I sat down with Rob Woodall to talk all things peak bagging. After completing all the Munros, Corbetts and Grahams, Rob progressed to more obscure categories such as HuMPs (hundred metres of prominence) and TuMPs (thirty and upwards metres of prominence), via some long distance hill running rounds (The UK Big Three, the Rigby Round, and his Cuillin Round to name a few). Rob also devised the Trans Cuillin but never got to complete it - James Gibson doing this in 2023.

From an early age Rob was interested in maps, and as one list led to another in 2016 he became the first person to visit all 6190 British Trig points - a huge feat which required negotiation with not a few landowners, and even special arrangements to visit trigs within military facilities.

We chatted about his recent trips to Norway and Turkey, where he has been ascending P1000 mountains (mountains with a prominence of 1000m or more).

In 2014 he became the first person to complete all 1556 Marilyns, UK peaks of P150m (150 metres prominence). The final crux of this endeavor were the 6 summits on the remote archipegalo of St Kilda, two of which - Stac an Armin and Stac Lee - are stacks rising vertically out of the Atlantic and requiring not only calm sea conditions and an approach between October and March to avoid gannet restrictions, but also careful landing stretegies and roped climbing techniques.

Rob has always been a collector - he describes initially 'completing' classic symphonies eg by Brahms, Mahler and Sibelius, then also collecting logs of birds, plants, and long distance hill running rounds, as well as his astromonical number of peaks worldwide in a whole range of categories from TuMPs and HuMPs, right up the Ultras - which have 1500m prominence. I also mention a list of P4000m Peaks - but this is a worldwide list not a South American list as I state.

Further information on these categories and more can be found at www.peakbagger.com, where Rob is ranked #1 worldwide for his P-Index (a calculation designed to indicate the number and quality of prominent peaks the person has climbed).

Rob has even been involved in some work to relocate 'lost' trigpoints, and to find previously uncategorised hills. Many thanks to Rob for giving us a glimpse into his world of prominence and relative peaks.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: ⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild⁠

Wendy Dodds has been at the heart of English and British fell running since before most of us could tie our laces. Now approaching her 75th birthday, Wendy has been racing in the hills since the early 70s, across the breadth of the sport. In 1972 she paired up with Val Finch (nee Pacey) to be the first women's team to complete the KIMM mountain marathon. She was also the first person ever to complete the Paddy Buckley round in Snowdonia, and took part in the inaugural Dragon's Back multiday race in 1992.

As well as having done far too much to list here, her longevity is incredible, listing 37 Yorkshire 3 Peaks races to her name for example.

Throughout her running career Wendy worked as a doctor, both as a Consultant Rheumatologist and as a Sports Medicine Physician. As she has gotten older she has been a strong advocate for older age categories in championship races, and herself has multiple FV50, FV55, FV60 and FV65 English championship results.

If you are interested in the KIMM / OMM mountain marathons, please also see Episode 28 with Janie Oates and Victoria Thompson who won the 2022 Elite OMM and were at the time the only female Elite category finishers since 2016. Episode 41 also features Phil Rutter and myself discussing winning the OMM 2024.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: ⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

Rob Fairley talks to me about his journey as an artist - starting at an early age with a school visit to St Kilda, through Edinburgh College of Art and onwards to Mallaig and then Shona Beag island where he spent 5 years as its sole occupant in his early 20s. There he created what would now be described as land art, for example altering the movement of deer in certain ways to create patterns, or 'tuning' a causeway by moving rocks to change the pitch.

He used climbing mainly as a means of exploration, and undertook several mountaineering expeditions to the Himalaya with Mal Duff - sketching people in busy Kathmandu and creating vivid mountain watercolours.

Rob recounts the origins of Room 13, a child-led art project starting in 1994 at Caol Primary School, Fort William. The Room 13 approach spread internationally and allowed young people a creative freedom not found in mainsteam school art education. The 'outsider art' produced - freed from classroom or teacher influence - often explored adolescent themes neglected at school. Rob was involved with several Room 13 trips to Nepal including a road trip with Room 13's young people from Delhi to Mumbai to establish a school for Mumbai's street children.

