Planning on doing a cheeky dawn raid on the above sometime soon.

However its a fairly short loop, if I understand correctly. 90 mins up, 30 down I saw quoted here.

So I’m looking to make a bit more of it. The obvious return loop offroad is to head north then come back over the Cumbria Way/Skiddaw House bridleway. Is this worth doing? Anything else I should consider instead? Happy for some hardcore hikeabike if I get a good descent out of it. (I’m also planning on the 4 passes the previous day).

Ta,

Jon

what route up skiddaw were you planning? from Keswick and straight up the front? Have you been up it before?
You could start by going round the back first, past the waterfall and along lonscale fell, then straight up it before descending off the back.

Out to Threlkeld then loop up to Skiddaw House and back along Lonscale crag is a good warm up.

The four passes is quite a big day, would have thought Ullock would be more than enough to satisfy, aims, goals and quality, pad it out if you must!.

The obvious return loop offroad is to head north then come back over the Cumbria Way/Skiddaw House bridleway. Is this worth doing?

It’s nice enough but a bit of an anti-climax after the excitement of Ullock.

A short but worthwile extension would be to park at Bassenthwaite village and go up past Dash falls, past Skiddaw House, onto Lonscale Fell and then up the main drag to the Skiddaw summit, saving the Ullock Pike descent till last.

I’m probably going to end up doing it on a weekend, so I want to be down off Ullock by 9am. That doesn’t leave much time for doing other stuff as a warm up, so yes straight up the front from Keswick.

Afterwards – tempting though it will be to head back into Keswick for a Full English somewhere, if I do that, I’ll end up wasting the rest of the day somehow, so if I can tag on something scenic to the end for a few hours, then all good.

You’re right, Ullock is a bit short on its own. I take it you’re going up to Skiddaw summit then off the scree slope down to Ullock ridge.
We’ve usually extended it from there down the end of the ridge to the track to Whitewater Dash, then around the back of Skiddaw and Lonscale Fell.

Bash with options to finish?

Ullock pike followed by heading up Coledale and down Grisedale pike would be a good un.

It’s nice enough but a bit of an anti-climax after the excitement of Ullock.

most things are

Brundholme, threlkeld lonscale, skiddaw, ullock, then up through the forest between dodd and carlside to whitestones, stupid steep descent to Millbeck then back up to underskiddaw CP and descend to brundholme – if you time it wrong this will be heaving with walkers so careful.

Or just stick to basic ride and then go somewhere else. I’ve not done anything else really inspiring north of keswick, but I don’t know it well, blencathra maybe, been on the list for a while but haven’t been up yet.

Blencathra isn’t bad at all. Done Blencathra and Ullock/Skiddaw together a couple of times. It’s a big day out.
Up from Blencathra Centre then down Scales Tarn to Scales.
Only drawback is that it doesn’t connect all that easily with Ullock without a big chunk of tarmac somewhere in the equation.

most things are

Best stuff is locals only, 😉 see the kestrel on pinkbike article

Best stuff is locals only

Is that like going to a nightclub?

I like heading up via Dodds and down the steep, loose, techies that is Doups. Not everyone’s cup of tea but it makes me smile every time!

Blencathra gets my vote as does Grizedale Pike too.

Tried Doups last year (after seeing Sanny’s comments). steeper and techier in places than Ullock. I think there are a few options through Dodd Wood as an alternative.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ1_T3P4Qa8[/video]

If you’re after an early finish, Dash, Skiddaw House and Lonscale/Latrigg has to be the the way to do it. Rode down Latrigg about 9am on Easter sunday morning and there was no-one around.