Getting back on track with the Wainwrights

Those who have read some of my previous blogs or who are familiar with the www.mypennines.co.uk website probably already know that I like hill lists and can be classed as the type of walker who is a 'peak bagger'. My website is dedicated to my walking adventures in the Pennines and as such features my latest progress in completing all the numerous Deweys, Hewitts, Marilyns, Nuttalls and County Tops to be found throughtout the length of the 'backbone of England'.

It may be something of a surprise therefore that the hill list that I most aspire to completing has nothing to do with the Pennines at all. The Wainwrights.

My first walking trip to the Lake District was in August 2005 when Lisa and I took our recently purchased tent to the Burns Farm campsite near Threlkeld. On our first afternoon we had a nice walk up on to Cat Bells but it was on the next day when we climbed Fleetwith Pike and then Haystacks that I really fell in love with the Lakeland mountains. The views of the Buttermere valley were absolutely stunning and I distinctly remember saying to Lisa at the beginning of the descent from Haystacks, 'if there is a heaven then I hope it is like this.'

The next day I got up early and climbed Blencathra on my own via the Hall's Fell Ridge. That evening I sat by the tent reading Wainwright's 'Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells - Bk.5, The Northern Fells' which I'd purchased only that afternoon. There isn't room here to discuss in detail what an utterly brilliant, amusing, informative and beautiful set of books that Wainwright created. The point is that having discovered the joys of walking in the Lake District it was the Wainwright books, and the challenge of visiting each of the 214 summits in the books, that became the major influence on my walking endeavours over the next few years.

I returned to the Lakes a few months later in November when we hired a cottage for a week in the small village of Uldale. For six of the seven days we were there we enjoyed bright sunshine and plenty of blue sky. During the course of the week I visited the summits of 14 Wainwrights in the Northern Fells and a further 6 Wainwrights in the North Western Fells. The undoubted higlight of the week was on my birthday when we climbed Skiddaw via Ullock Pike and Carl Side.

Over the course of the following 3 and a half years I returned to the Lakes as much as I could staying in B&Bs, campsites, cottages as well as driving out and back as a day trip. By June 2009 I'd completed 83 walks in the Lake District and taken my Wainwright tally to 183. Along the way I'd enjoyed some amazing experiences as well as a handful of not so good ones (top of the list probably being finding myself in the upper Wythburn Valley in heavy rain, poor visibility and fading light with a long way to get back to Grasmere).

Looking back my desire to complete the Wainwrights had turned into an obsession and in pursuit of that obsession I began pushing my body too hard. As a result I began to pick up injuries. The first was in Spring 2007 when, whilst climbing the Scafells for the first time, I got a sharp stabbing pain on the outside of my left knee. This occurred somewhere between Middleboot Knotts and Round How and whilst I should really have turned back I persisted and effectively got over Great End, Ill Crag, Broad Crag and onto Scafell Pike using only my right leg. Upon reaching Mickledore common sense finally prevailed and I left Sca Fell for another day. Still the descent from Mickledore to Wasdale was one of the most painful experiences in my life.

A couple of months and numerous physio sessions later I returned for what should have been a simple walk up to Steel Knotts but the same thing happened again. Again though this did not stop me from hobbling up on to Hallin Fell from the top of Martindale Hause. Eventually the exercise from the physio paid off and I was able to begin visiting the Lakes again. It was some time though before I was confident enough to take my knee support off.

Two years later in May 2009 I began getting pain on the inside of my left knee. I struggled on for a couple of walks but it was on Seat Sandal in June 2009 that I realised that something serious was amiss. Whilst more physio got me out hill walking again by the autumn the problem had been diagnosed as a torn cartilage which was finally repaired during an operation in December 2009.

As something to keep me occupied in my spare time and whilst I waited for my knee to heal I began putting my website together. I had actually begun drafting some pages for a website six months beforehand but didn't get very far with it. At the time it was actually going to be dedicated to my walks in the Lake District. Following the operation though I was wary about going back to the Lakes too soon so instead I focused the site on the Pennines. As I began to develop the idea I decided that if I was going to call a site 'mypennines.co.uk' I'd better make sure I'd do most of my walking there, especially as there were areas, such as the West Pennine Moors, that at the time I'd never been to. It is no coincidence that the first hill walk I attempted after my operation was Bull Hill.