I misnamed Robert Macfarlane's book 'Underland' when we are discussing the Chauvet cave paintings and 'thin places'.

Rob's website is at robfairley.co.uk

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: ⁠https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

Dan Ashwood (Dash) talks me through the Flow Country Traverse which he pioneered in April 2025. This 100km route started at Berriedale on the Caithness coast and headed west into the Flow Country: one of the largest blanket bog systems in the world.

Dan has become a bog expert having worked in peatland restoration projects with Caledonian Climate for the past several years. Spending more time in peatland led him to appreciate these biodiverse areas both for their ecological importance in terms of carbon sinks, and also their abundant plant and animal life.

Traversing the Scaraben group he then moved into much less visited terrain with the Knockfin Heights area of complex peatland. Finding it drier than expected, he continued to the Ben Griams, and then Garvault Hotel for a welcome cuppa.

The route continued over Beinn a' Mhadaidh to Syre Lodge, Beinn Stumanadh, and Loch na Moine, before the final section on Ben Loyal and Ben Hope.

Helped at road crossings and at the finish by his friend Chris Wilkinson, the traverse took in bogland in a wide variety of conditions, ranging from degraded to thriving. In 2024 the Flow Country was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Dan chose to finish the traverse with Ben Hope partly as a symbolism of the hope he feels for the future of this peatland area, its abundant wildlife, wide open wilderness, and importance in carbon capture.

See Dan’s full write up here: https://caledonianclimate.com/news/2025/04/16/running-100km-across-the-flow-country/

Note: I am informed that 'flow' is a Scots word for bog or morass, possibly from the Norse / Icelandic word floi. Thanks to Nate for this.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

I speak to Dominic Oughton, a Trustee of Climbers Against Cancer (CAC), which is a charity raising money for research and therapeutic projects around the world that support those living with or after cancer.

Founded by John Ellison, CAC has recently celebrated it's 10 year anniversary, and has raised over £700,000 to support cancer research and therapeautic initiatives worldwide. You will likely have seen the bright and bold CAC T-shirts at a climbing wall or crag near you.

CAC's annual Everest challenges in now underway, encouraging the community to climb, run, walk or cycle the equivalent height of the mountain, to raise funds and show support - go to the website to get involved.

Dominic outlines some of the recent cancer projects that CAC has supported and talks of the positivity he has seen as a result of climbing and physical activity in people living with cancer.

Also the president of the BMC, Dominic talks about recently completing his own Hard Rock Challenge - climbing all 60 routes in the iconic Ken Wilson book over 38 years of climbing.

Please checkout more details, donate, and/or take on the Everest Challenge at https://climbersagainstcancer.org/

Dom’s adventures can be followed at https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/

In this conversation with Helen Rennard we hear about her Winter Munro round of last winter in which she completed all 282 Munros in 80 days, beating the previous record of 83 days shared by Martin Moran (1985) and Anna Wells (2024).

Helen talks about her formative days in a local Staffordshire hill walking club, before her progression to many years of hard Scottish winter climbing. She has held the female winter Tranter’s round record in the past, as well as completing many winter climbing first ascents and hard repeat ascents around Scotland.

We talk about motivations, logistics, weather conditions, and some of the factors that made Helen take a very ‘under the radar’ approach to her round.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

In this episode I talk to Iain Innes about his season racing skimo in the ISMF World Cup series, before going on to chat about longer team races and our season finale in the iconic Trofeo Mezzalama race in the Monte Rosa region of the Pennine Alps.

Iain raced for Team GB as a downhill skier for over ten years, before switching to more mountaineering-centred activities. This season he has lived out of his van in the alps, training full time as a skimo athlete. Whether racing the furiously-paced skimo sprint, putting in big elevation days to Chamonix summits or cross training on foot or by paraglider, he has had a long and busy season.

