UK Hillwalking piece on the decay of Lakeland buses

The wall heading up from Wasdale Mouth to Little Yarlside (walk 80)

I’ve had an article published in UK Hillwalking magazine on the decay of Lakeland bus services. It is based partly on my experiences on walk 89, my walk around the Naddle Horseshoe. The photo here is used to illustrate it, this coming from walk 80 (Wasdale Horseshoe) — one of several Wainwright walks which are now basically inaccessible by public transport, hence the article.

A long walk… and 9 summits bagged

Whiteside Pike

Some days one just has to be nice to oneself. The weather forecast yesterday (Tuesday 10th March) was just too good to ignore, particularly as the rest of the week is supposed to see rain and this week was my only real chance to do a walk before Easter, with February having blown me out. So I rearranged a few meetings at work. Wouldn’t you if you could?

I needed a fine clear day to attempt the 9 summits of the Bannisdale Horseshoe: it’s an easy walk, but there’s no avoiding the fact that it’s a long one, 17.5 miles and thus the second-longest of all these walks thus far. Read about it on the walk 93 page.

Looking towards Long Crag, with the one other hiker I saw today.

Adding in today’s 9 summits — the most of any single-day walk — I have bagged 298 of the 330 Wainwrights, thus have 32 to go. I aim to finish the lot by mid- September (after which work really kicks in again) and I have 10 walks left to do, I reckon. Might squeeze another one in this weekend but no promises — if not, after Easter for the next one.