
170 Wandope
171 Whiteless Pike
172 Rannerdale Knotts
173 Ard Crags
174 Knott Rigg
175 Robinson
176 Hindscarth
177 Dale Head
178 High Spy
179 Catbells
180 Castle Crag
181 Maiden Moor
Western Fells
182 Blake Fell
183 Gavel Fell
184 Hen Comb
185 Melbreak
186 Burnbank Fell
187 Low Fell
188 Fellbarrow
189 Great Bourne
190 Starling Dodd
191 Red Pike (B)
192 High Stile
193 High Crag
194 Haystacks
195 Fleetwith Pike
196 Grey Knotts
197 Brandreth
198 Base Brown
199 Green Gable
200 Great Gable
201 Kirk Fell
202 Pillar
203 Scoat Fell
204 Steeple
205 Haycock
206 Caw Fell
207 Crag Hill
208 Lank Rigg
209 Grike
210 Seatallan
211 Middle Fell
212 Buckbarrow
213 Red Pike (W)
214 Yewbarrow
I first read these little marvels at my Venture Scout leader’s house, having never even set foot in the Lakes, although hillwalking was finding its way past football thanks to Scout camps in the Yorkshire Dales. I was hooked at once. I’d never read or seen anything like them (and still haven’t). I was suddenly crying out to see these fells just from reading these books. I finally went there aged 14 on another Scout camp and was mesmerised, a bit like AW must have been on Orrest Head. For me it was a wintry climb up Skiddaw. Since then, the fells of the Lakes have been my Mecca, despite seeing and climbing bigger, harder, more spectacular mountains in the UK and the Alps. It’s the Lakes I’m missing even now, sat on a beach in the Maldives.
Readers will probably know that the gruff, Blackburn born accountant Alfred Wainwright handwrote and drew seven exquisite guides detailing the natural features, ascents, views, ridge routes and much else besides of 214 fells in the Lakes which he considered to be worthy of a separate chapter, because they were, by his arbitrary and shamelessly inconsistent logic, fells in their own right. Despite what you might think about his choice and definition of what makes a separate fell rather than a ‘top’ (for example, I am staggered that Mungrisedale Common, Watson’s Dodd and Armboth Fell get chapters but Ill Crag, Broad Crag and Little Stand do not. There are many other bones of contention...) his guides are pre-eminent. They are immensely popular and loved as artworks and love letters to the Lakes as least as much as they are as sources of information. They are in my view quite simply the best guidebooks ever written. They are dating now, and yet remain strangely timeless. They will probably never be out of print (they are being updated but you can still purchase the now increasingly inaccurate but no less terrific originals). As you can tell, I love these little books. I also adore some of his many other works (his Pennine Way Companion is superb). They are the reason that I got to know the lakes so well and wanted to see every nook, cranny and especially, every summit.
Whilst peak bagging in the lakes is down to AW, doing so at any kind of pace is down to Bob Graham. What Bob Graham has done is provide a challenge that knits together some great places that Wainwright has introduced me to. It’s like a natural progression from “Wainwright-bagger” to “Bob Grahamer” I suppose.
So these two men therefore have had a major part in influencing this whole episode. I sometimes wonder if the two ever met or were even aware of each other’s exploits. Does anyone know? The timings suggest that they might – Bob died in 1966 just as AW was penning has 7th and last in the series which was by then very much awaited by an eager public. I’d be fascinated to know. I can imagine that Bob Graham would have enjoyed AW’s guides, but I’m not sure any appreciation would have been fully reciprocated.
I suspect AW would have admired the effort required to do the BGR. Sometimes he’d suggest routes much shorter than the BGR as being major undertakings for “supermen” or on one occasion “for those specimens with strength enough to tackle Everest”. Despite this, I suspect he would have been uncomfortable with the principle (he didn’t think the mountains were for racing amongst) and the prospect of doing a round (he was, by his own admission, “14 stones and getting as fat as a pig” when he wrote The Western Fells, the seventh book, despite all the fellwalking he was doing).
