To celebrate our 70th Anniversary, Durham University Hillwalking Society (DUHWS) are attempting to climb all 214 Wainwrights in just 24 hours. These are Lake District fells ranging from small hills to the highest mountains in England, categorised by Alfred Wainwright in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

Summiting all these in 24 hours is no mean feat, and will require almost 100 participants completing around 40 routes, ranging from short walks to gruelling fell runs. The combined height of all 214 is almost 140,000m - higher than 15 Everests!

DUHWS members will also be raising donations to help support Mountain Rescue. The donations raised will be split 50:50 between Teesdale & Weardale Search & Mountain Rescue (the local team for County Durham) and Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association. 

The work of the Lake District teams is vital and well publicised - from searching from lost walkers to rescuing cragfast climbers they make the mountains a much safer place to be.

The work of the County Durham team is less well known - the sheer size of the county means they focus much more on searches, including assisting the police in finding missing people, and in river recoveries.

All Mountain Rescue teams are made up of volunteers and are entirely reliant on charitable donations, so events like this are incredibly important to ensure their continued existence.