The 214 English Peaks
If you haven’t heard of these before, Wainwrights are the 214 English Peaks (known locally as fells) described in Alfred Wainwright’s 7 pictorial walking guidebooks. All the fells are within the Lake District National Park in Cumbria. The tallest is Scafell Pike, 978m and the smallest is Castle Crag, 300m. Every fell apart from Castle Crag is above 1000ft.
Summiting all 214 Wainwrights is a popular form of peak bagging in the Lake District, so when I found out about this, I was determined to complete it. I only found out what they were 6 months after moving here though!
Officially, my Wainwright journey began when Andy and I first walked the Newlands Horseshoe on 17/1/19 with my first peak being Cat Bells, 451m. Unknown to me then just how popular and iconic was, we just kept walking higher and higher around the horseshoe, ticking off Maiden Moor, High Spy, Dale Head, Hindscarth and Robinson. 6 ticked off in just one walk! Cat Bells is one of the most photogenic hills in the lakes, and happens to be the closest one to my door, how cool!
As the weeks and months went by, (before I knew what Wainwrights were) I kept a small written log of my completed peaks. However, I was faced with a small problem. As it had taken me 6 months to find out about Wainos, when I first moved to the new area I was like a kid in a sweet shop. My approach was solely just to complete to large, iconic local mountains, with the most direct route possible. Most of these were done in the now too! I marched straight up Skiddaw, Blencathra, Helvellyn, and Scafell Pike all within a few months, but didn’t stop off at the nearby fells either side. Had I known about Wainwrights, a simple kilometre or so detour would have allowed me to tick off way more and save me a return trip!
No problem, it fuelled my desire to succeed and do it by the book. I purchased a Wainwright Map, a great thing which I will keep for life. It had a named list of all 214 Wainwrights, their height, location area (split into the colours of the 7 walking books) and date on which I would reach the summit. Some simple backdating from my notes allowed me to fill in some blanks from everything I had done since 17/1/19.
Then I became fascinated by the idea of seeing how many I could tick off in one go. I enjoyed a quick walking pace uphill and then did that weird ‘walk-jog-run’ back downhill. We’ve all been there! This led to me seeing how fast I could run down Skiddaw or Blencathra, 20 minutes and a whole rush of adrenaline later, I’d be back at my car, stripping off to cool down! This sparked my new interest in fell running…
Some memorable early fell running routes in June 2019 that spring to mind are a whopping 35km in one day. I’d parked near High Rigg, went up Clough Head, then walked/ran to Ambleside Garden Centre via Helvellyn, random I know! I ticked off 15 Wainwrights that day, basically going south from Clough Head, Calfhow Pike, along the Dodd’, Raise, Whiteside Helvellyn, Nethermost Pike, Dollywagon, Seat Sandal, up to Fairfield and south down Great Rigg, detour to Stone Arthur, Heron Pike and descending the steep steps of Nab Scar. 15 Wainwrights, 30-something kilometres and about 7 hours later I made it. Slept well that night.
Just 3 days later I ventured to the Langdale Pikes, a first for me. Ticking off all 7 of those, that wasn’t enough, I ran around to Calf Crag, Steel Fell, looped back to Gibson Knott and Helm Crag and looped around again to Tarn Crag and Blea Rigg before making a descent back to the Dungeon Ghyll. A messy route but it allowed me to tick off another 13 Wainos over some 25km. I’d done 28 Wainwrights, more than 10%, in just 2 monster days.
Naturally, to walk these distances would have taken forever, but my ambitious routes meant I had to get a move on and I felt running was an exciting way for me to cover more ground. I got really into planning my routes out on my map, checking back to my list and working out the best way. I loaded my days off with climbing, camping, biking, and paddling and occasionally I’d go for a run. The running became less frequent because I prioritised doing other things.
Looking back at my notes, as of 17/10/20 I had completed 102/214, which wasn’t as many as you’d expect considering I did 28 in 2 runs! Leaving me with 112 to go, I set a date to have the completed by. My 21st birthday is in May, 7 months later. Thanks to lockdown, weeks off work, a hand injury and a determination to complete them I soon ticked off the remaining peaks. My largest day during the Wainwrights was a whopping 47km run around the Far Eastern Fells with Max, ticking off 18 more. Mega. The thirst was back.
Mid-November 2020 it occurred to me that I hadn’t decided on which fell I would finish on, checking my list, Bowfell called out to me. It was the only fell above 900m that I hadn’t been up, thanks to my sporadic early adventures, this one got missed. My final route would consist of 4 fells, Pike o’ Blisco, Cold Pike, Crinkle Crags and Bowfell. Sorted, now for the others. Mid December I realised I was way ahead of schedule, very close to completing them and, with a push, had the potential to finish on the same date in which I’d started the Wainwrights 2 years prior.
Somehow, with lots of psyche, sore legs and navigating, I’d completed the remaining 112 Wainos in just 3 months. Funny how the other 102 took 21 months. I suppose I wasn’t in a rush or as focused back then. 1 year would have been doable, maybe even 6 months.
I set off on my final Wainwright bagging walk with Andy, who was there with me for my first tick, and Max, whom I’d run the majority with the last few months. It was a snowy January, we’d already had about 3 months of snow in the Lakes which means I’d probably done more than half of the 214 in snow, pretty cool to think about.
Armed with my shorts, a bag of victory Wainwright beers for the boys, and my commemorative slate which I hand painted with my start/finish dates on, we marched into the misty snowy fells.
It was a proud moment to complete all 214. Stood there in my shorts, in sub-zero temperatures, I laid down my stone on the summit cairn of Bowfell, popped the caps on our beers, a quick cheers, and then back we went to the cars.
One question remained… what next!?
