Cumbria’s mountain whiz kid has completed his second round of Wainwrights.
It’s a feat that has made Frankie McMillan, age nine, of Gosforth, the youngest person to ever complete the 214 peaks twice.
The youngster – who has previously tackled over 700 mountains including Everest and Mount Olympus – completed the 428 peaks over the course of a year and a half.
His mountain leader and mountain rescue team member mum Basia, 40, has been by his side throughout the challenge and said they have no plans to stop peak bagging.
The pair have now started their third round of the Wainwrights, and have already conquered 14 since completing their second round, but this time it will see them tackle longer and more ambitious routes.
Basia also made sure Frankie’s final Wainwright on their second round was extra special, with school friends and fellow climbing friends from her guided walking business Hills and Skills joining in.
The group finished Frankie’s second round together on Middle Fell and performed a guard of honour using walking sticks for the nine year old to walk under to reach the peak.
Frankie added that the pair also got to celebrate at the top with a can of sprite and at the bottom they enjoyed a visit to The Kellbank pub.
Basia said: “It was a lovely day and a very proud moment. I remember when we did the first round it took a much longer time and we had a break for Covid as well and I’d had knee surgery, so it was a very long project.
“When it finished, I almost felt empty and emotional thinking what now since it had been our goal for so many years.
“So we decided to just start them all over again. Finishing the second round was very emotional too, but this time not upsetting, because we thought okay, now we’re onto round three, this is what we want to do, so let’s do it again and again.”
Frankie said he enjoys doing the Wainwrights so much that he wants to break a world record and complete them 100 times.
Basia added that they have worked doing the Wainwrights around his school life and his bigger adventures by only climbing on the weekends.
She said: “It’s just part of our life now. Some children won’t even ask Frankie what he’s doing at the weekend because they know he’ll be up in the mountains.
“Some people go to Church on Sundays or play golf but we are going up into the mountains every weekend.”
For their third round of the Wainwrights the pair are planning to do all 214 fells in just 43 long walks, making use of different routes and approaches.
Frankie also wants to finish his third round before his 10th birthday next January.
Basia said: “The original plan is because we’ve done them twice we want to do the third time a little bit different, so we want to split the Wainwrights into different groups and do the walks from different sides.
“On the first round when we started Frankie was only three, so we were doing a lot of single fells, as he grew we did three or four then seven at a time, so it is really different whenever you go.
“But we go in any weather as long as its safe, a little bit of rain doesn’t scare us. We also went in winter and had winter training beforehand and crampons and ice axes, but as long as it’s safe, we’ll go.”
Frankie said his favourite Wainwright is Yewbarrow as it is more technical and has more scramble elements – a challenge that Frankie loves.
Basia said Catbells will always be a very special fell to her, as it was the first one Frankie climbed at the age of three.
For his next big adventure, Frankie is now aiming to climb all of the highest peaks in Europe.
Alongside his big adventures on Everest, Mount Olympus and the Atlas Mountains Frankie has also passionately raised money for charity.
He added: “I just feel if everyone helped each other the world would be a better place.”