The detail and comprehensiveness of AW’s guides show that they are the very essence of what all consuming obsession is about, something Bob Graham and all subsequent BGR-ers know all about. As a tribute to his guides, and a challenge to me, I’m going to ensure all 214 of the “Wainwrights” feature in my preparation for my second tilt at a midwinter BGR.
I’d already bagged them all at least once before I started fellrunning in 2003, collecting summits in a trainspotter fashion over many years, ticking them off my list. My final ‘first ascent’ that ensured a fully ticked list was Harter Fell in Eskdale, a great peak to end on. I’ve done many of them many times since. Now I’ll do them all again between July and December 2010, probably a book at a time over the course of seven huge days out. We’ll see...
To keep track of which ones are done and remain – I need to list them, but am on holiday and they aren’t to hand. To see if I could, and to prove what a saddo I really am, I decided to try and remember them all and type them all out without looking at the books or internet just to see how many I could recall from memory. Well, they’re all there, all 214. It’s more than a little worrying that I can just type them out, and it’s no good saying I should get out more – that’s kind of the plan... Troutbeck Tongue took me ages to recall, ages after getting all the others, but I got there!
Interestingly (well to me anyway), Bob Graham counts three summits Wainwright doesn’t, namely Helvellyn Lower Man, Broad Crag and Ill Crag. Meanwhile Bob didn’t list two fells as summits on his round that get full chapters in AW’s books. These are Scoat Fell (depending on how precisely you hit the spur to Steeple from Red Pike, it’s entirely conceivable you pass over this summit twice on the BGR but you will almost certainly pass over it once on the way to Pillar and yes I’m aware of my clockwise bias here) and Mungrisedale Common (many people, including me, pass within 200 yards of this but don’t touch the cairn, but it’s easy to include it. In fact I recently, and a little inadvertently, took Dave Hindley right over the cairn on leg one of his successful round). This means that you could claim a 44 peak round if you added AW’s extra summits in, but then you’d have to take his three chapterless summits out, leaving 41...
To further complicate matters, I can think of three summits that neither Bob or AW count that are both on the round and are reasonably significant eminences (certainly more so that Mungrisedale Common, which is a slight swell in the northern flank of Blencathra – my skinny backside is more pronounced!). They are Calfhow Pike (which is bypassed, but by yards only), Black Crag on Pillar (again, now missed by yards via a neat trod cutting across the Mosedale flank) and High Crag between Dollywaggon and Nethermost Pike. Why these aren’t recognised as summits by either man is unclear.
Whatever the inconsistencies, I think the best thing about Bob’s and AW’s lists is that they are cast in stone. There’s no need to nervously await the results of a resurveying mission like Munro-baggers have had to in the past. It’s what these two great men decided felt and looked right. They decided and we observe – and that’s it. I wouldn’t change it one bit.
Mark
-oOo-
The 214 Wainwright Peaks
Eastern Fells
1 Great Mell Fell
2 Little Mell Fell
3 Gowbarrow Fell
4 Clough Head
5 Great Dodd