So started what was in effect a self-imposed exile from the Lake District and the joys of Wainwright bagging, an exile that finally ended a couple of weeks ago when I completed the North Western Fells by visiting the summits of Grasmoor and Whiteside. In the meantime I've enjoyed some marvellous walks in the Pennines, from the Peak District all the way up into the Cheviots, all the while though I have continued to miss the rugged beauty of the Lakeland mountains.

So now I've gone back, what next? It should only take me another 3 walks to complete both the Eastern and the Far Eastern Fells and that is my main target this year. I'm also hoping to go backpacking to the Lakes for the first time as well. I'll need to take it steady and I'm sure that the possibility of another injury will always be at the back of my mind. For this reason (as well as the current cost of petrol!) I need to make sure I don't get carried away and go back too often or too regularly. Instead I need to show patience and restraint and accept the fact that it may be a while yet before I finally complete the Wainwrights.

Spring is in the air!

Finally, spring is in the air! Daffodils shoots are appearing in the garden, crocuses have been appearing all over town and there were masses of snowdrops on my recent walk around Fountains Abbey.


Spring has to be the season I look forward to with the greatest anticipation coming as it does after the dark days of winter. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy walking in the winter too but to be quite honest by the end of February I'm fed up of the short days and especially the lack of sunshine that has characterised the last couple of months. Hopefully the beautiful weather outside today is a taste of things to come.


Of course the arrival of spring is not necessarily a guarantee of better weather, far from it, in fact spring sees perhaps the greatest variety in weather conditions of all the seasons. As I discovered last year on Cross Fell patches of snow can cling to the higher tops well into May. Meanwhile I seem to have a tradition of underestimating the power of the sun in April and getting badly sunburnt as I did last year on Kinder Scout.


One of the things I look forward to the most as spring approaches is the arrival of the various species of bird who return to the moors and high meadows in the Pennines at this time of year. Particular favourites of mine are the curlew, lapwing and skylark. The curlew is a magnificent bird and if I could pick just one sound that I would most like to hear while out walking I think it would have to be the haunting cry of the curlew.


I also find the song of the skylark particularly affecting. There are few things more relaxing than lazing about on a hill top on a nice sunny day listening to the skylarks song. My two favourite memories of being treated to a whole chorus of skylarks was on Little Fell in Mallerstang in March 2007 and Mungrisdale Common in the Northern Fells of the Lake District in May 2008.


As for the lapwing it is one of the most distinctive birds both in terms of its call but also its display of aerial gymnastics if it feels threatened. In early spring I've witnessed huge congregations of lapwings both in Teesdale in the North Pennines and Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales - a truly magnificent sight.


Of course spring is also lambing time as well. While watching a group of young lambs gambolling about cannot but put a smile on my face I confess I do try even harder than normal to avoid walking through too many farm fields during lambing time as the over protective mothers make me even more nervous of livestock than normal.


I've already mentioned a number of flowers whose appearance heralds the arrival of spring. My favourite flower though is one that appears somewhat later in the season, the bluebell. Ever since I was a child I've always loved the sight of a woodland floor covered in bluebells. Every year, in late April - mid May I always try and make sure I get in at least one 'bluebell walk'. The best bluebell spot near me is the in the woods outside Ripley. Other prime bluebell areas are the banks of the Wharfe below The Strid and the banks of the Washburn below Thruscross Reservoir.


Ahhh spring ... bring it on!!

An obsession with lists - my walking plans for 2011

Today it was black ice that stopped me going out for a walk. My street was like an ice rink and I witnessed one driver braving the roads skid within inches of hitting my parked car. By the time the ice had begun to melt it was too late to go anywhere. After previously being grounded by a mixture of snow and ill health it was deeply frustrating to be kept away from the hills again, particularly as it was such a nice day overhead.


My enforced inaction over the last few weeks has meant that I've had a lot of time to think about and plan where I want to go walking in 2011. It should be pointed out here that I like lists. In fact I love them. If I can make a list and tick things off it even better. In terms of hill walking this obsession with lists manifested itself fairly early when I discovered hill lists such as the Nuttalls, Marilyns and the Wainwrights. For me a walk always seems that little bit more satisfying if I can tick a summit off one of these lists.


