BOB GRAHAM ROUND  

Roy Denney

Since a Leicestershire teacher friend completed the Bob Graham round in 1991 I had had an ambition to do so myself and in 2008 I  finally succeeded. It had however taken me 37 years. On one of my regular visits to the Lake District I took in Hindscarth, the last of the peaks on the circuit that I had not climbed. Somehow over the years when walking from Dalehead or from the north, I have always either gone via Robinson or High Spy.

The BGR is a very real challenge in every sense of the word. It is said to be the British equivalent of climbing Everest; it involves climb of about 27.000 feet; it is 72 miles long and is over far-from-forgiving terrain. The challenge is to actually do the circular route of 42 peaks, within 24 hours. Men and women, young and no longer young have cracked it. Billy Bland from Borrowdale did it in 1982 in an incredible 13hrs.53m. which still stands as the record.

Bob Graham himself was from near Carlisle and was a gardener before running a Keswick guest house. He took regular, long fell walks often involving overnights and in 1932 in his forties, he completed the round of Lakeland Peaks which now bears his name. He did it on a diet of bread and sweets, in shorts and tennis shoes but with the aid of four pacers; his record was to stand for 28 years. Many attempts were made during that period but when an article appeared in the Evening Post it fired up a new generation of mountain men including two Clayton-Le-Moors  Harriers, Alan and Ken Heaton, who had a go in June 1960 with Stan Bradshaw, a veteran of 48. Only Alan finished, in a time of 22hrs.18mins but Stan had another go a couple of weeks later and succeeded. News of this was a further stimulant to other would be heroes and over 1200 have now completed the challenge.

In order to break the existing 24 Hour Fell Record, a contender must either traverse the same peaks as the current record holder in a faster time, or traverse the same peaks plus at least 1 additional peak. For these purposes, a peak must be over 2000 feet high, be at least 0.25 of a mile away from the nearest other peak on the round and involve at least 250 feet of descent/re-ascent from the nearest other peak. The round must be completed within 24 hours. It must also start and finish in the same place

If this is not tough enough and you're capable of doing it with time to spare you can go for the Lake District 24-hour fell record. For this, you can start anywhere, although you have to work out a schedule in advance and cover all the peaks run by the current record-holder. This record at present stands at 77 peaks in 23hr 47min., done by Mark Hartell in 1997.       Yuk!