Trofeo Mezzalama is an Italian high altitude ski mountaineering team race in which pairs traverse from Breuil-Cervinia to Gressoney-la-Trinite, crossing the Monte Rosa massif and reaching altitudes of over 4200m. Named after Italian military ski mountaineer Ottorino Mezzalama, the race was started in 1933 and is one of the oldest and best known skimo races in the world.

Due to the altitude and terrain involved, it is difficult to get perfect conditions on race day. Thus we were delighted to be met with exactly that: even atop the 4225m Castor there was no wind, perfect visibility and sun, with good snow and well established tracks. The race involves around 3200m of ascent over 40km and pairs must be roped together for the glacial section of the race.

We talk through the preparation for this race, as well as race day itself, where an excited 320 teams set off at 5.30am on foot through the dark but crowd -lined streets of Cervinia.

Iain is supported by Black Diamond, Augment and Tillicoultry Quarries.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smp6_jYcbAY for a video of Mezzalama

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

In this episode I talk to Will Herman about his new book Northern Horizons. The book explores the hills of Cumbria and Scotland in a series of personal reflections illustrated with the author’s photography. Will has been a fell racer, a runner, a kayaker and a climber - but his book is primarily about mountain experiences themselves. He takes us on long and often unusual routes which are woven with detail of these precious places and some of their wider human and geologic history.

Northern Horizons will be published by Scottish Mountaineering Press on 17th February 2025. Much more than a guidebook, we are transported to the hills, and for many this book will both trigger memories and bring inspiration for future adventures. 

In discussing the book we delve into the history of the land: the Clearances, deforestation, changing land use as well as changing modern attitudes to these wild spaces which are increasingly commodified and commercialised. 

Northern Horizons can be pre-ordered online, and will be in bookshops from the 17th February.

Will has a website at www.runswithaxes.com which gives further information on his writing and photography.

Correction - I translated A’Chailleach as ‘witch’ when it is more accurately ‘the old woman’. The stories in the book The Bone Cave by Dougie Strang that I mention often feature a witch figure ‘A’Chailleach’.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

In this episode I meet Dr Mia Burleigh at the University of the West of Scotland in Blantyre, Glasgow, to undertake some physiology testing. I had Lactate Threshold and VO2max testing done and we discuss the results.

Dr Burleigh is a Senior Lecturer and Laboratory Director at the university’s Sport and Physical Activity Research Institute, which is the only BASES accredited lab in Scotland (British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences).

First I undertook Lactate Threshold testing, which involved running for 4 minute blocks at increasing speed increments, with a fingerprick lactate blood test every 4 minutes. This allowed calculation of Lactate Threshold and Lactate Turnpoint.

Next I donned a breathing mask and ran to failure at a set speed with gradient increasing by 1% every minute, to test maximum oxygen delivery, and calculate VO2max. This was a much tougher test!

Lab details: https://shop.uws.ac.uk/product-catalogue/schools/school-of-health-and-life-science-hls/maximal-exercise-test

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild

This is a live recording of a conversation at The Barrel House, Kendal as part of Kendal Mountain Festival on Saturday 23rd November 2024.

Finlay Wild talks to The Selkies (Suzy Connor, Lizzie Goodfellow, Heloise Le Clanche and Cat Riaz) about their journey to the finish line of the 2024 Scottish Islands Peaks Race (SIPR), as the first all-female team to compete in 19 years. The SIPR is a gruelling sailing and running race involving sailing between - and running up peaks - on Mull, Jura and Arran in a non stop race from Oban to Troon, held in May each year. The fifth member of the team was sailor Kirsteen Woods.

The team first had to find each other and a boat to even get to the start line. Muir Anderson lent his boat Dipper, and after a significant amount of work to make her race ready, the team were ready to compete. Navigating what is traditionally a male dominated race, they finished in a little under 68 hours in a close run race with the chasing boat.

It was a pleasure to meet the team and hear their recollections of the journey - complete with anecdotes about purgatorial rowing, 7am champagne, and terrible singing!

And if anyone has a spare yacht for 2025...

See the team in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVsgGC0mtBU

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild