25th October 2007: A Celebration

You may have heard me refer to the aged parent in passing, like a character who pops up from time to time in a story book. Well, today it was his turn to be the main character in the tale.

It was a lovely day as we all got up ready to accompany my dad on his last Wainwright: High Rigg (1163 feet). After 20 odd years, he was now going to have completed all 214 Wainwright fells - can we have a whoop, whoop, please? On the walk there was him and my mum, me, the fell runner, my other brother, a client of my dad's, a friend with whom my dad does the Gable Remembrance Day walk and my uncle (one of the earliest completers who has been mentioned before).

We set off in two cars and parked one of them at Smaithwaite Bridge and the other at the church of St John's in the Vale. We all went up from the bridge and followed the delightful path on to the top. There was much banter and cheerfulness and absolutely no whinging from any party member.

At the top we were surprised to encounter a family who had completed the Wainwrights as a group just a couple of days earlier! We had lots of photos taken and out the champagne came which I had so generously carried up the mountain. We then swapped contact details with the family so that they could meet us on my final Wainwright and headed down to the chuch.

There was a feeling of sadness as we headed home; with 3 completers and one coming up, there was a feeling that a chapter of the book was coming to an end. However, the celebrations began again with a meal out, plenty of ale and excellent company.

24th October 2007

As the aged parent had a free day, he offered to accompany me up Rossett Pike (2106). We decided to go up from Wasdale Head. This is the valley that I know the best but had seen little of over the last couple of years due to the fact that completing Wainwrights had taken me to so many other places.

We were in the big car park by 11.oo and set off up the Sty-Head path with a view to following the lower path along the beck. This was definitely the best plan as there were hundreds of others toiling up the higher path. We came across a girl who seemed confused as to where the path was to take her on to the Pike. We suggested that she followed us up and go on to the Pike over Great End; she thanked us for our advice but continued up the incredibly steep and dubious 'path' that she was on.

We got to the col between Great Gable and Great End quickly and admired Sprinkling Tarn. We then left a lot of the people behind as we followed the longish path on to Rossett Pike. We touched the top and headed back down to the tarn as it was freezing on the top. We decided to have lunch over looking Sprinkling Tarn, which was lovely.

It was then a question of retracing our foot steps back to the car with the sun setting nicely as awe went down.

New Fell: Rossett Pike

23rd October 2007

Having been away from the Lakes for a couple of months, I was relishing the thought of spending some time in the North over the October half-term.

I set off early in the morning and arrived at Troutbeck at about 2 . I decided that I shouldn't wate any time in climbing a mountain and so decided to tackle the mighty Troutbeck Tongue (1191 ft).

Being impressively organised, I had packed my running trainers in my rucksack and so decided to run along the farm track in order to save some time. I did it without any real difficulty and, at the bottom of the Tongue, changed back into my walking shoes to tackle the steep climb. It was steep and quite difficult to find the path but I had a fun time pushing up through the bracken and on to the nose of the fell.

It was then a quick step onto the top. The views were beautiful as the autumn sun began to set, casting beautiful orange light onto the surrounding fells. The lights of Troutback could also just about be made out: wonderful!

Feeling fantastic, I made a quick descent, changed into my trainers and jogged back to the car with a clear rememberance of why this area means so much to me.

New Fell: Toutbeck Tongue