I did this one solo as Sarah felt this would be a stretch – it’s approx 10 miles with 1000 metres of ascent. But it does include 8 Wainwrights!

I chose to get an early start at 5:30am so I could do a shorter walk with Sarah later in the day, anticipating it would take 5-6 hours.

I walked from Ambleside to Rydal along the river before the sun came up. It was a frosty morning, and mist was hanging over the river. I’d chosen to do the circuit anti-clockwise so that I’d have a steeper climb and a more gradual and grassy descent.

The climb out of Rydal was the slowest portion of the walk, but I was rewarded with the sun slowly rising over the tops. This cast deep shadows and bathed the tops of nearby peaks in orange light.

I reached the first peak, Nab Scar just before 7:00am, after about 40 mins of ascent.

The climb continued towards Heron Pike, but it was starting to feel a little easier and I reached it around 7:25am.

The path levels for a while before another climb to Great Rigg which I reached about 8:10am. At this point, while some climbing remained to Fairfield, it felt like I’d now done the bulk of the climbing.

I reached the halfway point of Fairfield about 8:30am. I explored the top to check out the view to the north, and had a short break before beginning the homeward leg.

There were some rocky sections to clamber down on the way to Hart Crag, and as I’d barely seen a soul I took these carefully, reaching it around 9:10am

The walk to Dove Crag was fairly straightforward taking just under 30 mins. From there I saw two fighter jets dive into the valley beyond Wansfell Pike. As they hit the colder air in the shadow of the morning sun, their wing tips left a stream of vapour.

By 10:00 I’d reached High Pike, and opted to walk down to Low Pike on the western side of the dry stone wall. It was a rocky and tricky descent, and from the number of people I saw coming up on the other side of the wall, I think that may have been the easier side!

Undaunted, I descended to Low Pike just before 10:30. Despite the name, I still had a lot of height to lose to return to Ambleside, and the walk back via High Sweden Bridge took another hour.

In total, the walk took 6 hours. I’m glad I got such an early start – the sunrise, the solitude and the early morning light made it all worthwhile.