…… is it still on & are there any places left?

Yes its still on and no there are no places left. The final details so there will be no entries on the day.

At the moment I think that might be academic as there is plenty of snow at higher levels and the forecast isn’t great. I am keeping my eyes on the website for further updates as if the snow hits then it will be a battle to get to the start at 320M let alone up to the top of the course at 500M.

Sitting at the foot of the pass here – due to snow from 5am tomorrow until sunday.
Likely to be off I’d guess, but will update in morning.

boxelder – Member
Sitting at the foot of the pass here – due to snow from 5am tomorrow until sunday.
Likely to be off I’d guess, but will update in morning.

POSTED 1 MINUTE AGO # REPORT-POST

It doesn’t look great in Kendal but if you could keep us posted it would be appreciated.

Pete up there from tomorrow will give you a heads up on the situation!
Riding the Borrowdale Bash Saturday and helping out @ Whinlatter on Sunday if its off I should know pretty quick!

Rich

Cheers rich

I rode the Whinlatter Altura (red) this evening (Thursday) and on Tuesday evening. There was nearly as much snow this evening as there was on Tuesday but tonight it was, in places, compacted to ice. Snow is due from early tomorrow morning so I guess that there will be even more by Sunday unless there is a massive thaw…

Must remember my ice spiker tyres 😉

There are races for 8-18 year olds on Saturday at Whinlatter. We’re making a call at noon tomorrow. I’ll try to remember to copy decision here. Google Cyclewise Academy for race details.

Im up in Cockermouth as i write this and the conditions are very cold and we have had a shower of snow through the night, looking out the window i can’t see the mountain tops because of snow and mist, Whinlatter is not too far from here and i think it may be a struggle to get up there, but i could be wrong…

I also will keep posting weather reports when i can

Parking is going to be interesting, a few hundred cars driving along the fire roads will soon compact any snow.

I missed out on real snow at the puffer, looks like I’ll have it on Sunday!

According to the update on the website there may be some changes to the route. I don’t think the riding is going to be the problem, it’s getting cars up to the visitor centre and in the surrounding area. I don’t think the mrs and daughter will be coming if the weathers bad not much fun for a 7 month old to be hanging around in the cold.

Thinking about it, if they cancel, they’d have to refund wouldn’t they? So not sure if I can see it being cancelled.

They have made the car park bigger over the last year or so and the main car park now has a filter car park so should the car park be kept clear of snow then i would have said there will be ample parking for all, I think they are trying to keep you away from that fire road you are talking about…

The puffer eh?! am thinking of putting a team together for that next year!

TBH if it’s looking like a problem parking I might just see about getting dropped off. Or leaving my car a few miles away at the OH folks farm and ride up… maybe.

The final details say its fire road parking, and not to use the public car park.

The puffer is good crack, so dark for so long!

Well you have to ask the question as to why they don’t use the public car park??!! after spending all that money and with how the conditions are going to be! Its more than likely all down to money!

I have always found the fire road to be a bit of a pain if you don’t get there early enough!

I think I’ll put knobbly tyres on the Fat Bike today as beach riding semi slicks may be a bit of an issue.

I know Keswick is a bit/lot lower but it’s nearby.
Here’s there webcam link http://www.friarsofkeswick.co.uk/keswick-town-centre-live-webcam

I don’t think I’ll be camping on the Saturday night at this rate, last minute B&B I guess

It certainly looks pretty bleak – here’s George Fishers webcam looking towards Skiddaw – http://www.georgefisher.co.uk/pages/webcam.asp

Keswick was well gritted last night so the roads are clear at the moment. There was approx. 30cm of snow on top of Walla Crag at 6.30 this morning (roughly about the same height as the visitors center at Whinlatter) – it was drifting a lot in the wind.

http://www.whinlatterchallenge.co.uk/Organisers_Note_2013.pdf

I would assume this is going to be postponed. Wouldn’t fancy camping sat night….

From the WMBC twitter feed…

“WMBC WILL GO AHEAD!! Plan your journey and be prepared!”

ps…that tweet was on Friday AM

Junior race scheduled for tomorrow at Whinlatter is cancelled.

Cancelled race

I am not fussed if Sundays event is on or off but I will be mighty pissed if I get up there and they call it off. I think they may try and put something on to avoid any issues with returning the £18,590 that has been taken in entry fees. What that something is I dont know because parking is not great at the best of times and there is no way the fire road the use for parking is going to be navigable with any sort of snow covering.

Agreed, would rather it be postponed than ride a second choice crappy course.

Its a 500 mile round trip for me so wont be too happy if it isn’t worth the petrol money.

Tough one for the organizer, they don’t control the weather etc.
I’d rather they cancelled it and kept my money than have me drive up and not ride the event I am expecting.

Sorry for negative post – hope it all works out ok and we get to ride the full route in crazy snowy and cold conditions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-21892761

‘drivers urged not to travel’ etc

No response to a tweet to the organisers yet. Maybe they’re in one of the Cumbrian homes without power?!

I agree with Scottyroyal – I’d rather they keep my money than ride a different event, or go ahead in dangerous conditions…

😕

Tough one for the organizer, they don’t control the weather etc.

I think on a safety issue alone its an easy choice. With a significant number of people proposing to attend the chance of one person receiving an injury thus leading to hypothermia etc is very real.

