The Wainwrights Walks
Hello, welcome to our website. On this page you can read the articles I write about the adventures, challenges, excitement, beauty and fun we encounter in our attempt to walk all the 214 Wainwrights in the Lake District in 2015.
We aim to raise over £7,000 for Tearfund’s ‘No Child Taken.’ We hope you will enjoy reading about our Wainwrights walks, and that they will bring you as much enjoyment as you read them, as they have to us when we walked them.
Tearfund is hoping to raise 1 million pounds to protect 50,000 children from the dangers of trafficking in 2015. We aim to raise the equivalent of £36 for each mountain we climb and so protect 214 children by providing them with a safe and secure family environment.
Grey Friar’s stunning view of creation
Grey Friar, Lake District. — We walked away from this mountain the other week. Today we return, retracing our steps. From the Three Shires Stone we begin our second attempt to reach the summit of Grey Friar. Last week, the weather forced us back – making it...
Escaping from blizzards on Hartsop
Hartsop, Lake District. — Yesterday we battled through hailstones and blizzards on Brim Fell. Today, with two friends joining us, we are hoping for an easier day. Leaving Cow Bridge car park on the northern tip of Brothers Water we begin the climb to the ridge of...
Surviving Blizzards and Hailstones on Brim Fell
Coniston, Lake District. — It should have been an easy walk along the ridge over Swirl How to the summit of Brim Fell. We ended up fighting through blizzards and hailstones and experiencing freezing temperatures before becoming disorientated contouring along an...
No Chocolate on Yoke
Yoke, Lake District. — During our meanderings around the Lake Districts fells, we may come across something that sticks in our memories - Rainsborrow Crag is one of these. It’s not for climbing. Neither does it compare to the classic routes of Striding Edge or...
King Arthur’s Chair
Following last week's climb over Coniston in deep, fresh snow, today we walk away from the car in the drizzle with a gentle breeze blowing. A blanket of cloud hugs the peaks, swirling in the wind, carrying drizzle and heavier squalls across the fells. On Stone Arthur,...
Whiteout on the Old Man
Walk underneath the imposing crags that tower above the magical setting of Goat’s Water and you cannot but give in to the desire to return another day with rope and harness. Coniston, Lake District. — The sky has cleared, the forecast is excellent; this is it! My...
Selfie on Seat Sandal
Near The Traveller’s Rest pub, on the A591, it is quiet. I can stand in the middle of the road, not usually a wise practice, but today following the floods a few weeks ago that devastated Cumbria, it is relatively safe to do so. The cars that pass me have nowhere to...
Breakfast at Wetherlam
The light before my feet sweeps the path ahead, darkness lies all around us. Our steps are the loudest sound. My boots chase the light in front, never touching. Wetherlam, Little Langdale — For three days at the end of 2015, the first snows of winter arrived, a week...
Happy on Harter Fell
We’re off again! I never expected - after we came down from Cat Bells in August - that we would not climb another mountain for two months. I thought we may miss a few weeks, but to sit at home and watch the splendid Indian summer pass us by was incredibly frustrating....
Haystacks and a Hobgoblin
Standing in the footsteps of Alfred Wainwright we gaze upon Innominate Tarn. From among rocks on an unidentified crag we eat lunch and brew mango tea in an old camping kettle. I’m not a great fan of mango tea but yesterday it was the only thing I could find in a tea...
Storm Clouds over Skiddaw
If Skiddaw can be described as whale-back, then Blencathra, its neighbour, must be described as the shark that stalks it. At 3,054 feet, Skiddaw looms over Keswick and behind its bulk lie a conglomeration of mountains - a mixture of sedimentary slate and volcanic...
Walking Wainwrights with the Mayor
Seriously, today, we have to be on our best behaviour - aren’t we always? A special person is joining us for a walk around the fells. After an early morning radio interview with Val Armstrong on Radio Cumbria - which seemed to go surprisingly well at 9-15 on Sunday...
Under the Weather on Raven Crag
We waited. On the summit of Honister Pass the rain blew in, the clag covered us and I peered through driving rain towards Grey Knotts. I couldn’t see Grey Knotts, it was Obscured by Clouds - which would be a good record to listen to, while waiting, if I had...
Cotton-Picking Wainwrights
Our second trip to the Western Fells results in another long day; a day of mixed weather, with rain, cloud, wind and bright-blue skies. As we head through Holme Wood from Maggie’s Bridge next to picturesque Loweswater, clouds steam off the sides of Grasmoor and the...
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