The walk begins at Windermere and quickly climbs to the viewpoint of Orrest Head. It was from here that a young Wainwright had his first view of the Lake District. From Orrest Head the route climbs the Garburn Road to the pass from where it follows the Kentmere Horseshoe to Thornthwaite Crag. The route along this side of the 'horseshoe' is a spectacular 'roller coaster' ride over the summits of Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick to the summit of Thornthwaite Crag. On the summit you will find a huge cairn known as Thornthwaite Beacon which can be seen for miles around. From the 'Beacon' the gradients ease somewhat as the route crosses to High St. 

In 2003, myself and a group of friends from Milton Keynes Ramblers walked three sections from Windermere to Scales, which included an exhilarating traverse of Striding Edge on the second day before we climbed onto Helvellyn. In 2004, we continued from Scales onto Blencathra via Sharp Edge, an even more precipitous ridge than Striding Edge, although some of the group had to turn back from this as they found it too exposed. This trip ended in Buttermere, from where we resumed in 2005 with an attempt to climb onto the High Stile Ridge only to be beaten back by winds and driving rain. The wind was so strong, that virtually everyone in the party at some point was blown off of their feet and upon arriving at the summit of Red Pike, we decided that the sensible thing to do was to return back to Buttermere. The following two days were fine however and we completed the section by finishing in Wasdale having climbed some impressive peaks including Great Gable and Pillar. We completed the walk during Easter 2006 when we began with an exciting mini-bus trip over the Wrynose and Hardnott passes from our Ambleside base to Wasdale. From here we climbed to a snow-clad Scafell Pike and down into Great Langdale via Esk Pike and Bowfell. The following day we climbed Crinkle Crags and Pike of Blisco before finishing with a marathon ten hour walk on the final day via the Langdale Pikes to Grasmere and onto Ambleside. Although the guidebook gave the mileage as fourteen miles for the last day, we measured it at at least seventeen on our return home. The day after this marathon walk, some of the group decided that although the walk officially finishes in Ambleside, they would like to complete the circuit and return to Orrest head so we left Ambleside via Jenkins Crag and finally reached the point where we had started out three years earlier. It had been a very tough but spectacular and exhilarating walk through the finest scenery that the Lake District has to offer and a fitting tribute to the famous fellwalker.