it is quite a lot isn’t it?

went to the lakes with the sweary boys at the weekend, they did the 4 passes route.
hell of a lot of climbing and descending for a 18 mile route…. 8)

It’s a lot for 18 miles, not so for 100 😉

i bet that was a lot of pushing.

The 4 passes is a cracking route – I need to do it again myself. And yes, that is a hell of a lot of climbing for just 18 miles, but it’s also a hell of a lot of epic descending 🙂

I did over 10000 in 23 miles round Surrey Hills a couple of years ago.

Course you did.

What is this 4 passes route then?

Styhead Pass, Black Sail Pass, Scarth Gap Pass and Honister Pass?

I did over 10000 in 23 miles round Surrey Hills a couple of years ago.

Grum +1

what jekkyl said, but left at the top of honister and up through the quarries and down warnscale.

nice Ton, any pics? get ’em up.

Did you see if they’ve managed to get that Zip wire installed at Honister yet?

Grum +1

Indeed 430ft a mile of climbing is on par with the toughest fell-races in the UK – which aren’t in Surrey.

If you like your descents natural and don’t mind carrying for hours, 4 passes is the best 1-day route in England I can think of. Scarth’s a bit crap, but the other three are fantastic.

nice Ton, any pics? get ’em up.

I will have a word and see if I can get some posted.

5172ft of climbing? Or 5172ft of ascent with carrying your bike lots?

There’s a big difference. 8)

Was DG on big wheels? Guessing the rest were on Alpines?

he was, and Dougie……nice stable looking things, with the 29” pikes up front.
I wish I was well……. 😆

I’d better restrict my bragging about yesterdays road ride to the office couch potatoes, I’m clearly small fry in this Willy waving contest 😳

Course you did.

only going by the GPS…

maybe the GPS lied – I have just looked at some other routes that come in at about 3500 for 18 miles, but I did loop repeatedly around the same area in Pitch hill.

Maybe I will do it again this summer to check…

Sadly it did! I think 150-200ft/mile is more ‘normal’ for the Surrey Hills, unless you just rode up and down that fireroad onto Pitch from just below Walking Bottom car park!

It’s only 20km long but there are four passes to take your mountain bike up and over: Scarth Gap, Black Sail, Sty Head & Honister. The only one you can ride up all the way is Honister Pass which is a steep long road climb followed by an even steeper drag through a quarry; the rest require mostly pushing/carrying of the bike to get to the top. It’s a bit like taking your bike for a walk around some of the most impressive mountains in the UK with the added bonus of being able to ride between and down them too! – See more at: http://www.hitthehills.com/blog/index.php/2012/02/tour-of-great-gable/#sthash.7QC5mD0i.dpuf

That sounds right up my street. Did you enjoy it?

Was the uphill effort worth it for the downhill?

Hope the sweary northerners got some good cam footage, it’s a good’un.

sounds ace! I can only run to 4,000ft of climbing and that’s over 50 miles.. (off-road only). mixed trails it’s neared 5,000ft (and 100+ miles..)

unless you just rode up and down that fireroad onto Pitch from just below Walking Bottom car park!

went up it quite a few times.

only going by the GPS…

If your GPS is using map corrected elevations then it’s almost certainly an over-estimate.

went up it quite a few times.

How stunningly dull! I mean the virtually (in fact I’ve never seen anyone do it) unrideable one, I suspect laps of that would be about the closest you’d get, but as said – this ‘ride’ is basically hiking with a bike, so the notion you can get nearly double the amount of climbing in in Surrey is slightly laughable. Sorry, I’d far sooner do the Surrey Hills ride FWIW and not walk loads!

went up it quite a few times.

Why not just keep riding up Gassons Farm from the bottom of BKB to the top of pitch!
On another note, trails in great condition considering the winter we have had. Shame about some of the trails clearing in Winterfold.
Also, a great job on the new trail at the top of Leith.

How stunningly dull!

I was out there for hours and ended up back in the car park quite a few times, so happened to ride back up several routes several times in the course of the day.

Puts Mont Ventoux into perspective.

5,039 feet in 12.1 miles from Bedoin (4,999ft of elevation gain).

But you can ride up Mont Ventoux, sounds like this was a lot of carrying. Also, probably some GPS inaccuracies. In hilly terrain I find the spots jump around and create large variances – GPS is less reliable in mountainous terrain for sure. While riding in the Alps, my brother climbed 500m on a flat road because the GPS ‘jumped’ to the cliff/mountain next to us.

Having ridden up Mont Ventoux in 30+’C with the sun reflecting off the white stone, it wasn’t an easy 12.1 miles from my perspective! The two aren’t so easily comparible from mere numbers.

Did 4 passes last Summer. A cracking route.
A few dabs on Warnscale though, so need to go back for another go (‘cos it’s possibly the best bit)

[edit] Bit surprised that some folk think there’s something wrong with hike-a-bike. How the hell do they expect to be able to ride up anything that’s good to ride down? [/edit]

How the hell do they expect to be able to ride up anything that’s good to ride down?

1) I try and avoid riding up something purely to turn around and come down it (not suggesting that’s what the 4 passes is though).

2) Because you don’t need a completely unrideable climb for it to make a ‘good’ descent, plenty of decent descents can be ridden up if you’re so inclined.

3) We’re just not as epic as you. 🙄

Personally, for me, life’s too short to spend time walking with my bike. I’d far sooner go for a ride and actually ride. I can see the appeal, but it’s not for me. If that means I miss 5 minutes of great descending, but can do another hour of good stuff, I’ll take that!

Alright, reading that back it did sound a bit 🙄

Let me rephrase it:
There aren’t many Lakeland mountains that you can ride up, but if you don’t mind lugging a bike up them then the reward is invariably worth it.

I reckon it’s better route if you bin off the descent in to Wasdale, which isn’t all that great, and head over to the top of Great Gable out of Ennerdale. Descend to Styhead, then head up to Sprinkling Tarn and as far up Scafell as you can get, then turn round and descend all the way back to Borrowdale to pick up the rest of the route. Warnscale is an absolutely brilliant way to end a ride.

Don’t be daft – Blacksail Pass descending into Wasdale Head is one of the best bits!

There speaks someone that hasn’t ridden his bike off Great Gable!

I did this route with a mate a couple of years ago, and remember thinking that a dropper post and XC helmet were possibly the wrong choices.

The climbs are mostly all hike-a-bike (apart from Honister up to above the YHA), and the descents are brilliant, but pretty fast and techy. Wearing shoes that give good grip whilst climbing with a bike on your back for a few hours is worth thinking about too, as a pair of carbon-soled disco slippers would be really painful!

Probably one of the best routes I’ve ever done in the UK. And yup, I thought the descent down to Wasdale was pretty good.

@paulrockliffe – ha, you got me. It’s on the list for this year, don’t worry 🙂