This book will inspire and encourage
Whether you intend to run, walk, support, or just observe from a healthy distance, there is definitely something of interest for everyone in David Lintern's The Big Rounds book; he is right in describing this as "a book for all hillgoers".
Adding to the excellent Cicerone series this book covers in detail Britain's three most challenging long-distance mountain rounds: The Bob Graham Round, The Paddy Buckley Round and The Charlie Ramsay Round. For anyone seeking to complete one (or several) of the rounds, the book includes practical tips, maps, route guides and brilliant insights from round legends Jasmin Paris, Nicky Spinks, Charlie Ramsay, Jim Mann and Paddy Buckley.
Whilst this book will inspire and encourage readers to venture into the mountains, the seriousness of embarking on a round is also emphasised and this book certainly encourages preparation with useful information about fitness, equipment and experience.
In addition to this, the book is full of stunning photographs that will make you crave a long day out on the fells and the mountains of the England, Wales and Scotland. If you visit David Lintern's website you can see more of his beautiful photographs and a number of articles he has written to support the book http:// www.davidIintern.com/book-the-bigrounds... you can even order a signed copy!
A review by Rosie Jones for Fellrunner magazine
Whether you’re considering a round, or it’s just a distant dream, this book will help you appreciate everything that’s required, while giving you some inspiration.
When we heard that the publisher, Cicerone, was publishing a book about the three big rounds – the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay – we were excited to say the least. Doing just one of these rounds can be a project which takes several years and a lot of poring over maps, recces and finding the best lines, not to mention literal blood, sweat and tears. Desk research has traditionally involved reading lengthy blogs from those who’ve done it (or tried and failed), so a book with route descriptions and helpful guidance sounded interesting.
The design of the book is a reasonably big format, with lots of beautiful illustrations, so it will be a nice addition to your coffee table, or ‘running literature shelf’. However, it will lead to one inevitable question from visitors who spot it: ‘ooh, are you doing a round?’. But fear not, this book isn’t just aimed at runners wanting to do timed rounds; it’s also designed for runners or walkers wanting to explore these stunning routes bit by bit. There are some great suggestions for day-long adventures in the hills, not just 24 hour grizz fests.
The book starts with some general information about the rounds and the mountaincraft and kit you need and the environmental considerations you have to keep in mind. This is all really important stuff because these aren’t routes to be taken lightly. Weather is obviously a big issue, good navigation skills are needed (particularly when the weather is bad) and, well, they’re just very hard. And the book orders the rounds in terms of difficulty.
First up is the Bob Graham Round and the author, David Lintern, talks the reader through each leg. He gives different route options, describes the terrain and the features and he gives facts and tips throughout. All the while the descriptions are illustrated with beautiful photographs which will make you want to get out there on the route.
The route description is followed by a ‘practicalities’ section which gives information on aspects such as where to fill up on water, variations on the route to allow you to break it into sections, and logistics and rules for completing a timed round. There’s then a really interesting section on the history of the round, and an entertaining runner’s account of completing ‘this masochistic endeavour’.
The Paddy Buckley is next and the content follows the same format – a beautifully described and illustrated route guide, a practicalities section, a description of the history and a fascinating runner’s account from Sue Walsh. Six cups of tea (one after the other) was her hydration strategy. Then, it’s the toughest one of all, the Charlie Ramsay Round. It follows the same format too, though the photos get slightly more awe-inspiring. The runner’s story from this section is from a certain Jasmin Paris and it’s a description of her record-breaking run (a mind-blowing 16 hours and 13 minutes).
The final section of the book is called ‘people of the rounds’ and this was my favourite part of the book. It has interviews with icons of the rounds, including Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay themselves, plus Jim Mann, Nicky Spinks and Helene Whitaker. This section is full of interesting snippets. One piece of Jim Mann’s advice is that you need to get ‘fell-hard’ for a winter round, ‘I sometimes go looking for bad weather just to challenge myself’. That probably comes as no surprise to anybody who’s met Jim at a race. He puts into context what it takes to do a winter round and it will make you question whether you’ve got what it takes to do that (or if you should even consider it).
