Ventures - Lake District Wainwrights

The 214 Wainwright summits are all mentioned in the Alfred Wainwright's books. This Venture is to summit these hills.

Summary

214 Wainwright peaks seemed unachievable when I summitted a wet Loughrigg Fell on Valentine's Day of 2022. 452 days later I stood on the top of my last Wainwright, Steeple. It was hard to believe that I'd climbed them all. It had been a very enjoyable experience taking me to parts of the Lake District that I'd never been to before. It also took me to parts that I'll probably will never go to again (Mungrisdale Common). The good thing about the Wainwrights is that you can tick off quite a few in one walk and so you always feel that you are making progress towards the target. I averaged about 3.5 summits per walk. There are of course stalwarts who have completed them in far fewer walks than the 61 walks that I chose, but all of my walks were all of a reasonable level and I never compromised enjoyment at the expense of maximising the number of ticks.

Favourite Wainwright: Illgill Head (see the Captain's Log of Mad Dogs And Yorkshiremen). I caught the peak on a sunny day when the Whin Rigg-Illgill Head edge elevated me above a cloud inversion over Wast Water.

Least Favourite Wainwright: Mungrisdale Common (see the Captain's Log of Saddle Up For Saddleback). A flat, boggy plateau - enough said. Wainwright didn't have much good to say about it either.

Favourite Walk: Probably the Illgill Head one (see above), but for the sake of something different, then I'd choose the Yewbarrow, Red Pike and Scoat Fell walk (see the Captain's Log of Yewbarrow Cabin Boy's Nemesis). Although, I'm pretty sure that it will rate as the Cabin Boy's least favourite walk (tears flowed on that one). It was a lovely sunny, frosty day with exceptional views.

Funniest Moment: The first attempt of Kapitan Mo at navigating (see the Captain's Log of Captain Mo's First Command).