I wouldn’t drive far for this. We’re at the foot of the pass and it’s ‘orrible out there.
10km road race (run) from the village tomorrow will be cancelled I’m sure (I hope – as due to ride ahead of the runners)

Its a 500 mile round trip for me so wont be too happy if it isn’t worth the petrol money

I wouldn’t drive 20 miles to do the Whinlatter Challenge, even if the weather was good. Pay £25 to ride a Trail Centre? No thanks…

ir_bandito – Member

Its a 500 mile round trip for me so wont be too happy if it isn’t worth the petrol money

I wouldn’t drive 20 miles to do the Whinlatter Challenge, even if the weather was good. Pay £25 to ride a Trail Centre? No thanks…

Maybe he is intending racing rather than riding it? Especially if it is part of a race series

Maybe he is. I was just saying that I wouldn’t.

ir_bandito – Member

Maybe he is. I was just saying that I wouldn’t.

Who would pay to ride a trail centre? I wouldn’t. I might pay someone to organise an event on one though. I might even pay someone to organise an event on bridleways. You don’t pay for the privilege of access to the route, you pay for the organisation of the event.

If the organisers are keeping the event on just to prevent having to issue refunds that is madness and irresponsible in my book.

If they genuinely think the event can run safely and properly that is their call

That said I was up at Whinlatter the other week and it would be utter carnage in the snow, avoidable carnage at that…

Cheers

Danny B

I was just saying that I wouldn’t.

That is, I wouldn’t pay to ride in the Whinlatter Enduro. Its all relative, but for a greater entry fee than say, Dyfi Enduro, I expect a superb event. And it wasn’t.

They’ve just put up the road closed signs on our side. Tried to get up to cyclewise for some disc hose, but spun out. First time this winter that the vans not made it. They clear the keswick side though and tomorrow will be warm and sunny.

The mountain forecast tomorrow on met office don’t look great.

Weather

Little change for Saturday, remaining cloudy and very wiindy with further periods of snow, again this mostly across eastern upslopes. Some drier interludes expected across the west towards Cockermouth and Ravenglass. Strong winds leading to buffeting and severe wind chill, expect gales on higher summits.
Visibility

Moderate occasionally good across the west, poor or very poor still in snow across the east.
Hill fog

Extensive down to 450 metres across the east and perhaps down to 300 metres in prolonged snow, otherwise more broken down to 650 metres across the west.

Maximum winds above 500m

Easterly 40 mph gust 60 mph

Temperature
Valleys Zero Celsius
900 m Minus 7 Celsius
Freezing level 150 metres

All lakes area rescue teams have been out today rescuing vehicles on back roads!

I’ve just been for a ride round Whinlatter. The trail is riding absolutely fantastically, ground is frozen with half an inch of snow across the trail that’s giving tons of grip. One other set of tyre tracks have been round today and it was a great ride out considering the weather. All a bit Narnia really.

However, up around the top of the North Loop there’s quite a few bits that have drifted. I managed to ride most of it, so it’s not too bad, but the first bit off the fire road climb isn’t rideable.

I’ve no idea whether putting a load of bikes through it will turn it to ice or whether the grip will stay, I guess it depends on the temperature. Later on there’s some ice under the snow, but nothing too treacherous. Descents were fairly decent, but you needed to reign things in a bit as it was hard to feel the grip under the front end and if it had washed it was going to be a hard impact! I suspect there’ll be big queues on the technical descents as the roadies won’t know what to do with it 🙂

Putting a normal race field up it will be carnage on the slippier bits, though I’d guess the field will be much smaller so that will help. My guess is that if the weather stays like this is that it’ll still be fun but difficult to really race as there’ll be big queues on the singletrack. Still quite a bit of time to go though, so it could all change.

I’d guess the decision to go ahead or not will come down to the condition of the roads and parking rather than the trail and that if it goes ahead people will have to be a bit pragmatic when it comes to what they expect from the event.

I couldn’t get up the pass from the Lorton side and left my car at Spout Force and rode in from there, the pass is mostly fine apart from the steep bit after spout force where it’s drifted as well as being steep. My Focus had no chance.

Coming back down I was flagged down by a young couple whose car had gone off the road and was upside-down against a tree with the roof caved in! No idea how but they barely had a scratch on them, one sore elbow and one suspected concussion. SO they had to be ferried to the hospital. No idea what’s what on the Keswick side, but there were more tracks coming the from that way, so I suspect it’s better.

I might go back tomorrow as I’m struggling to think of anywhere to go that’s not going to be worse, though perhaps the Borrowdale Bash might be an option.

Saw your focus when I was up there. Where you from then paul?
The trails around Loweswater/ Fangs should be fun at the moment.

I grew up in Pardshaw over the hill out of Loweswater, but live in Durham and work in Manchester these days. I came up for the weekend as there was a new bike sat waiting for me at my parents’ house. I wouldn’t normally have gone out in weather like that but new bikes need to be ridden don’t they!

I can ride Loweswater from home, but I struggle to turn it into a decent length ride without either doing loads on the road, or going up that bog towards Floutern Tarn and then getting abused by walkers along the side of Crummock. Any ideas? Probably too much snow to go over Scarth Gap from Ennerdale.

just received email from wmbc . It’s still on, but car parking has been changed and a shorter lap to be ridden 3 times instead of 2