Whether you’re considering a round, or it’s just a distant dream, this book will help you appreciate everything that’s required, while giving you some inspiration. It has great practical suggestions for taking on a round, really interesting background on the history of the rounds and just loads of information if you’re looking for some hilly days out running in the Lakes, Wales or Scotland. It’s a beautiful book about three iconic routes, brought to life by the images and the stories of the contributors.
Run247 website
there's plenty of sage advice to be gleaned here.
Whether it's running or walking, most of us like to go big on the hills once in a while - and few epic routes match the challenge and cachet of the UK's big three, the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay Rounds. Packed with equal parts information and inspiration, new Cicerone book The Big Rounds is not just a detailed route guide to all three rounds, but a lot more besides.
While Lakeland's Bob Graham is best known as a sub 24-hour test for accomplished hill runners, and the Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay occupy a similar hallowed status as runner's rounds in Snowdonia and Lochaber respectively, there is no rule that says you have to do them at a trot. Making a massive high level circuit of each mountain range, taking in most of their best summits along the way, these routes double as logical and compelling multi-day journeys for backpackers.
Author David Lintern describes himself as a below average runner, and as that fairly describes me too I was pleased that this book is not prescriptive about the speed you travel, according ambitious backpack-toting walkers the same status as one-day runners. The big rounds are for everyone. As David says:
"Long distance routes are not the province of hill runners only, and the hills are agnostic - and they don't care if we walk, run or crawl. Passion and persistence are what counts, and they aren't exclusive qualities..."
This is the first book I've seen that gives comprehensive coverage of all three rounds, and since records keep being broken and the rounds seem to be more in the news and more in vogue than ever, its publication seems well timed. However I know David has been working on it for years. It's clearly been a labour of love, and I think he has done real justice to what is in every sense a massive topic.
It is a book that's arguably geared towards summer rounds, and my sole real criticism is that this is not made sufficiently explicit from the start (more on that later).
Covering the nitty gritty of these three epic rounds is no small feat - the Paddy Buckley section alone runs to nearly 50 pages, for instance. As well as a blow-by-blow route description broken down into manageable chunks (ideal for multi-day attempts, or a good psychological trick if you're doing it in a one-er), there are excellent sections on planning and other practicalities, and interesting potted histories of each round. For runners the essential info includes advice on the commonly used spots for logistical support and changes of pacer, while walkers get a backpacker's itinerary (the Bob Graham, for example, is suggested as a six-day walk).
While I don't know every inch of any of these rounds I am familiar with a great deal of each, including almost all the summits, and I think the route descriptions seem accurate and sensible, offering a useful level of detail without being overly wordy. Maps sprawl satisfyingly across double page spreads, reflecting the scale of the endeavours; and while I've only found one topo its inclusion is very worthwhile, as it concerns the notoriously tricky link between the Grey Corries and Aonach Beag, clearly marking the four different options.
The photos, and there are scores, range from lush landscapes to running and backpacking action shots. While they aren't all technically brilliant - there's the occasional lens flare and one or two blurred foregrounds - and I'm nonplussed by a couple of choices (p45, for instance, fills a whole page with a very dull-looking eroded slope) they do a good job overall of selling each of the rounds, and giving plenty of clues as to what to expect from the terrain. David has clearly spent a lot of time up high on all three rounds, much of it early or late for the best light.
Were The Big Rounds to end there it would already be a cracking book. But there's more. What lifts this book far beyond being a 'mere' guide is its human element, the inclusion of a whole series of mini interviews with the great and good of UK hill running. The People of the Rounds include Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay, along with more recent leading lights like Jasmin Paris, Nicky Spinks and Jim Mann. All speak with enthusiasm and authority about their experiences of these routes, and there's plenty of sage advice to be gleaned here. For his day job David is an outdoor journalist, and in these interviews it really shows. Well done to him, and to Cicerone for thinking outside the usual guidebook format. My one regret with the talking heads is that some walkers weren't also included.