6 Watsons Dodd
7 Stybarrow Dodd
8 Raise
9 White Side
10 Helvellyn
11 Nethermost Pike
12 Dollywaggon Pike
13 Hart Side
14 Sheffield Pike
15 Glenridding Dodd
16 Birkhouse Moor
17 Catstycam
18 Arnison Crag
19 Birks
20 St Sunday Crag
21 Fairfield
22 Hart Crag
23 Dove Crag
24 Low Pike
25 High Pike
26 Heron Pike
27 Nab Scar
28 Great Rigg
29 Stone Arthur
30 Hartsop Above How
31 High Hartsop Dodd
32 Little Hart Crag
33 Middle Dodd
34 Red Screes
35 Seat Sandal
Far Eastern Fells
36 Sour Howes
37 Sallows
38 Shipman Knotts
39 Kentmere Pike
40 Harter Fell
41 Mardale Ill Bell
42 High Street
43 Thornthwaite Crag
44 Froswick
45 Ill Bell
46 Yoke
47 Caudale Moor
48 Wansfell
49 Troutbeck Tongue
50 Gray Crag
51 Grey Crag
52 Tarn Crag
53 Hartsop Dodd
54 Branstree
55 Selside Pike
56 Kidsty Pike
57 Brock Crag
58 Angletarn Pikes
59 Beda Fell
60 Rampsgill Head
61 High Raise
62 Wether Hill
63 Loadpot Hill
64 Steel Knotts
65 Hallin Fell
66 Arthurs Pike
67 Bonscale Pike
68 Place Fell
69 Rest Dodd
70 The Nab
71 The Knott
Central Fells
72 High Rigg
73 Raven Crag
74 Walla Crag
75 Bleaberry Fell
76 High Seat
77 High Tove
78 Armboth Fell
79 Grange Fell
80 Great Crag
81 Ullscarf
82 High Raise
83 Seargeant Man
84 Eagle Crag
85 Seargeants Crag
86 Thunacar Knott
87 Harrison Stickle
88 Pavey Ark
89 Loft Crag
90 Pike o Stickle
91 Blea Rigg
92 Loughrigg Fell
93 Silver How
94 Helm Crag
95 Gibson Knott
96 Tarn Crag
97 Steel Fell
98 Calf Crag
Southern Fells
99 Black Crag
100 Holme Fell
101 Harter Fell
102 Green Crag
103 Hard Knott
104 Dow Crag
105 Coniston Old Man
106 Brim Fell
107 Swirl How
108 Wetherlam
109 Great Carrs
110 Grey Friar
111 Cold Pike
112 Pike o Blisco
113 Lingmoor Fell
114 Crinkle Crags
115 Bowfell
116 Rossett Pike
117 Esk Pike
118 Great End
119 Seathwaite Fell
120 Rosthwaite Fell
121 Glaramara
122 Scafell Pike
123 Scafell
124 Slight Side
125 Lingmell
126 Illgill Head
127 Whin Rigg
128 Allen Crags
Northern Fells
129 Binsey
130 Longlands Fell
131 Brae Fell
132 Great Sca Fell
133 Meal Fell
134 Great Cockup
135 Knott
136 Great Calva
137 High Pike
138 Carrock Fell
139 Bannerdale Crags
140 Bowscale Fell
141 Mungrisedale Common
142 Souther Fell
143 Blencathra
144 Latrigg
145 Dodd
146 Lonscale Fell
147 Skiddaw
148 Skiddaw Little Man
149 Bakestall
150 Carl Side
151 Long Side
152 Ullock Pike
Northwestern Fells
153 Sale Fell
154 Ling Fell
155 Barf
156 Lords Seat
157 Broom Fell
158 Greystones
159 Whinlatter
160 Grisedale Pike
161 Hopegill Head
162 Whiteside
163 Grasmoor
164 Barrow
165 Outerside
166 Causey Pike
167 Scar Crags
168 Sail
169 Eel Crag
170 Wandope
171 Whiteless Pike
172 Rannerdale Knotts
173 Ard Crags
174 Knott Rigg
175 Robinson
176 Hindscarth
177 Dale Head
178 High Spy
179 Catbells
180 Castle Crag
181 Maiden Moor
Western Fells
182 Blake Fell
183 Gavel Fell
184 Hen Comb
185 Melbreak
186 Burnbank Fell
187 Low Fell
188 Fellbarrow
189 Great Bourne
190 Starling Dodd
191 Red Pike (B)
192 High Stile
193 High Crag
194 Haystacks
195 Fleetwith Pike
196 Grey Knotts
197 Brandreth
198 Base Brown
199 Green Gable
200 Great Gable
201 Kirk Fell
202 Pillar
203 Scoat Fell
204 Steeple
205 Haycock
206 Caw Fell
207 Crag Hill
208 Lank Rigg
209 Grike
210 Seatallan
211 Middle Fell
212 Buckbarrow
213 Red Pike (W)
214 Yewbarrow
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Big days
I love the planning bit. It's full of good intentions and dreams and makes the calendar for the next few months look very exciting.
