How a computer program walked the Wainwrights

(And found the most efficient way of doing it, too…)

YOU MIGHT THINK, given the feats of fellrunners, endurance walkers, guidebook writers and aerial mapping specialists, that we’d have figured out the quickest route round all the fells of the Lake District by now. But apparently not, because a new route round the 214 ‘Wainwrights’, shorter and quicker than the one used by the fastest fellrunners, has been worked out by a computer.

The existing optimum route was planned out by fellrunner Steve Birkinshaw in 2014. Plotting it took six months and all his years of experience, resulting in a route of 297½ miles.

Steve then ran it in six days and 13 hours, establishing a record which was in turn broken in 2019 by Paul Tierney, who ran Steve’s route in six days and six hours.

Steve had said in the past he thought it unlikely a computer would be able to produce a viable alternative route given the uncertainties of terrain and software. But Dr Andrew Markwick, a physics lecturer at Manchester University, saw an opportunity to challenge his students, and set them to work.

Sure enough, masters students Callum Duncan and Jordan Barton – who have never set foot in the Lakes – rose to the challenge. They created a new algorithm combining Open Streetmaps data showing routes shared by GPS users with a series of complex physical efficiency equations, plus real-world input from Steve himself.

After months of work, they fed the data into a server used for plotting optimum delivery routes for drivers. And lo and behold, out came a new route (pictured).

At 294 miles it’s 3½ miles shorter than Steve’s route, and the algorithm says it could be done in six days, three hours and 20 minutes – some 2% quicker than Paul’s record time, if run at the same pace.

“It’s a huge and complex mathematical exercise because there are so many variants, and if you change one element you get a domino effect,” says Steve.

“But the route looks pretty viable, although I still need to see it on a proper gpx file rather than just the illustrations in their report.”

Steve doesn’t fancy trying it, but thinks the new route might well tempt someone to set a new record.

“It’s not without issues though,” he warns. “On my route I planned a road crossing every 8-10 hours so I could meet my support team. But this route has a section with no road crossing in 20 hours so you would have to carry a lot more kit.”

But we’re not all about speed on CW, so how long does it take to walk the Wainwrights in one go? Take a bow avid walker James Forrest, who last year used Steve’s route to set a record for the fastest unsupported Wainwrights completion, getting round in 14 days and 11 hours.

That’s still pretty damn quick.