It's fair to say I like this book a lot. But it's not perfect. As I'm more mountaineer than runner (a claim I can make rather more plausibly than Wendy Dodds!), the big lack that stands out for me is its only brief reference to winter. Add snow and ice, wilder and colder weather, and narrower daylight windows and all three of these rounds become a wholly different proposition.
In full winter conditions the Charlie Ramsay in particular slips over the line from merely a very hard run or walk into actual mountaineering, including as it does the UK's highest summit and plenty of borderline-technical ground besides. Winter conditions might come and go for around half the year in Scotland. Is enough made of this in the book? Well almost all the photographs are of snow-free sunny hills, while the seriousness of winter is only discussed in any depth in the interviews at the end. More stating of the obvious up-front would have been good. As Jim Mann, winter record holder for all three rounds, says in his interview:
"If people do try the Rounds in winter without doing the preparation, then people will die - and you can end up killing somebody else along with you. It's 'cool' and 'fun' to try these things, sure, but don't do it because you want to say you've done it. The entire team need to be operating at a really high level to make the risks remotely manageable."
Running on the hills seems to be more popular than ever, and I would not be surprised if that were to lead to an increase in the numbers aspiring to a big round. It's possible that there will be some runners who are fitter and faster than your average mountaineer, but who may not have the background of winter skills and experience to fall back on if things get spicy. At risk of coming across as a superior old beardy labouring the doom and gloom, I think The Big Rounds missed an important opportunity there.
This concern aside, there's loads to like here - a good 180 pages of it, in fact. If you're poring over the route details as you plan your own round, reliving the scenes of epics past, or simply browsing and dreaming big, The Big Rounds has mountains of inspiration. Whether you're a runner or just a walker with ambition, this attractive guide is a compelling and information-packed celebration of three timeless classics of the British hills.
I've long had a slow winter Ramsay Round on the wish list; perhaps this book will help spur me to make it happen.
Reviewed by Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com
8th October
You do not need to be a superathlete to enjoy this book. For anyone with a love of the hills it should inspire and inform in equal measure.
Roger Smith reviews The Big Rounds: a new book on Britain’s ultimate mountain challenges and the people behind them by TGO contributor David Lintern
The three classic British hill running challenges – the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District, the Paddy Buckley in Snowdonia and the Charlie Ramsay in Lochaber – arose quite independently of each other. However, they are increasingly regarded as a ‘trinity’, adding up to a significant achievement if each of the three can be run in under 24 hours.
David Lintern, a regular contributor to TGO, has cleverly taken this unification of the three rounds and turned it into a book which is packed with information, great stories of epic rounds, and a selection of superb colour photographs which give a vivid impression of what each round holds in store.
He has moreover recognised that while each of the Rounds was set up as a running challenge, the routes have an attraction for backpackers and detailed guidance is given for people who want to take the slower approach.
The history of each round is also outlined. The Bob Graham is by far the oldest, the original eponymous round being done in 1932, whereas the Buckley and Ramsay rounds are much more recent creations. Each of the three includes a country ‘high point’ (Scafell Pike, Snowdon and Ben Nevis) and statistically, considering they were planned apart, they are remarkably similar. In each case the distance is around 60 miles/100km and the total ascent is over 26,000ft/8000m.
All three have been successfully completed in winter, which is a quite different achievement from a summer round, and ‘double’ rounds are also listed.
For each round, there are highly personal accounts and at the end of the book are interviews with nine ‘people of the rounds’ including Buckley and Ramsay which make absorbing reading, giving as they do a clear insight into the mentality of ‘round runners’. It is plain that for many of them, the not inconsiderable physical achievement was more than matched by the uplift they gained simply by being out there in the hills – a feeling I had very strongly myself at the end of my own BGR.
You do not need to be a superathlete to enjoy this book. For anyone with a love of the hills it should inspire and inform in equal measure.
Beware; the potential for inspiration is high!
The ‘big 3’ are classic hill running challenges of the highest order, each around 60 miles with huge amounts of up and down. Hill runners who have completed one if these challenges in under 24 hours are part of an exclusive club. Those who have completed all three number somewhere around 50. The idea of publishing a guidebook for the three then seems like commercial folly. However as the author is keen to point out the rounds don’t belong the hill runner “they belong to all of us and none of us, and they don’t care if we walk, run or crawl.” The guide stresses the appeal of the rounds as the ‘grand tour’ of each of their respective high mountains areas, as attractive to the hillwalker as the runner.
As a guidebook it is practical and thorough with each of the sections described in detail, including important information such as water sources, route choice options on the crux sections and navigational challenges. It then breaks the rounds into a suggested itinerary for walkers, with route variations, wild camping options, resupply points, transport and even B&B’s for the English and Welsh rounds.
As the author emphasises in the introduction, these rounds are not to be attempted by the amateur walker, but are the preserve of experienced mountain people. The information then is designed to set you up well to plan and work out the detail yourselves.
The beauty of this book though is not in the practical detail, it is in the history and personal stories of the rounds. These bring the rounds to life and are a fascinating insight into what it must be to experience a round for yourself, whether as an elite athlete breaking records, a keen runner ‘having a go’ and having a journey of self-discovery, or as a walker enjoying the journey more than the goal. For these alone this is a recommended read, but beware; the potential for inspiration is high!
Ian Stewart
(Bob Graham club member 1780)
trailrunningscotland.com
This is a must-read book
Many people, especially fell walkers and runners will have heard of the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District - 42 peaks covering 61½ miles of running with 26,778 feet of ascent to be completed in less than 24 hours, but I suspect fewer will have come across the Paddy Buckley round in Wales and the Charlie Ramsay Round in Scotland.
This guide by David Lintern covers Britain’s three most challenging long distance mountain rounds and includes stories from the people who love them and have completed them over the years.
After an introductory chapter, the next three chapters concentrate on each of the rounds with a map of the route to start with and then a comprehensive step by step route guide split into the sections of the round (five each for the Bob Graham and Paddy Buckley and three legs for the Charlie Ramsay) and finally a brief history of the round. Each chapter also has a section entitled “practicalities” with details of road crossings where support staff can meet and feed the runners, where to find water on the fells during the run, accommodation for support staff and where to obtain supplies.
The final chapter in the book is entitled “People of the Rounds” and there are also five appendices – Hills and their heights, Distance and elevation at a glance, Firsts on the Rounds, Round extensions and other eye-watering long challenges and finally Further reading and viewing.
David Lintern has done a terrific job putting this comprehensive guide together. He is an award winning photographer and writer and he describes himself as “an average mountaineer and below-average runner”. For any runners or fellwalkers this is a must-read book covering these three most difficult 24-hour challenges in the world.
John Burland
I expect The Big Rounds to inspire a new generation of runners and walkers alike.
As anyone who has completed these rounds will tell you, they become an important part of your life. When I ran the rounds back in 2005, ultra-running was very much in its infancy. Since then, interest in beating yourself up on unfathomably long outings has ignited the imagination of many more people and this book is testament to that. Although the Big Rounds is a guide book with practical details, maps and route descriptions, it is just as much a thing of inspiration. One of the strengths of the book is the evocative photos that say as much, if not more than, the words. The runners’ stories also give an insight into the mind-set of what it’s like to immerse yourself in the challenge of the rounds. Likewise, the inclusion of the history of the rounds helps to explain why these rounds are considered ‘classics’. But this isn’t just a book for runners. The author declares himself to be much more of a walker and mountaineer than a runner, and the intention is that this is just as much a guide for walkers as it is for runners. I expect The Big Rounds to inspire a new generation of runners and walkers alike.
John Fleetwood, blogger
David Lintern’s innovative book about running and walking the Big Rounds – the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay – will appeal to many hill goers.
