Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Thoughts on Tour of Great Gable
  • fergal
    Free Member

    Sufferfest or walk in the park?, what do you think.

    smeg
    Free Member

    Want to do this as well, understand you can do it as a 3 or 4 passes route ?, lots of pushing/carrying involved…big day out, looks worth the effort but will wait and see what others say who have actually done it.

    fergal
    Free Member

    Did it yesterday via the four passes, just fishing for others opinions, a lot of hiking over 4500ft of it, two of the descents are corkers, character building for sure, but i don’t think i will be rushing back for more.

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    neninja
    Free Member

    Having walked Scarth Gap and Black Sail pass I don’t think I’d fancy pushing/carrying up them.

    Great for those who enjoy punishing themselves but for me there are too many other superb routes in the Lakes you can actually ride.

    smeg
    Free Member

    What was your route fergal ?

    djglover
    Free Member

    I did this with a bike in 1990 or so, on a rigid saracen, I vowed never to return.

    When I say did it with a bike, I carried the bike round.

    I’d love to run it now though

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    It’s a great route over Scarth Gap, I had intended to do Black Sail and over Kirk Fell, but Kirk Fell looked like a cliff and Black Sail was steeper than I remembered, so I turned left and went up the tongue to the foot of Green Gable, contoured right and then turned left up to the summit of Great Gable.

    Down to Styhead Tarn is really good, very testing though, especially at the top! From Stockley Bridge I went up Honister Pass, round the back of Fleetwith Pike and down Warnscale Bottom and back to the car.

    Great day out.

    fergal
    Free Member

    Yep on a capable bike the descents are good, Black sail pass down to Wasdale worth it, Styhead great bit of riding, a lot of steps but some good natural rock features.

    Smeg the classic, over Honister through the quarry, down the rockfest of a path to Wharnscale, Scarthgap, Blacksail to Wasdale, Styhead pass.

    DavidM
    Free Member

    One of the best rides in England by my reckoning, but then I don’t mind the colossal hike-a-bikes to much. I would say all four descents are corkers personally. Now looking at your variation PR – Allways looked up to windy gap and thought it might be good, although from your description did you take the trail down to the north of Raven Crag, as opposed to straight over windy gap? Looks a tad on the steep side that.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    David, I’m not sure about Raven Crag, the only Raven Crag I can see on the map is off Glaramara, which although in approximately the right ball-park is quite a long way off the route I described!

    Anyway, I think you might be looking up to Windy Gap via Aaron Slack? My route is from the bottom of Scarth Gap out of Ennerdale to Great Gable. When I got into Ennerdale Black Sail looked steep and Kirk Fell looked un-rideable for a lot of the descent towards Great Gable. If you look up Ennerdale valley towards Green Gable, there’s a line of glacial moraine that runs down from Green Gable. It looked an easier push up there than going over Kirk Fell. So I headed that way. It’s know as The Tongue, but not labelled as such on OS maps. The path is on the map, though I lost it part way up where it bears right and aims straight at Windy Gap.

    It had been my intention to go over Green Gable onto Great Gable, having run it previously. However I had forgotten how steep it is going along Windy Gap, so aborted that idea! If you’ve not been, it’s too close to being a cliff going up onto Great Gable!

    So instead, I picked up Moses Trod somewhere around Gillercomb Head and followed that path South past Green Gable, past Windy Gap in the direction of Kirk Fell, then turned left and climbed onto Great Gable.

    It’s not a great climb, but I’m confident it’s the easiest way of getting up there from Ennerdale. I didn’t think much of the Scarth Gap descent, so if I was doing it again I’d probably go over Haystacks to get onto Moses Trod though.

    Hope that makes sense?

    IanMunro
    Free Member

    Sufferfest or walk in the park?, what do you think.

    Great route if you like scenery, and don’t mind a bit of walking. I don’t think the route would be well received by trail-centre aficionados 🙂

    DavidM
    Free Member

    Paul – Yeah, I see where you mean now. I allways thought the trail amongst the moraines and up The Tongue might make a good descent if you could head along from the top of Scarth Gap.

    So did you descend this down into sty head? Or return back into Ennerdale?

    Personally I think the only way to improve the ride would be if there were a better pub in Wasdale

    D0NK
    Full Member

    so you did similar to STW 19 hard route but straight up scarth from gatesgarth missing out red pike? Did you go up great gable or straight up to styhead? up Gavel Neese?
    How long did it take you?
    Thinking about doing something similar.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    Ah yes, I see, your map has a Raven Crag on it, I dropped down to Styhead either on that path or the one by Raven Crag, then down to Stockley Bridge, up Honister and down Warnscale Bottom back to Buttermere. To be honest, I wasn’t aware there were two paths and went down the path that the walkers were all coming up. It’s steep and very rocky at the top, I probably rode 70% of the top section, then all of the pitch-paved path to the bottom. Your mileage may vary!

    I did think on the way up the moraines about descending that way. The shape is good, a rollercoaster and a long descent that’s steep in places. Problem is there isn’t a very well defined path, the grass would slow you down too much and it’s very smooth. I don’t think it would be a good use of the altitude.

    What I did think though was that that valley would be a bloody brilliant place to put a trail-centre type trail. It’s a big bowl with next to no rideable trails in as it is, but has the potential for a long loop that climbs up very high, down the moraine, then climb back up the side of the valley for some rocky switch-backed descending and some forest trails too. Shame it would never happen.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    D0NK, I think I did a bit different to the route you describe. Red Pike looks like a good alternative to Scarth Gap though! I didn’t drop down into Wasdale, I climbed from Ennerdale directly (ish) to the top of Great Gable. Gavel Neese looks like it would be hard work, but that trail out of Wasdale to Styhead looks like it might be one to have a look at sometime.

    I think I was about 5 hours car to car, it was a hot day and I was started to get affected by the heat once I’d got to Stockley Bridge. That or my brain had rattled loose a bit, I think the symptoms are similar!

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I was actually asking about Fergals route. I think I can see the route you did. Is green gable really good then? Not sure whether to go for the full 19miler – 7300ft! (STW said 6-9hrs I reckon we’d be at the arse end of that if not quite a bit over) or cut red pike and maybe do green gable.

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    Oh, sorry, thought it didn’t match up very well! My route is 13 miles btw. I didn’t actually go over Green Gable, just skirted round the bottom of it to get on to Great Gable, the route is dead obvious when you’re there! I wouldn’t describe it as good, but it’s the easiest way up I think!

    Horse
    Free Member

    Was thinking about this for Friday’s ride, can’t find STW 19, what was the route?

    “over Honister through the quarry, down the rockfest of a path to Wharnscale, Scarthgap, Blacksail to Wasdale, Styhead pass”

    This one??

    Horse
    Free Member

    Hello??

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