When I first began working on my website just over a year ago I made the decision that I needed to try and spread my walks evenly over each of the nine areas that I had broken the Pennines down into. Guess what I did to help me do this? That's right - I came up with a list of walks for 2010.

There are positives and negatives to this approach. On the positive side it is a useful way of setting out your goals for the year and acting as a reminder of what you wanted to achieve. On the negative side the list can become a bit of chain around your neck. Even by early autumn 2010 it was obvious that I wasn't going to complete all the walks I had hoped to, a problem exacerbated by the fact that I had also begun to deviate from my plans. A list that you can tick things off is great, when you don't have the opportunity to cross things off it gets a little bit more frustrating.


Anyway I've clearly not learnt my lesson as I've drafted numerous lists over the last few weeks over where I aim to go walking in 2011. A major difference this year, and somewhat ironically given the name of my website, I will probably be doing less walking in the Pennines in 2011. The main reason for this is down to another list, one of my most cherished, the list of Wainwrights.


For those who don't know the Wainwrights are a list of 214 mountains in the Lake District each of which were featured in Wainwright's magnificent 7 volume 'Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'. On 13th June 2009 I climbed Seat Sandal thus ticking off my 184th Wainwright leaving only 30 for me to climb. Unfortunately that was also the day I realised that there was something seriously wrong with my left knee. That something turned out to be torn cartilege which was repaired in an operation in December 2010.


I've not been back to the Lakes since Seat Sandal, this was initially because after my operation I didn't want to rush back too quickly and do further damage on the steeper gradients and rockier ground of the Lakeland mountains. I also felt that after creating a website called 'My Pennines' I shouldn't then keep rushing off to the Lake District at every opportunity. While I still want to try and resist doing this I do want to try and get over to the Lakes this year and resume my quest to complete the Wainwrights.


I'm hoping my quest to bag more Wainwrights will be aided by the other major difference to my walking plans for this year, i.e., to go wild camping. Inspired by the V-G website I had initially planned to start wild camping a few years ago but never got round to it. While I kept prevaricating Matt went ahead and bravely went out on his own and had some wonderful backpacking experiences in the Lakes and Howgill Fells.

I have now begun investing in the necessary equipment and just a few days ago bought my Terra 'Nova Laser Competition' tent and a Petzl 'Myo XP Belt' head torch. I must not also forget the ipood trowel that Matt got me for Christmas. One of the more practical tools for going wild camping it is also perhaps one of the more disturbing. Anyway I'm hoping to go for 2-3 wild camps this year starting in the Lake District and hopefully also in the North Pennines.


The North Pennines is an area I've definitely been neglecting of late. I only managed two trips last year and it was the section of my list that I really failed to get anywhere near completing. I'm not quite sure why this is, perhaps it is the long journey times to get to the areas I've not really covered or maybe (and I hate to admit this) it is just that I find certain areas of the North Pennines a little dull. Anyway I need to make a concerted effort to visit the North Pennines more often this year because if for no other reason that it is the only area in England now outside the Lake District and Dartmoor that I have not completed all the Nuttalls. High on my North Pennines list of walks to do in 2011 are Mickle Fell, Cold Fell and Burnhope Seat.


The other Pennine area I feel I still need to visit more often is the Peak District. I've thoroughly enjoyed all my walking in the Dark Peak but the problem is again one of travelling times. For me this problem is made worse by the fact that any journey to the Peak District means driving on the M1 or M62, neither of which I particularly enjoy. While I would love to visit the south western area of the Peak District and summits such as Shutlingsloe they are just too far away to get there and back in a day so I think in 2011 my forays into the Peak District will once again be restricted to north of the Hope Valley. Top of my 'to do' list in the Peak District in 2011 are Win Hill, Howden Edge, the north Kinder edges and the Wessenden valley.


I have a holiday booked in Northumberland in August so am looking forward to being able to reaquaint myself with the wonderful Cheviot hills. In order to factor in more walking in the Lakes, Peak and North Pennines I will probaby do fewer walks in the South Pennines, West Pennines, Nidderdale and Howgills. As for my first love, the Yorkshire Dales, my aim for 2011 is to continue revisiting some of the hills I walked back in 2004 and 2005. Hopefully this time on hills such as Baugh Fell I will enjoy much better weather than last time.


