We all daydream that the coming winter is going to bring long spells of superb ice conditions and endless blue sky's. In preparation Yorkclimbers.com dedicate the autumn months to long walks in the more local hills hoping to achieve the fitness required for real winter mountaineering in Scotland and often further afield.

Popular areas for these walks are The Lake District, North Wales, The Peak District or the Yorkshire Dales.

This was the first of our autumn ‘get fit for winter’ campaign and I was joined by Skenders and Simon Kelly en route for the Lake District. Originally I had thought of doing the Buttermere round, one of my favorites but Simon is a keen peak ‘bagger’ and wanted to tick some hills that he had not done before so we plumped for a walk in the Far Eastern Fells out of the Nuttalls Guideook.

Now most readers may not have heard of 'Peak Bagging' it's is a bit like train spotting but with wind, Rain, mud and a bit of exercise chucked in and in many ways pointless.

The 400+ Nuttalls should not be confused with the 214 Wainwrights or even the 500+ Birketts although to make things more confusing most Wainwrights and Birketts are Nuttalls,. Then of course there is the 283 Munro’s and 221 Corbett’s but they are north of the border, I think have I got that right?

After an early start we arrived in Howtown and started walking straight up onto an old Roman Road, Now those ancients knew a thing or two about shanks pony so easy designer footpaths took us south onto Loadpot Hill, Wether Hill, High Raise in quick succession where we stopped for elevenses.

Next onto Kidsty Pike, Ramsgill Head and Knott where we turned back to the North for the return leg.

At this point we had a bit of a dilemma, Simon thinking ahead realised the next hill Rest Dodd would fit in nicely with another hill called the Neb. In a moment of uncertainty we stopped and had an impromptu crisis meeting, it was decided to continue as planned as t’other would make a good wet day objective on its own.

Next came Brock Crags where we had lunch, quickly followed Angletarn Pikes, Place Fell, Mortar Crag and finally High Dodd before the longer than expected plod back to the car.

All in all a great day out with some superb ridge walking and a very successful bagging day managing to ascend 12 peaks that belonged to varied lists.

For the record the walk was 13.5 miles with 3540 ft of ascent & took us approx 7.5 hours.

For more information on Nutalls, Wainwrights and others follow link to Hill lists

As always if you want to get involved in the activity above or see more blogs on this subject follow link to Yorkclimbers.com