Everyone has a couple of runs or routes at the back of their mind that they’d like to have a go at, but circumstances, forgetfulness and everything in between gets in the way. I’ve got a couple of those – some a probably pipedreams, some require serious planning, some just always get usurped by other plans.
I’ve been slowly chipping away at the list – although it’s not getting any smaller. I kicked it off last year with a run to the Christmas Markets in Manchester from Sheffield, mid-December – and this May, an opportunity came up to have a go at the George Fisher (or Abrahams?) Tea Round.
What is it? It’s a 30 mile (50km, ish) route covering some 12,000 ft (yes, around….3600 metres?) of ascent – thought up by a member of staff in 2017 at the George Fisher outdoors shop in Keswick in the Lake District, made of ascending all the hills that could be seen from the window of the cafe in the shop.
There’s a recommended gpx on their website (more on that later), and a finishers board and some goodies from their sponsors (was Montane, now Scarpa) for finishing. Some of my friends were signing up to races from the Keswick Mountain Festival (a great event with walks, runs, multi-sport events and a wide range of talks, music, food and ‘try out’ sessions for gathering new hobbies) – I’d decided to join them, but whilst they had a good looking 50k on their list, I decided to take the opportunity for the Tea Round instead (I did their 10k as a shakedown run the day after as it included a boat trip to the start).
Link: https://www.georgefisher.co.uk/tearound
After some slightly iffy weather in the days before the run, I woke up to glorous sunshine early in the morning – I started early as whilst on a good day I can do 50k in around 5-5.5 hours, the elevation and potential warmth suggested that early was a good idea. A quick jog down to the George Fisher shop via registration at the mountain festival, my photo taken by a couple of other people who also were giving it a go, and I was off.
After some slightly iffy weather in the days before the run, I woke up to glorous sunshine early in the morning – I started early as whilst on a good day I can do 50k in around 5-5.5 hours, the elevation and potential warmth suggested that early was a good idea. A quick jog down to the George Fisher shop via registration at the mountain festival, my photo taken by a couple of other people who also were giving it a go, and I was off.
I had a bit more kit than usual – there’s no aid stations (but there is a cafe or two around Buttermere), so food, safety kit, spare layers, filter flask, etc.
A quick note on the route – as you’ll see below, your options are to hit multiple steep hills head on at the start – or leave them to the end. I opted for the former, but accepted that on the higher ground section at the end I’d have to accept the ocasional out and back sections that make up the route
The run starts off fairly relaxed – through fields and paths through the woods out the back of Keswick, and Portinscales, before setting out up Cat Bells for the first hill of the day. After a slight faff with navigation on my watch not behaving then overtaking people doing a guided walk as part of the moutain festival, it was good to get moving. The route initially followed the main path up the hill to the summit before following a smaller path down the back and through a small group of farms before starting to wind up towards the next hill, Robinson (via High Snab Bank).
It’s worth noting that this is not the most efficient way to go ‘Wainright bagging’ – that’s not the point of it. It does however take in 10 summits – Catbells, Robinson, High Stile, Rowling End, Causey Pike, Sail, Eel Crag, Barrow, Hobcarton and Grisdale Pike
At this point, I was really noticing having not had a great amount of distance running recently – so in the increasing warmth of the day, kept pace sensible – a group of local fell runners caught up, and I ascended with them for a while – inevitably getting dragged, and by the time I was descending to Kirks Close Wood (via a very steep descent), I was a touch wobbly with a racing heart.
After stopping for a can of coke and some ice cream, I started up the back of High Stile.
This section felt like it was following a sheep trail – and it didn’t help that I hadn’t recovered well yet, so stopped in some shade behind a rock, had some rice pudding (miracle food), broke out the poles and got on with it, via a short chat with a guy having his first ever hill walk in the Lakes and loving it. By the time I’d got to the top of High Stile I was back up to speed, traversed the top whilst enjoying the breeze at the top, then skidded my way down Red Pike (lots of loose scree – then with a tarn half way down to cool down in).