Finally I will also be returning to North Wales in late spring and (back to the lists again) I'm really looking forward to ticking off some more Welsh Nuttalls. There are so many I haven't done it is difficult to choose where to start but, if given the choice of two, at the moment I'd say Cnicht and the Moel Hebog ridge. Or perhaps Rhinog Fawr and Mynydd Mawr. Or maybe Moel Siabod and Yr Aran. Oh I don't know.


So there are my plans for 2011. Just thinking about all these potentially wonderful walks has already helped me put aside the disappointment of today.

Reminiscences of 2005

I've finally finished adding all my 2005 Pennine walks on to the site so as with my earlier blog on 2004 I thought I'd share my thoughts on what was another year of discovery.

2004 will always be special as it was the year I discovered the joys of hill walking, in 2005 however I went to a whole new level both in terms of the amount of walking I did but also in terms of broadening my horizons.


In my first walking season virtually all my walking was in the Yorkshire Dales, the only exception was a fairly easy walk just over the National Park boundary in Nidderdale from Pateley Bridge to Brimham Rocks.


In 2005 I continued my burgeoning love affair with the Yorkshire Dales while at the same time sampling the walking delights in a host of other places. There were three main reasons for this. Firstly in Feb 2005 I passed my driving test. Prior to this I had been lucky enough to be chauffered about by my friend Matt as we explored the Dales together. Being able to drive gave me the independence to go walking more regularly and to go to places that Matt may not have been interested in going to.


Secondly, my wife Lisa, following our week away in Dent in October 2004, had begun to increasingly enjoy walking herself. As 2005 wore on I found myself
increasingly going out one day with Matt and the next day with Lisa, or even on my own.


Finally Lisa and I also bought our first tent and that year we took advantage of this by spending long weekends in places which were less practical to get to and from in a day. Our first camping trip was to Alston in the North Pennines, this was followed by trips to Hadrian's Wall, Kielder Water and then in August
2005 with our first trip to the Lake District.


Thus it was that by the end of the year not only had I completed more walks in the Dales than the previous year but I'd also been walking for the first time in the South Pennines, Bowland, Pendle, North Pennines, Cheviots, North York Moors, Lake District and, thanks to a family holiday in Aviemore in May of that year the Cairngorms as well.


The latter holiday featured one of the toughest and most memorable walks of the year up on to Ben Macdui, the second highest peak in Great Britain. Walking with my father-in-law, Dave we started near Glen More Lodge and took a route that went around Cairn Gorm via Strath Nethy and Loch Avon before finally climbing to the top of Ben Macdui via Loch Etchachan. The day had started in beautiful sunshine but just as we began the final hundred metres of ascent it began to snow. Fortunately it didn't snow too long but it was long enough to cover the paths and to make us very careful of our route selection. It also meant that we decided against returning over Cairn Lochan and Cairn Gorm.


The walk that perhaps had the biggest effect on me was when Lisa and I climbed Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks on our first trip to the Lakes. On the day we'd arrived we had been up on to Cat Bells and enjoyable though that was it was nothing compared to the next day's walk. In near perfect weather we climbed Fleetwith Pike from Gatesgarth, a steep climb but with immaculate retrospective views of the Buttermere valley. By the time we had walked round to and begun to descend Haystacks I was in my own personal heaven. It is perhaps not surprising that over the next 2-3 years it was the Lake District that I began to return to again and again.


What of the Pennines though? As mentioned above I made some early forays into the South Pennines but unfortunately almost all these walks were in fairly poor weather early on in the year so at the time the area did not make a particularly good impression. I did however thoroughly enjoy my first walk in Bowland up on to Fair Snape Fell and Parlick, this was followed later on in the year by trips to Totridge and to Pendle Hill across the Ribble Valley.


My trips to Alston and Hadrian's Wall yielded six walks in total. The most memorable from the Alston trip was the short evening walk to Ashgill Force, a fantastic waterfall made all the better for being able to stand behind the falls itself. All the walking in and around Hadrian's Wall was superb and the main walk we did following the wall from Housesteads to Peel Crags still rates as one of my favourite ever walks.


