Wainwright Round completed!
It’s done! By the start of April this year I had reached the top of 175 Wainwrights, leaving 39 more on my ‘unclimbed’ list. On 17 September I reached the summit of Lingmell, the final one of the complete set of 214.
The first Wainwright I have a record of climbing was Silver How on 27 March 1968; it had taken me 54 years, 5 months and 21 days to do my round. Here are my final 17.
Dates: 9 – 17 September 2022
Stayed: Penruddock (rental).
Weather: Mostly good.
9 September – Bonscale Pike, Steel Knotts, Hallin Fell. By Ullswater steamer from Pooley Bridge to Howtown and return. Drizzle at first but soon clearing. Rather a lot of up and down for this cluster of three without connecting ridges.
10 September – Branstree, Selside Pike. From Mardale Head via Gatescarth Pass, descent to Old Corpse Road north of Selside Pike. Road walk back to Mardale Head – lakeside footpath closed.
11 September – Loughrigg. Avoided White Moss parking fee by parking by A591/B5322 junction (St John’s in the Vale) and getting bus to White Moss. Loughrigg summit via Loughrigg Terrace, descent to Rydal via Rydal Caves; bus back to car.
13 September – Eagle Crag, Sergeant’s Crag, Ullscarf. From Stonethwaite. Hard to find path in dense bracken on lower slopes of Eagle Crag until second wall reached and uphill path began. Only vague and intermittent path round the head of Black Gills and Long Crag. Descent from Ullscarf via High Saddle and Low Saddle, then trackless wastes (in good visibility) to join Dock Tarn path near White Crag for descent to Stonethwaite Beck.
14 September – Great Borne, Starling Dodd. Parked at NT car park outside Buttermere. To Scale Force, then Floutern Pass track through Mosedale Head and alongside Red Gill to fence on Great Borne ridge. To Great Borne, then back along ridge and on to Starling Dodd, past Little Dodd to pick up Lincombe Edge path to Scale Beck, Scale Force and return to Buttermere. The path alongside Scale Beck has a malign intent to try to injure anyone venturing that way, but I overcame it on this day.
15 September – Brock Crags, Rest Dodd, The Nab. From Cow Bridge car park on Patterdale – Brothers Water road. Rather than summarise a rather messy route I show my OutdoorActive track. In the prevailing drought conditions the bog between Rest Dodd and The Nab was trouble-free.
16 September – Rosthwaite Fell (Bessyboot). From Seatoller via footpath just E of Strands Bridge, across Combe Gill and up to Tarn at Leaves (poor path). Return by more-or-less the same route.
17 September – Seathwaite Fell, Lingmell. Finish! A bright but chilly morning start after parking along the Seathwaite lane, with frost in the fields where the sun had not yet reached. To Stockley Bridge and the Sty Head path, turning up the fellside on Wainwright’s ‘route B’ where only a vague and intermittent path heads towards the summit of Seathwaite Fell.
A clear path then heads south to reach Sprinkling Tarn, from where I followed the main path towards Sty Head before turning off onto the Corridor Route. Shortly after crossing the head of Piers Gill I turned off the main path to head direct to Lingmell Col, and from there the broad path led me to the summit. Done!
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