New to fell walking? Here's everything you need to know before you tick off your first summit.
A "Wainwright" is any one of the 214 fells in the Lake District catalogued by Alfred Wainwright in his seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, hand-written and illustrated between 1955 and 1966. Nearly seventy years on, walkers still use his hand-drawn pages to navigate the same summits, and "bagging" your way through all seven books — from the Eastern Fells to the Western Fells — has become one of the best-known long-term challenges in British hillwalking. There's no time limit and no official finish line to cross; you're simply working through the list at whatever pace suits you.
Resist the urge to head straight for Scafell Pike. The Wainwrights include plenty of short, gentle summits that are perfect for a first outing and still count towards your total. Latrigg, above Keswick, is one of the lowest fells in the whole list at 368m and can be walked in under an hour. Hallin Fell, overlooking Ullswater, is a similarly short, well-marked climb with a summit view that punches well above its 388m height. Low-level fells like these are a good way to learn how your legs, boots, and lungs cope with fell terrain before committing to a longer day.
Once those feel comfortable, fells such as Catbells above Derwentwater or High Rigg near Thirlmere add a bit more ridge walking and scrambly rock without straying into serious mountain terrain — a natural next step before you start looking at the bigger books.
A few Wainwrights are short in distance but surprisingly demanding underfoot. Yewbarrow (628m) and Middle Dodd (654m) are both known for steep, direct ascents that gain height quickly — rewarding once you're used to fell walking, but better tackled after a few gentler outings rather than as a first climb.
Lake District weather changes fast, and conditions on a summit are rarely what they look like from the car park. Before setting out, check a forecast written specifically for the fells rather than a general town forecast — the Met Office mountain forecast and the Mountain Weather Information Service both cover the Lake District specifically. It's also worth telling someone who isn't coming with you which route you're taking and roughly when you expect to be back, so a mountain rescue team has somewhere to start looking if you don't check in.
Even on a short fell, it's worth carrying a paper map and compass (and knowing how to use them), a torch, a whistle, a basic first aid kit, and a fully charged phone — though don't rely on signal, since large parts of the fells have none. Proper boots and clothing you can layer up or down make a bigger difference than anything else on the list. For a deeper dive into kit and skills, the British Mountaineering Council publishes detailed hillwalking guides aimed at exactly this stage.
Once you're back down, that's the moment to tick the fell off. Fellticker keeps track of every book, every summit, and the date you climbed it, so you always know exactly where you stand out of 214 — and you get a shareable link to show friends and family your progress without them needing an account of their own.
As long as you like. Most people who complete all 214 do it over years, fitting in a handful of fells whenever the weather and free time line up — and that unhurried pace is a large part of the appeal. At the other extreme, fell runner Steve Birkinshaw once ran every single Wainwright back to back in just 6 days and 13 hours, which is a useful reminder that there is absolutely no rush for the rest of us.