Windermere climber completes 83 ascents in two months

Anna Taylor's challenge took her to Wales

A woman from Cumbria has completed a rock-climbing challenge covering 83 routes across the UK.

Anna Taylor, from Windermere, climbed a total of 10,000m (33,000ft) and cycled 2,400km (1,491 miles) over 62 days.

The 23-year-old, who started climbing at the age of 10, covered all 83 routes listed in renowned climbing guide Classic Rock, most of them solo.

She said the experience had been memorable and she was "both delighted and relieved" to finish.

"Soloing a wet route covered in vegetation is not much fun, while my legs were definitely not ready for cycling hundreds of miles while carrying all of my climbing gear," she said.

"Add in a bout of sickness and some lively weather and the round was far from straightforward, but the compensations more than made up for all of that."

The weather was not always kind, Ms Taylor said

Classic Rock, first published in 1978, is well known in climbing circles and features what the writer and journalist Ken Wilson believed to be the UK's best rock climbs, graded up to "very severe".

Some climbers have a long-term plan to tick off the book's routes and Ms Taylor is believed to be the first to complete them all while cycling between each one.

Carrying all of her kit, she travelled from Cornwall to Wales, the Peak District, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands, finishing on the notoriously challenging Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye.

She said she had "gained an even greater appreciation of the amazing landscapes on these shores, and of the amazing routes that Ken Wilson collected".

Ms Taylor has climbed a number of routes considered to be very difficult and, in 2020, became the first woman to climb the 2,000ft (610m) sheer rock face of Mount Roraima, in Guyana, South America.

Some of the book's climbs are categorised as very severe

Many of the routes were undertaken solo