SKT? Is there a Slowest Known Time for a round of the Wainwrights?
I’d like to start the bidding at 40 years. That’s how long I think it may have taken me. I may have made some detours along the way.
I don’t recall my first, I suspect Latrigg or Catbells, I’m guessing here but I expect at around 5 years old. I certainly don’t recall when I found out about Wainwrights, or that it was a thing to complete them. I do remember being bought a little pocket logbook probably around 10 years ago and that is when I had a notion that I had done quite a few.
So, it seems I had started on a journey without even knowing it, with no intent to finish. In later years, I just thought I would keep a record of my achievements. I suppose I was around 180 in when the thought that I might compete them arose, but you know, no rush….
For some people when they find out about the Wainwrights, it becomes a to do list, encouraging them to explore areas of the Lake District not previously visited, to climb new mountains and see new views. For some it becomes an obsession, how many more can I get this weekend? Where next? Targets are set, how many in a year? Can I do them all in a year? In a season? In a single journey?
My approach has been very different, unplanned, haphazard, and without any planning until past 200 summits. The journey has been long, not because I haven’t put the effort in, more that I just liked climbing mountains. On my completion yesterday it took me to thinking, just how many individual times have I stood on a Wainwright summit on this journey – for some people this will be a very efficient 214, for me it could be pushing 1000, who knows maybe more. Appearing on the cover of a Wainwright guidebook I should have a reasonable amount of experience!
Have I enjoyed every one? Some of them immensely, some of them less so. I’ve climbed them solo, with dogs, with Graham, with friends, with clients, I walked many, run a few, climbed up a few more. Camped on some, been on many in daylight, some in the dark. Some sunsets, some sunrises. It’s been sunny, windy, rainy, snowy, hot, cold. It’s been a fabulous journey. I only ever recall backing off on one, the same one, three times!
What now, people will ask, Munros? Birketts, maybe, maybe not but for certain, I will keep walking the Wainwrights, will I complete another round? Who knows, I think I will just keep doing what I like doing best, walking up hills.
My advice… do it your own way. In whatever order or timescale you like, complete or don’t. But in the ethos of Team Tortoise, enjoy the journey more than the destination.
My highlights:
Sunset on High Raise
Rosthwaite Fell (Bessyboot) via Cam Crag Ridge
Helvellyn Edges in Winter Conditions
Binsey – Poppy’s last Wainwright.
Most climbed: Mardale Ill Bell
Completed on: Harter Fell, Eskdale 19/12/2024