Sleeping the Wainwrights

YOU’VE HEARD of peak bagging – now what about giving sleep bagging a try?

Russell Moorhouse is hoping to spark a new trend by sleeping on every Wainwright summit over the course of the next year, wild camping during the week and retreating to his van for weekends and holidays. He’s using the project to highlight the importance of the ‘leave no trace’ principle and to raise money for MQ Mental Health Research.

What gave you the idea of sleep bagging the Wainwrights?

I’m not sure! I wanted an adventure, something that was fun and could inspire other people. For 15 years I’ve read mountain books about everything from the first people [by Ronald Turnbull] and he mentioned sleep bagging as an idea in his book. I’d already done some peak bagging – I was three-quarters of the way through doing the 214 Wainwrights – and I thought that I’d quite like to be the founder of mountain sleep bagging! I'm 39 fells down so far, and I hope to do them all within a year.