I decided to top up on fluids and snacks at the cafes in Buttermere – if you needed it, you could fill up flasks in the waterfall at the bottom of the descent, and I wish I had. Whilst a milkshake in a cafe was welcome, it took a long time in a queue and I wanted to be away from people – it would have been useful to have had a shop and not just cafes and pubs, but taking on liquids was welcome.
At this stage, it was time to get onto the more ‘plateau-like’ (it isn’t) section – after a pretty woodland section next to a stream, it was a case of grinding it out up a hill – as soon as high enough for the breeze to pick up, it was significantly easier.
The section after this was great to pick up some pace on and flow through – energy restored (onto sausage rolls), it was a cruise across the top looking out for the upcoming ‘out and back sections’ – before the first came up, rolling along up to Grisdale Pike (via a false summit or two). At this stage I knew I was behind schedule, having had to handle heat exhaustion for a while – so a quick update to the friends back in Keswick about timings, and seeing the beer tent and listening to bands a long way in the distace at the running festival, I then turned around and headed back to tackle the highest point in this section.
Enroute I stopped for more water before Eel Crag – I’d seen a waterfall below, and ended up bumping into two people who’d also done parts of the Spine (and the Safety team that I’d supported last year) – a short catch up and comparison of rice puddings options, then it was time to get moving up to Crag Hill and Sail. What should have been a quick traverse between the two took way too long as I suddenly hit nausea and had to stop for a while, getting some water and solid food in me.
The run down from Sail, Scar Crags and onwards is great with a mixture of technical rocky terrain and flowing trails – the 2km out and back to Rowling End just irritating, followed by what I’ve since found is a section that trips up other people – a bit of fell running (being charitable) or hacking through heather on steep ground to get across to Barrow , then head down the hill finally.
I’d given up on getting back to the Keswick Mountain Festival site to see any bands at this point, but I still wasn’t amused when the recommended route then included a few km hacking down the side of a dual carriageway whilst wearing trail shoes. At this point it was a case of gritting teeth and using running poles to keep on going. Eventually I linked back up onto the section at the start of the run, then ran through Keswick back to the George Fisher shop (accompanied by a friendly and I suspect slightly drunk guy running alongside with a 24 pack of beer, telling me I was doing a good job).
Should you do it?
Absolutely. It covers both some well trodden as well as slightly less usual summits, and it feels like a good ‘adventure’ – and the views are amazing in good weather. Some of the terrain is signficantly steep,and some is fairly technical, but don’t be put off by that! Get some comfort in before with time on feet and hill climbing, and take some poles with you to help with both the hills and terrain.
If you want to try getting a feel for it, try the smaller ‘Espresso Round’ first.
Don’t forget to email the George Fisher shop after, and record your route on Strava as a race so that they can verify it. You’ll get a couple of mementos – I got a nice technical shirt, buff and badge all with the route details on them.
What would I do differently?
So – it was a great route. I overheated a couple of times, and with a combination of one or two nav glitches and some recent health gremlins I could likely have done the route a couple of hours faster at least (it took over 14 hours – I was awake before the others I was staying with, and got back once they were asleep….).
After the descent off Barrow, avoid the drag down the dual carriageway – take a path back to the woods at Ullock Moss instead.
Grab what you need at Buttermere, but don’t hang around – I spent too long looking for a shop, then over 30 mins in a queue to get some drinks and food.
And as is traditional when giving out advice – wear sunscreen.
Kit and food
This one was fairly standard kit – UD Mountain Vest, Inox-8 Ultrafly G280s for shoes (not bad overall, not perfect on the scree but what is?), Black Diamon Carbon Z poles, and a Katadyn filter flask.
Food was a mixture of SiS gels (normal, Beta), sausage rolls, rice pudding (in some reseable pouches from Nom Nom – I’ll use those again!), and Active Root,
Useful links
- https://www.georgefisher.co.uk/tearound
- https://keswickmountainfestival.co.uk/
- https://www.strava.com/activities/11442392344/overview
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