From Casual Walker to Completionist: The Power of Tracking Your Fells

There's a moment every hill bagger remembers. You're standing on a summit, wind in your face, and you think: "I wonder how many of these I've actually done?"

Maybe you've been walking the Lake District fells for years without keeping count. Maybe you've got a dog-eared copy of Wainwright's guides with a few pencil ticks in the margins. Or maybe you've just discovered that "hill bagging" is a thing, and you want in.

Whatever brought you here, one thing tends to separate the people who bag a handful of fells from those who complete entire lists: they track their progress.

Why Bother Tracking?

It sounds simple, almost too simple. But writing down (or better yet, automatically logging) each fell you complete does something interesting to your brain. It turns an afternoon walk into part of a bigger story. Suddenly that wet Tuesday on Helm Crag isn't just a soggy outing. It's fell number 34 of 214.

Platforms like AllTrails and Strava are brilliant for recording your hikes and runs. They'll show you distance, elevation gain, pace, and route maps. But if you're specifically interested in hill bagging in the UK, whether that's the Wainwrights, Munros, or any other recognised list, those platforms weren't really built with fell completion in mind.

That's where Trailwise comes in. It was designed from the ground up for hill baggers, wild campers, and gear-obsessed walkers who want more than just a GPS trace of their day out.

Automatic Fell Completion from Strava

If you already record your hikes on Strava, Trailwise can sync your activities and automatically tick off the fells you've completed. No manual entry, no spreadsheets, no trying to remember whether you actually touched the summit cairn on Great Gable last October. Connect your Strava account, and your existing activity history populates your fell completion record straight away.

For those who prefer not to use Strava, you can also log fells manually within the Trailwise app. Either way, your progress is always up to date.

Goals That Actually Motivate

One of the things that keeps hill baggers going is having something to aim for. Trailwise builds this in with an awards system based on your progression. As you complete more fells, you unlock awards that mark your milestones. It's a small thing, but seeing that next award just a few summits away has a way of getting you out the door on mornings when the forecast looks iffy.

This is something you won't find on Strava or AllTrails. Those platforms treat every hike as a standalone event. Trailwise treats your entire hill bagging journey as a connected, ongoing pursuit, and rewards you for sticking with it.

Plan Your Routes, Manage Your Gear

Tracking fells is just one part of the picture. Trailwise also offers trip and route planning tools, so you can map out your next outing and see which unbagged fells are within reach. Heading to the Lakes for the weekend? Pull up your incomplete Wainwrights in that area and plan a route that ticks off two or three in a single day.

On the gear side, Trailwise lets you build and manage gear lists with weight tracking. If you've ever stood at a trailhead wondering why your pack feels heavier than last time, you'll appreciate being able to see exactly what's in your bag and how much it all weighs. You can also share your gear lists with other users, which is handy when friends ask what kit you'd recommend for a particular trip.

Share Your Progress

Hill bagging can be a solitary pursuit, but it doesn't have to be. Trailwise lets you share your trips and gear lists with other users on the platform. Whether you want to compare progress with a friend who's also working through the Wainwrights, or just show off a particularly good summit photo, the social features keep things connected without the noise of a general-purpose social network.

Getting Started

The best part? You can start right now, for free. Trailwise's free tier gives you everything you need to begin tracking your fells and building your record. If you want the full experience, including all the planning tools, gear management, and social features, the subscription is just 99p a month. That's less than a coffee at the services on the M6.

You can sign up on the web or download the app from the App Store.

Whether you've bagged five fells or fifty, there's something satisfying about seeing your progress laid out in front of you. It turns a hobby into a quest, and a quest into something you'll stick with for years.

See you on the hills.