There is a strong cross over between mountain running and winter mountaineering. Both are endurance sports that demand a high level of fitness and no small amount of focus and determination. Many winter climbers run to keep fit and enjoy the exhilaration of moving fast and light over mountain terrain. Indeed, Wendy Dodds, the first person to complete the Paddy Buckley Round and one of the runners profiled in the book, describes herself ‘more than a mountaineer than a runner’.
David Lintern’s innovative book about running and walking the Big Rounds – the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay – will appeal to many hill goers. All three rounds involve just over 8000m ascent. The Bob Graham is the most well known and traverses much of the high ground in the Lake District over 61 miles.
The Paddy Buckley and Charlie Ramsay rounds are located in Snowdonia and the Western Highlands and are 62 and 57 miles long. The rounds are described in increasing difficulty with the Bob Graham first, followed by the Buckley and finally the Ramsay. Even though it five miles shorter and less technically challenging, the Ramsay edges the Buckley as the most difficult because it is more remote, has poorer weather and is harder to reconnoitre.
What particularly attracted me to this book is that it puts as much emphasis on walking these great rounds as running them. Sure they may involve two or three overnight camps, but they set significant challenges for hill walkers. After a detailed introduction, David describes each round in turn with a detailed route guide, followed by a section on practicalities, history and then a personal runner’s story.
This strong emphasis on people is followed up by nine interviews with ‘People of the Rounds’ from Nicky Spinks to Charlie Ramsay himself. The interviews include quotes such a ‘Big fun hill days – it’s as simple as that’ and ‘You don’t need to be super-human’ that will no doubt provide inspiration for us mere mortals to get off the couch and attempt one of these great expeditions, whether wearing walking boots or running shoes.
I enjoyed studying The Big Rounds. The 192-page book is beautifully produced in A5 format and illustrated with inspiring photos and the all-important maps showing each round are especially clear. Unfortunately my hill running days are well behind me, but walking one of these rounds is now firmly on the To Do List!
Simon Richardson, Scottish Winter
An impressively comprehensive guide to walking or running the Big Rounds... an excellent coffee table book, as well as being a very useful guide.
The Big Round: Both a coffee table book and a useful guide.
I can’t recall when I first heard about the UK’s classic Big Rounds, the Ramsay Round in Scotland, the Bob Graham Round in England and the Paddy Buckley Round in Wales. However, what I have noticed is that these rounds appear to have become increasingly popular goals among the people I know, or those I follow on-line. Indeed, I have recently written about a number of record-breaking rounds.
It is timely, therefore, that a new book, The Big Rounds, written by David Lintern has been published. It will be available for sale mid-August at Cicerone and other book retailers. The book is a guide to Britain’s three most challenging long-distance mountain rounds – great circular tours of the Lake District, Snowdonia and Lochaber.
David has produced an impressively comprehensive guide to walking or running the Big Rounds, with maps and detailed route information. He has completed all three rounds and has produced extremely thorough content about how to do the rounds.
The book will be useful for walkers and runners who are keen to do the rounds – and also an inspirational read for those who like to walk or run in the hills and mountains and want to find out more about these classic routes.
It is what you might call an excellent coffee table book, as well as being a very useful guide.
David has also interviewed some of the top rounds runners who offer great insights, including Jasmin Paris, Nicky Spinks, Charlie Ramsay, Jim Mann and Paddy Buckley.
The introductory section to the book offers useful information about skills, fitness, equipment and safety, as well as details about history, impact and accessibility of doing the three classic mountain rounds.
The book is then split into sections on each round with information about the background to each route as well as superb detail on each stage of the round. There is also a fascinating runner’s story for each of the rounds. Each round in the book includes the “rules” of the round, if you are keen to do a sub-24 hour completion – and who to tell about this is you achieve it.
An appendix includes “the firsts of the rounds” and “other rounds”, plus lots of other interesting bits and pieces.
The photography – David is a writer and a photographer – adds to the appeal of the book. Flicking through the book I stop frequently at fantastic photos of amazing places. I doubt I will ever attempt to do a round in one go but I am now keen to walk or run sections of each.
The book is beautifully produced and published by Cicerone.
Fiona Outdoors blog
