h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Bagging the Wainwrights: Appreciating England's Mountains - A87767059
Author: Hoovooloo - U114627


Munros, pah. Wainwrights!

This is up to your usual standard in writing hoovooloo, smooth to read, while leading me to the next logical unanswered question, without being either pedantic or dumbed down.



I have a few queries

1 - you mention mountains and hills, and without googling, I can never be 100% sure of the height that qualifies a peak as an actual mountain rather than a large hill. I think a footnote would be helpful.

I appreciate you've not used GuideML, and so if you'd prefer not to, for the sake of a footnote, would you phrase something and put it into parentheses at the point you'd choose. I'd prefer your own words so as to retain consistency of language in this piece please. A sub can alter this into a footnote when we select for the Guide.

2 >>>
Sail Chapman completed all 214 Wainwrights not long after his fifth birthday. <<<

Did he? Poor child, if that is his real name. I doubt that he had much choice in the matter, and presume his parents were the ones seeking a bit of attention. Is there anything online we can link to here? I don't really feel it's necessary to add anything more to the text than you've got now.

3 >>>Legendary fell runner Jos Naylor...

Fell running is quite a curiousity, I guess unless you're already aware of what this is, it might need a bit of an explanation, (there is no Guide Entry to link to) so either a little footnote/info in parentheses - or an external link - or would you write us an Entry? Being as you're the sort of outdoor type who can write?

4 I'd like to see some completion statement at the very end, your introduction, and contents, layout and so on are excellent. I just feel that a concluding sentence would round this off a little more emphatically.


Cheers!

Lanzababy

That should have addressed all that.

Yes, "Sail" is the boy's name, and guess which Wainwright he did last? (Clue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_%28Lake_District%29)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_%28Lake_District%29

GuideML eh? Thanks hoo.


I like the conclusion, and was a little foxed by the nested footnotes, but I think it works.

I like this. It is not only informative about the task of 'bagging' the Wainwrights, but gives a good feel for the landscape.

I wondered if you need to add something about clothing and equipment. For example, do you need boots, waterproofs and a good map for them all?

One or two quibbles.
There seems to be some contradiction between the 2nd paragraph and the 3rd. It's surely not just 'the most timid and unfit' who might think twice about climbing Helm Crag.

Perhaps you could provide a metric equivalent of 1000 feet.

I wasn't sure of the logic of the sentence 'Hence the Norse-originated word 'fell' is an apt word to cover them all.' Maybe it would be clearer to say 'The Norse-originated word 'fell' is general enough to cover them all.'

A very good article!
I did have a minor niggle. With the title 'Appreciating England's Mountains' the article seemed to imply that every mountain in England is in the Lake District. Perhaps mention that there are mountains in England that aren't Wainwrights - ie the ones in the Pennines.

and possibly either an explanation of what the Lake District is or a link to the National Park's website for those who do not know of it. The official website is: http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk
You could also consider links to
A87764557 Bagging the Munros - Conquering Scotland's Mountains
A673490 The National Parks of England and Wales

Out of curiosity, do any of the Wainwrights have any Beatrix Potter connections?

<BB<

Done some minor changes. Given her connection with the district, I would imagine it's inevitable that some of the Wainwrights have Potter connections, just as they likely have Wordsworth or Coleridge connections (Coleridge inadvertently invented rock climbing when he came the wrong way off Sca Fell in August 1802), but I think any such connection would be more sensibly covered in an entry on Potter. She's not mentioned in any of AWs guides.

I enjoyed this. I really must get some walking done in the Lake District one day. I've never even been there.

Did Wainwright ever walk in Ireland, do you know?

TRiG.

Not to my knowledge. He did some coffee-table style books about Scotland, though.

Other than the definitive seven Pictorial Guides, he is best known for the coast to coast walk, crossing the Lake District on the way from west to east, and for the Pennine Way Companion. He also wrote a guide to Outlying Fells of Lakeland, and another to the Howgills (which are the fells on your right as you pass northwards through the narrow pass on the M6 just south of Tebay).

Hoovooloo, did you have any thoughts about clothing and equipment?
I imagine, from what you said, that some of the Wainwrights can be climbed in jeans and trainers, but wouldn't boots and waterproofs be advisable for most of them?

A general hillwalking entry would be the place for that.

On a decent day you could climb Scafell Pike naked or dressed in a deep sea diver's suit (please do not ask how I know either of these facts). Frankly, if you need telling to wear boots and goretex up a mountain in England I'd be surprised if you've the nouse to find this entry.

Climbing Scafell Pike in a deep-sea diver's suit?

OK, it's your piece.

Hehe. I like the idea of having a companion piece to the Munros one. Gotta have Wainwright in the Guide. Anyway, I liked this - there's a lot of info packed in, but it doesn't feel like there is. I also like the bracing tone. Plus, you obviously really like the Wainwrights and Wainwright bagging - that also comes across well.

I did have an issue with the intro. From the title, I assumed that this is something that people actually do, and do on purpose. But it wasn't until the entry mentioned notable records and tailored guidebooks that I was 100% sure this was correct and that the suggestion about bagging them wasn't just an interesting way of talking about Wainwright's (or the Lake District's) mountains. Is there a society/ walking community devoted to this? An agreed list of people who say they've done it? How long has it been going on in an organised sort of way? That last is a particularly relevant question for me as I have climbed a few of the Lake District mountains in my time, even a la Wainwright, and never heard of Wainwright bagging. I'm not at all suggesting it didn't exist when I was doing it, well before the Internet, that, but it's a shame as my family could have bagged quite a few. I wonder why we didn't anway?

Other than that, a couple of niggles. The bit about Norse originated word fell being a particularly good word to describe these sorts of mountains/summits brought me up because I found myself thinking there must be a special meaning to the Norse word fell, and I wondered what that was. Or perhaps it's just that Norsemen were used to that kind of mountain? What are mountains like in Scandinavia anyway?

I think there's a bit of repetition between the can I climb them all and climbing them all sections. This bit: "If you're prepared to set aside work or any other commitments, walk in any weather and go out every day without a break, you could potentially do all 214 in a month without ever breaking into a trot. There exists the reasonable question of why you would try to do such a thing so quickly, however, since a large part of the pleasure of the experience is looking around and taking in the surroundings." and then "It's perfectly possible to race round all the Wainwrights in a month or less, ticking them off a list before moving on to the next. This is very much against the spirit of the books, however. " I like the first version best myself, and I think that last bit doesn't need those sentences anyway.

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