After a career in banking and consulting, I went back to the hills. Second Summit is the record: long routes walked self-supported, tracked live, one at a time. In March it was the Coast to Coast. In October it's the Snowdonia Way.
NEXT LIVE · SNOWDONIA WAY · OCT 2026
COAST TO COAST ✓SNOWDONIA WAY · OCT— we'll see
Latest film
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COAST TO COAST · 2026
172 miles across England: the full story
Why "second summit"
The first summit was work. This is the second. If you're at a similar point and wondering what's next, some of what I've learned along the way might be useful. The background →
Live expedition · Leg 1
Snowdon, Everest & Crib Goch
Beddgelert → Conwy · 44 miles · 5 days · self-supported · October 2026
Where is he now TRACKING
Position updates every 10 minutes from the inReach. When the tracker pauses overnight, so has he — probably somewhere with a fire.
Today's conditions SAMPLE DATA
StageDay 3 · PYG → Glyders wild camp
SummitsGlyder Fach 994m
Wind on ridgesSW 35 mph, gusting 50
Cloud base700m, lifting pm
RainShowers to 11am
The callDecide at breakfast — camp or valley
Compiled each morning from the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS Eryri. The question that matters: what will he be facing today?
Daily films
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DAY 2
Crib Goch: the knife edge
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DAY 1
Nant Gwynant to the Everest hotel
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DAY 0
Kit shakedown in Beddgelert
Filmed on the hill, uploaded each evening. No support vehicle, no satellite uplink — just what fits in the pack.
Field note · sample
Day 2, Pen-y-Gwryd. The 1953 Everest team trained from this bar. Tomorrow the kit stays in the room and I go up with a daysack, a guide, and every hour of bouldering since August. Wind is the only vote that counts.
Expedition record · March 2026
Coast to Coast
St Bees → Robin Hood's Bay · Wainwright's masterwork, walked self-supported
172
Miles
23,180
Ft ascent
16
Days
4
Wild camps
9
Pub nights
1
Pebble, carried sea to sea
The route, day by day
D02Ennerdale → Haystacks wild camp — Wainwright's ashes at Innominate Tarn9.9 mi
D05Patterdale → Shap over Kidsty Pike at dawn, 780m12.6 mi
D06Shap → Kirkby Stephen — the one that nearly broke me18.9 mi
D16Grosmont → Robin Hood's Bay — pebble into the North Sea9.5 mi
Full 16-day log, route flythrough and film to follow here.
Hard-won advice
DO
Get your boots fitted by a specialist. A five-width fitting changed everything — most walkers are in boots a size too small.
DO
Split Patterdale–Shap with a camp at Angle Tarn. Kidsty Pike at dawn instead of at the end of your strength.
DON'T
Trust the itinerary that intersperses 3-mile strolls with 25-mile epics. Cap the days. The load does the damage, not the miles.
DON'T
Film and walk at the same time on the hill. Ever.
Full dos & don'ts film and the complete kit list with verdicts to follow.
The background
Toby Wise, FRGS
I spent my career in banking and consulting. A couple of years ago I started walking seriously again, and found I didn't want to stop. Second Summit is the result: long routes, walked self-supported, planned carefully and filmed as I go.
In March I walked the Coast to Coast — 172 miles from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, camping high and sleeping in old pubs. This October it's the northern half of the Snowdonia Way. What comes after that, I'll decide when I'm back.
The first summit was work. This is the second.
If you're at a similar stage — the career largely done, wondering what fills the space — this site is partly for you. The routes, the kit that worked and didn't, the honest account of what a 54-year-old body can be trained to do. In time I'd like to tell other people's second-summit stories here too, not just mine.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Trustee of the Gwennili Sailing Trust, which takes veterans offshore under sail.
Piece-to-camera film to sit here, with this as the written version beneath it.
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