Looking forward, but also glancing back
/So, a new year has begun and I start it off with a dose of Covid… I managed to avoid it for the last two years, then I go back to work after Christmas and bam…!
To be fair, I haven’t really been that ill; just a cold and a feeling of heavy tiredness, but it’s the isolation that really gets me. A short turn around the garden and sitting in one room with the window open is all the fresh air I’m getting, but I’m lucky and grateful not to be worse as so many have been and still are.
Now that watching television has momentarily lost its appeal (although there are some good films on Netflix I’ve enjoyed), and I don’t feel like reading any more at the moment, my thoughts have turned to plans for the year ahead, but also to thoughts of last year and the completion of our Wainwright journey after 9 years. I thought I might add one or two reflections on our time spent completing the wonderful challenge, for anyone contemplating it for themselves.
oOo
I would say start with all the lower fells first. I know there’s a tendency to want to leap up the biggest, hardest and highest, but if you’re in it for the long haul and you haven’t really done much climbing before, it will pay to start off more slowly. We made all our mistakes on the relative safety of lower, grassy fells with shorter distances to walk if we felt tired, if the weather turned cold or wet, if the light started to fade, knowing where we were if we went wrong (we didn’t) and no real harm done if we slipped.
You build up a sure footedness over time, a knack of moving on rock and grass, of getting used to carrying a weighty pack, of honing your navigation skills along with developing fitness and greater muscle strength. Once you’ve built all that, muscle memory kicks in and, as long as you continue exercising in between visits, you will be able to pick up where you left off, even if it’s some months later (and I’m aiming this at people who like us, have to travel to the hills).
I would say though, you can’t really train for the mountains unless you’re in the mountains; it doesn’t matter how many times you go up and down a grassy bank or run on a treadmill, it’s just not the same as dealing with uneven ground and the elements whilst climbing, watching your feet, balancing your pack or handling a dog as we did for years in the early days. Being hill fit I think, is in a category of its own.
You will know get to know your limitations and your tolerances and this becomes a very useful tool indeed. We know how long we can put up with torrential rain, high wind, boiling sun or freezing sleet. We know how much water to take and how much each of us needs to drink to avoid dehydration. We know when we’ve had enough, we know when another peak is one too many, or that yes, we could climb another and still have energy for the return trip. We know we can ignore being super hot and sweaty or having freezing thighs and still be able to carry on. Everyone’s different, but it will mean you can plan your hill days accordingly over time.
Don’t give up. I know that sounds a bit trite, but we pondered on what made us keep going when we’d climbed say, 70 or 125, when it’s hard to see an end and it feels like there’s so much more to do. The honest answer is we can’t remember, but I suspect it’s that we loved it and just wanted to complete it, but we also didn’t really focus on the end point, just that week’s walking. Of course there were the odd times we really didn’t feel like doing it, but persevere because it’s an immense and wonderful feeling of achievement when you finish.
It was surprisingly easy to change our mindsets from ‘what, up there?’ or ‘how far?’, to positive, can-do attitudes and when that happened, it really made a huge difference to, well, all of it. I don’t really remember trying to being more positive, it just happened organically the more we did and the more we started enjoying it. It’s a good feeling.
In fact, all of it’s a good feeling when everything comes together and all you have to think about during the day is the landscape around you, the fresh air and the skylarks.
oOo
So after this, what’s next for us? We fully understand now why people immediately start a second round of Wainwright’s; there’s a powerful pull there that’s hard to ignore and you’re unwilling to let go of. However, we are going back to the Lakes in March, to Ennerdale this time for a walk round the lake and up Steeple from that side. We’re also going to climb Helm Crag and Latrigg again as these were a couple of the very first ones we did and it was so long ago (and we were rubbish back then) that we’d like to revisit them. We aren’t going to stay in the Lakes for the whole time either; we’re going to veer off into the Yorkshire Dales and climb round High Cup Nick, perhaps one or two (but probably three knowing us) of the Yorkshire Peaks and maybe a Howgill or two.
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Whatever you plans are for this year, I hope you’re healthy and happy doing it.
