Mike's Homepage

Actual Timings

Hollins Farm Campsite

Lake District Tourist Office

Bob Graham Round

1995 - Welsh 3000's

2001 - Open Country MM

2001 - Karrimor MM

2002 - Scottish Islands

2002 - Karrimor MM

2003 Mountain Navigation Challenge

2003 Lowe Alpine MM

2003 Wicklow Rogaine

2003 Karrimor MM

2004 Karrimor MM

2005 Karrimor MM

2006 Scottish Islands Peaks

2006 Rodings Rally

Lakes 3000s

Mike and I came up with this idea after running the Welsh 3000s in 1995. The Lake District has its Bob Graham round of course, but that's in a different league. So we put together a route to visit all the Lake District 3000 ft peaks in one outing. As it turned out it was about 11000 feet of ascent and 34 miles, so a bit more of a challenge compared to the Welsh route.

It seemed logical to start in the south and head north and we opted for a start in Hollins Farm campsite at Boot and to end at The Sun Inn at Bassenthwaite. The basic route is Boot to Scafell and Scafell Pike then across to Thirlmere to ascend Helvellyn and follow the ridge north to the A66 near Threlkeld and finally up Skiddaw and over to Bassenthwaite.

We ran the route on 30th Sept. 2000, having driven over to Boot in the middle of the night and pitched our tents as quietly as we could in the campsite. It already being 2am, we compromised on a wake up of 6am as we expected to take at least 15 hours. We set off on a cool clear morning at 6:30, leaving Jean with a car she had never driven to practise over the two toughest passes in England! I was feeling very fresh but Mike being still half asleep kept us to a realistic pace as I navigated for Scafell via Hard Rigg. This was a new route for me and as we passed into the hill fog, I took a couple of minutes to convince myself we really had reached the summit. Route finding for the descent, avoiding Broad Stand, was straight forward and we were soon climbing up to the summit of Scafell Pike in the sunshine. It was only 8:50 and having shot up Scafell we were 45 mins ahead of schedule. We had a short rest and rang Jean to warn her - no answer of course as she was negotiating the passes. The route onward to Ill Crag and Esk Hause was great seeing the tracks open up in front of us. A good track took us to Stake Pass. We had cooled down, but the climb to High Raise soon warmed us up with the knowledge it was all downhill from there to Thirlmere. We were on a roll (and an hour early). But would Jean be there yet? We arrived at 11:30 just as Jean was setting off for a walk before our arrival. She was soon into feeding and watering mode and we spent half an hour having lunch together, trying to give a realistic estimate for Threlkeld and listening to Jean's car adventures.

Route Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Freshly fuelled, we stormed up the hillside to Helvellyn summit in just over an hour. The ridge north seemed to drag a little and Skiddaw looked a long way off. Navigation wasn't tricky, but kept my mind occupied to check we didn't inadvertently go off of the ridge at the many twists and turns. With the river and A66 to cross, we headed for Threlkeld from Clough Head via Newsham to meet Jean again in the Inn car park. It was 15:30 and we had another rest, hot soup and a sit down. We had had a good day, but there was still unfortunately the matter of Skiddaw. My climbing legs were failing and my feet were starting to hurt. We decided to use the track around to Skiddaw House and the more gentle climb rather than up the front of Lonscale Fell, as Jean went to pitch the tents at Bassenthwaite and wait in the pub. The climb seemed to go on for a long time, but then we were there. We had done all the peaks and just had to get down. We headed North East to Broad End and then to the roads into Bassenthwaite (for this last leg we were finally slower than the estimate) as it grew dark, arriving at the pub at 19:30. A total time of 13 hours. We were very pleased a) to finish b) to beat our estimate by a couple of hours and c) to be in staggering distance of a pub with real ale and excellent food. We stayed at Trafford's campsite.

A very special Thank You to Jean for supporting us single handedly.