The walking up in Kielder was more of a mixed bag. Our main walk up on to the Border Ridge and Peel Fell was excellent but the next day's walk up to Purdom Pikes through thick heather and ravaged plantations was fairly dire. Memories of Kielder are not helped by the fact that the campsite was infested with midgies. I have never, and hope to never, see the like again.


As for the Dales there was some pretty bad weather days on hills such as Baugh Fell and Fountains Fell but for the most part they continued to offer some fantastic walking. Hills such as Cracoe Fell, Fremington Edge, Middleton Fell, Pen Hill and Rye Loaf Hill were all definitely worth the visit and offered further proof that there is much more to the Yorkshire Dales than just the Three Peaks and Malham.


So finally a year after starting work on my site I've it is now (finally!) up to date in terms of all my Pennine walks. When I started work on the site I did think that sooner or later I'd get to add in my non-Pennine walks as well. That is probably now unlikely - I just don't have the time it would take to add another 100 or so pages to the site. Instead I think I'll concentrate on adding content about specific Pennine summits.

2005 was a vintage year for walking, I'm now looking forward to wherever my feet take me in 2011.

Walk Review 2010

As 2010 rapidly draws to a close and with few opportunities left for doing any further walks this year I've decided it was time for a review of my Pennine adventures over the course of the last 12 months.


Indeed with the exception of a couple of walks in Snowdonia almost all my walking in 2010 has been in the Pennines and Cheviots. This has primarily been due to the www.mypennines.co.uk website which I first started work on in December 2009 and which went live at the beginning of July 2010. Having put so much work into creating the site I didn't really then want to spend all my time walking elsewhere, in the Lake District for example.


Having divided, for the purposes of the site, the Pennines into 9 areas I felt duty bound to explore some of these areas more than I previously had done, this was especially true of the West Pennines which I hadn't visited at all prior to 2010. Indeed my first walk of the year was on Bull Hill in the West Pennines. The walk proved to be memorable not only because it was my first visit to the West Pennines but it was also both my first proper walk following a knee operation the previous December but also the first time I had experienced an inversion.


Initially I planned to try and visit each area about 4-5 times each over the course of the year. On the whole I just about managed this with the main exception being the North Pennines. I don't quite know how it happened but I only managed 2 walks in the North Pennines - I must try harder to get there next year! At least though I finally got to the top of Cross Fell - the highest point in the Pennines.


Anyway the following, in no particular order, are my best and worst moments on the hills in 2010. The following are highly subjective and as with all walking experiences were very much dependent on conditions overhead and underfoot.

Top 5 walks
1. Windy Gyle and the Border Ridge
2. The horseshoe walk around Edale including my first visit to Kinder Scout
3. Langdale Horseshoe
4. Pots and Pans
5. Beacon Hill and Great Ashby Scar


Top 5 viewpoints
1. Windy Gyle
2. Ward's Stone (West Top)
3. Simon's Seat (Howgills)
4. Beacon Hill (Westmorland)
5. Higher Shelf Stones


Top 5 moments
1. Getting to the top of Bull Hill just 7 weeks after an operation to repair cartilege in my left knee.
2. Using the snow on the upper reaches of Cross Fell to cool me down on a very hot day in May.
3. Sitting on Russell's Cairn on the top of Windy Gyle soaking in the view on a lovely summer's day.
4. Watching my two year old daughter discover the joys of throwing snow while up at Brimham Rocks.
5. Fox watching on Harbottle Crag


5 worst moments
1. Receiving a phone call, while stood in the driving rain on Middleton Fell, from my solicitor advising me that our first time house purchase was likely to fall through at the last moment (thankfully it didn't in the end!).
2. Having to turn back from our intended route in the muddy fields north of Longridge Fell due to the horrendous smell of nearby muck spreading.
3. Taking the 'wild' route up Wildboar Clough.
4. Having to fight my way through the trees and undergrowth to get on to Harbottle Crag.
5. Trying to scramble up wet, slippery rocks and grass to escape a ravine in Cautley Gill.


Overall it has been a cracking year for walking and, compared to previous years, I've even been fairly lucky with the weather. Roll on 2011!!!

Happy Christmas.

Matt