29th December 2007 - the end

This was it. After 23 years of mountain walking, I was finally going to be able to say that I was a Wainwright completer! The fellrunner had recommended Loughrigg Fell as a good final mountain and so it was that at 13.30, a group of us were parked at Red Bank ready to climb up the mighty Loughrigg. The party consisted of me, Mr Blogwalker, Mr Blogwalker's mum, the fell runner, both my aged parents and my uncle who has accompanied us on all of our final Wainwright walks.

The rain had decided to stop by the time we were out of the car which made up for its mean behaviour on the day before. We headed along Loughrigg Terrace for a short time before turning right and heading up a steep path past the Grasmere cairn. Despite the steepness of the ascent, everyone did it very well indeed and we were amazed by the beautiful views that we had as we climbed. The sun attempted to come out and we were presented with a lovely rainbow as we made the final climb on to the summit at 1101 ft.

It was freezing cold on the top but I didn't notice as I touched the summit. We had a celebratory glass of champagne, mince pies and chocolate biscuits and admired the views: They were magnificent!

Above are the 4 Wainwright completers!

After standing at the top for a while, we soon got cold and so decided to head back down. It was a simple walk back down to the car and we did it in no time. We then went to Grasmere where we ordered 7 cream teas and ate until we felt stuffed.

Now I just need to think about what comes next. Before that, though, we have the Welsh 3000s to organise!

New fell: Loughrigg Fell