Central to my calendar between now and December are the big days. Those many-hour outings that set the foundations for a big round. Between them is the running, biking, resting, stretching, eating etc that fill in the gaps, but the big days are the pillars between which everthing else is worked around. I have become convinced that you could do a huge day taking in 10,000 feet of ascent and descent each week and no other training for 5-6 months and be strong enough to make it round in under 24 hours. Put another way, if you did the same climbing and distance but didn't get out for more than 3 or 4 hours in one go, you'd struggle. Yewbarrow after 15 hours would feel like Everest.
I am going to train most days and aim for 15,000 feet a week minimum. Usually, i'll do more than that.
This time, i want to try new routes and inject some variety in. I know the route so well now that i'll not spend ages doing BGR recceing. I'll be up in the Lakes plenty, but the days out will be goals in themselves.
One goal i'm going to try is to include the summits of all 214 Wainwright summits in my training. This will hopefully be via 7 long days, each concentrating on an AW volume. Those little handwritten books have been a major inspiration to me since i was a lad, and i completed the Wainwrights as a walker in my early 30s, taking about 15 years. I've since started running, and so let's see if my second circuit can be done a little quicker. One day, I might have a go at Joss's run and do them on consecutive days, but one dream at a time...
Big days (provisional!!):
24 July - Helping a BGR and am doing legs 1 and 4
30 July - AW Northern Fells - all summits
6/7 August - 8000' day in the Carneddau/Glyderau followed next day by Borrowdale race
13 August - AW Central Fells - all summits
20 August - Welsh 3000ers as a loop (fiddly, but possible)
27 August - Cumbrian Traverse
5 September - 'Sedbergh Summits' - every single Howgill top
11/12 September - Peris Horseshoe race, followed by a 6000' day from Ogwen
17 September - AW Northwestern Fells - all summits
24 September - Clive's BGR (2 or 3 legs)
1 October - AW Far Eastern Fells - all summits
7/8 October - Paddy Buckley Round - over 2 days
15 October - AW Western Fells - all summits
22 October - 'Rosthwaite loop' - takes in most of leg 3, all of 4 and a bit of 5
29/30 Ovtober - OMM, Dartmoor
5 November - AW Eastern Fells - all summits
12 November - AW Southern Fells - all summits
19 November - Joss Naylor Route (looks like a lovely route, even for a 37 year old....!)
26 November - Wasdale fell race route - fast
3 December - 2 stages of the Paddy Buckley
Phew, knackered just typing it!!
Mark
Central to my calendar between now and December are the big days. Those many-hour outings that set the foundations for a big round. Between them is the running, biking, resting, stretching, eating etc that fill in the gaps, but the big days are the pillars between which everthing else is worked around. I have become convinced that you could do a huge day taking in 10,000 feet of ascent and descent each week and no other training for 5-6 months and be strong enough to make it round in under 24 hours. Put another way, if you did the same climbing and distance but didn't get out for more than 3 or 4 hours in one go, you'd struggle. Yewbarrow after 15 hours would feel like Everest.
I am going to train most days and aim for 15,000 feet a week minimum. Usually, i'll do more than that.
This time, i want to try new routes and inject some variety in. I know the route so well now that i'll not spend ages doing BGR recceing. I'll be up in the Lakes plenty, but the days out will be goals in themselves.
One goal i'm going to try is to include the summits of all 214 Wainwright summits in my training. This will hopefully be via 7 long days, each concentrating on an AW volume. Those little handwritten books have been a major inspiration to me since i was a lad, and i completed the Wainwrights as a walker in my early 30s, taking about 15 years. I've since started running, and so let's see if my second circuit can be done a little quicker. One day, I might have a go at Joss's run and do them on consecutive days, but one dream at a time...
