28 Wainwright summits to go…..

Well, we spent two weeks in the Lakes from the middle of October, and it would be an understatement to say it was a good trip. It was one of our best.

Firstly and most importantly, Bro’s knee held up brilliantly. As a bit of background, he had had a flaring up of his knee three times since December last year meaning it swelled horribly, he couldn’t walk and it took a week to settle down. After this had happened three or four times he went to a specialist who diagnosed a torn meniscus.

Keyhole surgery in June fixed the knee, but he then had several bouts of terrible achilles pain meaning the same sort of swelling, great pain, inability to walk and a week to settle down, so he was eventually prescribed some seriously strong ibuprofen for acute tendonitis which immediately took the inflammation and the pain away. So far, so good.

We set off with a little trepidation about how he was going to be. Brilliant, that’s how. We did some big walks, but always with a day to rest in between. He was meticulous about stretching and strapping his ankle and using an ice bag in the evenings.

How was the weather? Brilliant, that’s how. Day after day of beautiful, warm sunny weather. Hardly a breath of wind on the summits. Perfect walking conditions, perfect views. We had a day of rain on one of our rest days and our last walk was drizzly which turned heavier and a little colder, but we still had the views.

magnificent views from causey pike

How were the walks? Brilliant, that’s how. We did 14 summits in 6 walks. We stayed in Buttermere for the first week which is most definitely our favourite area to walk in, and climbed Great Borne, Starling Dodd and Red Pike in one walk, Whiteless Pike and Rannerdale Knotts in another, and the sublime High Crag and High Stile ridge which we think is our favourite walk so far.

Utter perfection from High Stile

The second week was based in Keswick, and we tackled Causey Pike, Scar Crags and Sail on such a perfect day it could have been late summer. The views were staggering and Causey Pike is definitely one of my favourites. The next walk was Grasmoor which was very windy on the top with Wandope and Crag Hill (formerly Eel Crag), from Force Crag mine which was a wonderful day and fairly straightforward. We met some interesting people who’ve since become Facebook friends, and a young Canadian girl wearing a hat saying Canadian ski marathon team, so naturally she was up and down Grasmoor by the time we were half way up!

Our last walk was Seathwaite Fell which in all honesty, we weren’t going to tackle, but it meant we would end the year with less than 30 summits to do. It was a damp day which got wetter and colder, so thank goodness for the open fire at the Glaramara Hotel, where we thawed out with hot coffee and sandwiches.

Beautiful views from Crag Hill

On our rest days we wandered round Buttermere and Crummock, sat in the sun, explored Keswick, walked in the temperate rainforest that is Great Wood in Borrowdale, and enjoyed the wonderfully warm weather. We felt fit and healthy, tramped over 55 miles and really achieved much more than on this trip than others of late. Hopefully, we’ll finish the Wainwrights in two more weeks of walking. How good would that be? Brilliant, that’s how!

Such amazing weather

Sublime