The Wainwrights.

[MorganW]

Yes, in "Jos Naylor MBE Was Here" referred to in post #14 above, usually available in Rathbones in Keswick. They may have a website?

Think there may be a link in the Best Books thread on the General Fellrunning Issues page.

Here:

http://www.rathbonesofkeswick.co.uk/...e-was-here/58/

[AJF]

Bloody ell i'm off to buy one now, today! cheers Morgan

Still in stock! Mine arrived yesterday for the princley sum of four whole pounds.

Bargain book! It has his schedule at the back, he was fair moving for a lot of the 7 days!

[Pinchy]

Still in stock! Mine arrived yesterday for the princley sum of four whole pounds.

Bargain book! It has his schedule at the back, he was fair moving for a lot of the 7 days!

Ordered!

[Splatcher]

I've had a bit of a project to get round each book in 2 consecutive days. I'm not fast/fit/young enough to do a book in a day. My rules are a start & end at valley level each day, walking/running only during the day (i.e. no lifts or public transport). Lifts are OK between the 2 days. So far it's made for 4 really good weekends on the fells, mainly fast walking & running downhill. I've been up a lot of fells I've never been up before - you usually keep going back to the same ones don't you? Northern Fells, North Western Fells and Central Fells were easy enough - long days but not too long. The Western Fells was a bit more of a challenge - 2 long days & awful weather on day 2. The other 3 I haven't done yet, & they're all pretty long: comparable to the Western Fells in distance & height. Eastern & Far Eastern should be OK as the going's pretty easy underfoot. The Southern Fells is probably going to be the hardest. I haven't done any this year or last as I've been too busy running trail races, but I'll get back to finish them at some point. Then it'll be the Outlying Fells - but that's likely to take a week at a guess. I haven't planned that one out yet.

[Al Fowler]

Just out of interest, are the books worth buying?
You can get the box-set off amazon for just under 50 quid.

[Mark Smith]

We did 39 Karl. Helvellyn Lower Man isn't on the list either. But then i did Great Dodd 3 times in the clag on saturday

No, you did 40, Scoat Fell is a Wainwright and you pass over it on the BGR between Steeple and Pillar - so it is in fact a 43 peak round Some peple pass over Mungrisedale common on their round, but i passed it to the left by about 200 yards...


Took me 20 years but I finished the Wainwrights a few years ago - ending on Eagle Crag - a great one to finish on!

[Splatcher]

I've been using them to get round the Lakes all my life - well, since I could read anyway. He pretty much invented the visual guide to walking routes in difficult territory, and he did it brilliantly in my view (& that of many - that's why he's legendary). Whether you like his personal style is another matter. I'm fine with it but it gets up some people's noses.

What he did so well was to explain and illustrate how to follow difficult routes in difficult country. When you're following a route description, how do you recognise that you've reached a key decision point? How can you confirm you're where you ought to be? How do you recognise the key things to look for, both close and at a distance? It's more difficult to get that into a guidebook than you might think initially. There are plenty of guidebooks around that look good but are hopeless to use. Wainwright knew how to do it, and covered pretty much the whole of the Lakes - every natural line up every fell more or less.

So many people have copied some or all of Wainwright's approach to writing guidebooks, myself included. I don't think anyone's done a better job, and I've never seen comparable guides dating from before the 50s when Wainwright published the first of his books, so he may have invented it from scratch.

If you want the books as a coffee table thing, buy the box set if it's cheapest way of getting them. If you want to use them on the fells, then get the revised versions (2nd edition), not the box set. Chris Jesty has updated 6 of the 7, with the 7th (Western Fells) coming out in October. The box set currently available is the original edition, not revised since the 1950s/60s.

[Derby Tup]

Just out of interest, are the books worth buying?
You can get the box-set off amazon for just under 50 quid.

I have a full set and I collected them over a few years. Several were bought from book shops in the Lakes as souvenirs of walking trips

[Al Fowler]

I've been using them to get round the Lakes all my life - well, since I could read anyway. He pretty much invented the visual guide to walking routes in difficult territory, and he did it brilliantly in my view (& that of many - that's why he's legendary). Whether you like his personal style is another matter. I'm fine with it but it gets up some people's noses.

What he did so well was to explain and illustrate how to follow difficult routes in difficult country. When you're following a route description, how do you recognise that you've reached a key decision point? How can you confirm you're where you ought to be? How do you recognise the key things to look for, both close and at a distance? It's more difficult to get that into a guidebook than you might think initially. There are plenty of guidebooks around that look good but are hopeless to use. Wainwright knew how to do it, and covered pretty much the whole of the Lakes - every natural line up every fell more or less.

So many people have copied some or all of Wainwright's approach to writing guidebooks, myself included. I don't think anyone's done a better job, and I've never seen comparable guides dating from before the 50s when Wainwright published the first of his books, so he may have invented it from scratch.

If you want the books as a coffee table thing, buy the box set if it's cheapest way of getting them. If you want to use them on the fells, then get the revised versions (2nd edition), not the box set. Chris Jesty has updated 6 of the 7, with the 7th (Western Fells) coming out in October. The box set currently available is the original edition, not revised since the 1950s/60s.

I'll have to think about that then.

How vast is the difference between the original (box-set) and the updated ones.

Im presuming buying all the revised ones will be more expensive?

[Derby Tup]

I'll have to think about that then.

How vast is the difference between the original (box-set) and the updated ones.

Im presuming buying all the revised ones will be more expensive?

I wouldn't get the revised ones Al. I like the fact that the originals, which were a real labour of love, are still available, unedited