Big days (provisional!!):
24 July - Helping a BGR and am doing legs 1 and 4
30 July - AW Northern Fells - all summits
6/7 August - 8000' day in the Carneddau/Glyderau followed next day by Borrowdale race
13 August - AW Central Fells - all summits
20 August - Welsh 3000ers as a loop (fiddly, but possible)
27 August - Cumbrian Traverse
5 September - 'Sedbergh Summits' - every single Howgill top
11/12 September - Peris Horseshoe race, followed by a 6000' day from Ogwen
17 September - AW Northwestern Fells - all summits
24 September - Clive's BGR (2 or 3 legs)
1 October - AW Far Eastern Fells - all summits
7/8 October - Paddy Buckley Round - over 2 days
15 October - AW Western Fells - all summits
22 October - 'Rosthwaite loop' - takes in most of leg 3, all of 4 and a bit of 5
29/30 Ovtober - OMM, Dartmoor
5 November - AW Eastern Fells - all summits
12 November - AW Southern Fells - all summits
19 November - Joss Naylor Route (looks like a lovely route, even for a 37 year old....!)
26 November - Wasdale fell race route - fast
3 December - 2 stages of the Paddy Buckley
Phew, knackered just typing it!!
Mark
Monday, 5 July 2010
Here we go again...
I'm going to take The Empire Strikes Back as my inspiration, or perhaps The Godfather - Part II. Great sequels that took the best bits from the first (very good) episode, removed the bits that didn't work and introduced new elements and learning from the first which made things so much better.
This won't be a remake. No back to the drawing board. I got much more right than wrong last time, but i did get a few things wrong, which in the conditions i had meant failure and not success - it was that marginal out there that day, esp after Wasdale. If condiitions had have been benign or even mildly unpleasant, I'd have sailed round. But they weren't and I didn't and conditions may be the same on December 11 2010 as they were on December 19 2009. Getting more right than wrong last time meant a 24:22 completion rather than an incomplete round. This time - no mistakes, at least no critical ones...
Last time I was blessed with great help, the best in the business. The first job I have to see if those poor souls are willing to do it again, although in many cases in a different role and a different place. Without them, it's off before it's on.
I do have a broad plan for the training, which centres around long days on a friday (i am my own boss and don't usually work friday :-) ), fast hill runs of 2-3 hours on a sunday, brisk trail running and road running on Wednesdays and Hill Reps on Mondays. I'll also squeeze in some biking and gym work as well as some reps of the Tattenhall Railway, without which no preparation for a round is complete.
This is weird, I have to say. I'm typing this in the Maldives on holiday in the bar, fans whirring above me and the wife swimming up and down in the pool. It's about 30 degrees C. I don't just tinker around with irony do i??
Training starts on Friday 16 July when I get back. Looking forward to it!
For now, it's enough to state my intent, and hope I don't end up with a Ghostbusters II, Grease II, a Highlander II or worst of all, a Phantom Manace on my hands.
This won't be a remake. No back to the drawing board. I got much more right than wrong last time, but i did get a few things wrong, which in the conditions i had meant failure and not success - it was that marginal out there that day, esp after Wasdale. If condiitions had have been benign or even mildly unpleasant, I'd have sailed round. But they weren't and I didn't and conditions may be the same on December 11 2010 as they were on December 19 2009. Getting more right than wrong last time meant a 24:22 completion rather than an incomplete round. This time - no mistakes, at least no critical ones...
Last time I was blessed with great help, the best in the business. The first job I have to see if those poor souls are willing to do it again, although in many cases in a different role and a different place. Without them, it's off before it's on.
I do have a broad plan for the training, which centres around long days on a friday (i am my own boss and don't usually work friday :-) ), fast hill runs of 2-3 hours on a sunday, brisk trail running and road running on Wednesdays and Hill Reps on Mondays. I'll also squeeze in some biking and gym work as well as some reps of the Tattenhall Railway, without which no preparation for a round is complete.
This is weird, I have to say. I'm typing this in the Maldives on holiday in the bar, fans whirring above me and the wife swimming up and down in the pool. It's about 30 degrees C. I don't just tinker around with irony do i??
Training starts on Friday 16 July when I get back. Looking forward to it!
For now, it's enough to state my intent, and hope I don't end up with a Ghostbusters II, Grease II, a Highlander II or worst of all, a Phantom Manace on my hands.
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