'Studmarks on the Summits' by Bill Smith credits The Rucksack Club with the first walk across the 77 Lakes 2500's over the Whitsuntide holiday of 1968 a time of 58-20.  This was a route of some 105 miles and 43000' of climbing from their High Moss hut in the Duddon Valley to Low Hartsop. 'Studmarks' goes on to record two further traverses: firstly in 1975 with 61 2500' peaks in 42-19 from Kentmere to Dow Crag, Coniston (Ken Brooks, Pete Dawes and Jim Loxam) and then in 1976 a repeat of the 77 tops route of 1968 in 58-27 (John Richardson and Geoff Bell, The Rucksack Club).  The following decade, in 1984, Steve Parr (Clayton-le-Moors) completed the first round of the Lakes 2500's in 42-56 based on the Moot Hall, Keswick.  He took in all 57 Wainwrights 2500 footers plus 4 other tops in a run of 116 miles with 42,550' of climbing. See below for details of articles on some of these attempts.

The publication of 'The Mountains of England and Wales' by John and Anne Nuttall in 1990 provided what has become a widely accepted definitive reference to peaks over 2000'. According to their lists there are 72 peaks over 2500' in the Lake District. These are illustrated and scheduled on the map below under the fell areas corresponding with the Wainwright guides. As they define a separate hill by a drop of 50' or more it creates multiple tops notably on peaks such as Blencathra, Crinkle Crags and Shelter Crags which may have been excluded from previous outings.

In more recent times there have been other variations. In 1996 Joss Naylor completed a 60 peaks at 60 years in 36-50 across most of the Lakes 2500's. That was a 105 mile run of over 40,000' of ascent from Walna Scar, Duddon to Side Farm in Glenridding. In 2008 Paul Murray (Horwich RMI Harriers and The Rucksack Club) completed a 65 peaks at 65 years in 46-17. He traversed the 65 highest Nuttall summits in the Lakes in a run of around 93 miles with 36,000' of climbing. In 2007 John Fleetwood completed the first Nuttall round of the Lakes 2500's in 53-55. His route of 111 miles with over 45000' was based on Elterwater.

In 2020 following growing interest in the Lakes 2500's the FRA  adopted the 61 peak   version of 2500's as the benchmark for formally registering completions and record runs. It was named the Steve Parr Round in honour of Steve who created his round in 1984 but tragically disappeared in the Himalayas in 1990.  A separate gofar page is

dedicated to the Steve Parr Round - see link below.

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Location Map                                                                          

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The map below shows the location of the Nuttall Lakes 2500's completed by John Fleetwood.  Click on the grey buttons below to show a map and schedule of the summits for each fell area.