More sunrises than hot dinners

A couple of years ago, Russ Moorhouse was running through the hills near his home in the Lake District. In the back of his mind, he was looking for two things – an adventure and a way to raise money for MQ Mental Health Research. A keen wild camper, it just so happened that his route took him past a couple of fells where he’d spent the night. It all came together. There are 214 Wainwright fells, the hills of the Lake District depicted in Alfred Wainwright’s seven-volume guide published in the 70s. Russ decided across one year, he would spend a night camped on every fell.

When we spoke to him in mid December, he had slept on 150 fells and had one night left of a cold four-night stint, spending lunchtimes in a van as he moved from mountain to mountain, with each day’s camping spot picked out of a bag in the morning. He told us that after a couple of days of “quite nice” conditions (minus five degrees with snow) the weather had deteriorated into wind and rain, spoiling his favourite moment, the sunrise. “In summer I set my alarm to wake up for sunrise because I don’t want to miss it, but this morning there was never going to be a sunrise anyway. It was pissing it down, so I packed up and came down.”

The changeable nature of the weather has kept Russ on his toes, from snow in May to winds that have forced him to crawl to a peak or snapped the poles of his tent. But he has never given up on a night, sticking hard to the rules – he must climb to the summit and camp on the mountain, as close to the top as is sensible, without coming back down. Sensible, in this case, is a relative term, as Russ’ night on Jack’s Rake testifies. The “walk” alone is a scramble up a barely visible path, with a sharp drop waiting if you stumble, but the camping spot is another level altogether.

What’s more important to him than heights and mileage is the peace of being out on the mountain alone when all the day hikers have gone home, the powerful contrast with the modern world that wild camping offers. It’s a fitting way to support a charity dedicated to understanding and combatting the shocking decline in mental health in our society. It’s hard not to be uplifted by the sight of the ranks of mountains reaching west from the peaks of the eastern fells or a sunrise that feels like it’s just for you, even when you've had "more sunrises than hot dinners" for a couple of months.

There’s also an element of bringing people a new perspective on the Lake District. For his forthcoming book, Russ is making sure to capture photos of every fell, getting beyond the typical “midday, blue sky” images of the lakes to the grey-gold of dawn and the sheen of moonlight on snow and rocks. He talks of the connection to nature you feel when all you can hear are the streams, birds and the wind, quoting Wainwright himself who said that when you’ve spent a night on a mountain, it feels like a friend.

For such a solitary pursuit, wild camping has certainly lead to Russ making plenty of friends himself. As well as the 214 fells he’s getting to know, he’s developing a niche social media following that’s inspired him to yet another challenge - the setting of a world record. The plan is to stage the biggest single-night simultaneous bivvy bag camping event ever when he camps on his final fell in February. With over a thousand people already signed up, the plan is to hold a virtual event, so that the quiet spirit of wild camping isn't lost. Russ and the Facebook group that’s formed are full of advice for people taking part. He hopes that some who are trying wild camping for the first time will get the bug and realise the value of going a bit wild now and again.

As we finish talking, Russ is prepping for his last night of the week. The weather is looking better than it has done and he’s picked the name of Fleetwith Pike out of his little yellow bag. We ask him if he’s glad that one came out and he says he really doesn’t mind. He loves them all.

Follow Russ on Instagram, join the Bivvy Bag World Record or learn more about MQ Mental Health.