Hi all,
How easy is the borrowdale bash to do without the add ons. Not been out much this year so not too fit!! but have a free day on saturday so was thinking about doing it.

2 road climbs, 2 rocky descents and a bit if road work at the start and the end. Fitness wise, pretty easy. If you want to cut out some of the road, park at seatoller/rosthwaite/stonethwaite and just do the 2 climbs n descents, without going up Keswick end.

There are some pretty nasty rocky bits where both me and my mate, both experienced mtbers, came a cropper so I think I would class it as medium to hard. Saying that, it is an awesome ride. Have a look at an OS map as there’s a little bridleway that’ll take you along the waters edge and past an interesting sculpture before the first big climb behind the youth hostel. That first road bit after the big climb through the trees to watendlath is awesome, great bit of road, very atmospheric. Also some cheeky bits through the woods at the end. Search through this forum or have a look at an OS map. Have a good time. I’ve done it 3 times now and I will do it again.

Jekkyl is right. I’m sure someone will come along soon saying that it isnt technical, but for most riders the descent from Watendlath certainly is. Way beyond typical trail centre Black, but all the better for it. Great ride, and definitely worth checking the OS map for alternatives to avoid roads. After dropping down from Castle Crag, you can pick up more interesting ways back to Keswick, along the flank of Catbells and through the wood south of Portinscale.

The cheeky FP towards Watendlath is also technical, but good. One of my favorite Lakeland rides, especially when the weather is great

P1040481 by eastham_david, on Flickr

P1040476 by eastham_david, on Flickr

the climb out past watendlath is unclimbably technical and steep for me

descent towards rosthwaite is hard but not so bad in the dry (I daren’t do the difficult bit in the wet and that’s quite often when I’ve been up there 😳 )

the road climbs are bloody hard for me too but the one up to watendlath hasn’t even beaten me and I’m 3:2 up against honister

The descent from Watendlath to Rosthwaite isn’t THAT technical – it’s all 100% ridable. Approach it at a moderate pace, arse off the back and don’t touch the front brake. Simples.

The tricky bits are the climbs, but if you accept that you’ll be making good friends with your granny or walking, you’ll be fine.

Do it.

Its a brilliant ride with some fantastic scenery. A couple of notes from me:
You can miss out the Honister road climb with a permissive bridleway just out of seatoller
You can easily miss the start of the allerdale ramble after you have descended a short distance from the top of the Honister climb
Take lots of inner tubes, the descent of castle crags is snakebite teritory
Road climbs are steep, some of the climbs are technical (watendlath would fall into the ridden by a very small percentage – i’m reasonably fit but can’t see how you would climb the top half without some trials skills
Descents are rocky and technical in places
If its a good day take a camera for the brilliant views

The classic view of Borrowdale

Allerdale Ramble

The descent from Watendlath to Rosthwaite isn’t THAT technical – it’s all 100% ridable. Approach it at a moderate pace, arse off the back and don’t touch the front brake. Simples.

Yeah but it depends what you’re used to. It’s definitely at the upper end of anything you will find in a guidebook for the Lake District. It’s ace though, wish it went on longer. Did it on my 30th birthday followed by a party at the Bunkhouse right at the bottom – good times!

It’s not too bad fitness wise – couple of stiff climbs but if I can do it without dying anyone should be able to. 🙂

Just did this this afternoon, and I’m still buzzing.

I’ve done it a few times, the last being two and a half years ago, and I considered the difficult bit down from Wattendlath completely unridable, and had an OTB moment on the run down from Castle Crag. I knew I’d improved a bit since then, but this time my view had changed completely. I didn’t quite clean it, but it’s perfectly doable.

Very satisfying to conquer something that in the past I couldn’t imagine being able to ride, but also goes to show just how much your view of what’s hard depends on what you’re used to.

Fitness-wise I wouldn’t say it’s particularly easy, but all the climbing happens in two big road climbs, with the second up Honister being pretty brutal.

It’s definitely one to do on a quiet day, as the various bridleways can very busy with walkers. I’m currently enjoying my first ever Lakes trip out of school holidays – what a luxury!

One of my all time favourite routes that, I’ve done it so many times. Also the scene of a mountain rescue/RAF airlift when my mate went OTB on Castle Crag…

Many years ago, I borrowed the Cove G-Spot demo bike from Keswick Mountain Bikes (the original G-Spot with their around-the-BB pivot), previously I’d only ever done the route on a HT or a short travel XC FS. Oh my God, the bike just flew down everything! I’m no great descender but it just took the whole thing in it’s stride, proper point-and-shoot job.

I did it last autumn as a diversion from the family walking holiday I was on. It’s a nice route but nothing that epic or exerting. The descent from Wattenlath did make me question for a millisecond whether I should be doing it on my own, especially as I’d only seen one other person for an hour (it was mid week) and it was wet, but once committed it was fine (well at least until my rear tyre ripped 2/3rds of the way down). The only other tricky descent was Black Crag which wasn’t so much difficult (on a 140mm full suss) if you let go of the brakes and let the bike go, I wouldn’t want to come off at speed though.
A few of the climbs are tricky (read impossible) especially the one from Wattenlath. I did have the KoM for the Honister climb which must of been an error as a) I was doing the permissive bridleway beside it and b) I’m a ‘steady’ climber.
I used the Bogtrotter route which I put onto by Garmin 500. It used a cheeky footpath section on the approach to Wattenlath which I actually found to be the trickiest section to clean, maybe as it was the first offroad bit and my eye wasn’t in.
SDC11072 by Cheers Drive, on Flickr
Rocky trail by Cheers Drive, on Flickr

I’ve lost count of how many times I must of done it this year, had it part of my training loop for the Kielder. Enjoyed it every time, we use a cheeky start too.

My mate managed to ride up Honister on his SS (32:17) in one go, he’s a bit of a machine when it comes to fitness

It can get very grim very fast up there so remember its still a mountain route. If your not used to the local rock then it can be tricky. I managed to loose it just after the hard whatendlath section in loose gravel despite cleaning it multiple times. Also castle crag can eat tubes if your not careful. I’m fairly sure the lakeside is fp not bw too. As usual be careful if you choose fp’s on a weekend it’s still normally busy round there.

I think we managed 6 punctures in 20 minutes once, an inner tube vending machine would make a killing on the bash.

After I ripped a whole in the tubeless I did this (probably my fault for not mounting the tyre correctly)
SDC11091 by Cheers Drive, on Flickr
before 2 punctures on castle crag, had to repair the multiple pinch on the 2nd when I realised my third tube was a 29″ one, doh!

I did it as a first ride out after 2 years off the bike from breaking a femur and dislocating my shoulder.

Awsome ride,but instead of riding up the road at ashness bridge there is a foot path that goes up from keswick to the top of a crag and you can decsend down to ashness bridge instead of upto it.

^ cough Walla Crag cough;)

Is that Walla Crag option a boggy mess, like the track to Bleaberry Fell and on to High Seat?

Walla crag is the one, you’d think i’d know its name having been mentioned several times and me having lived in keswick for 3 years and ambleside for 3 years before that.

Its not massively boggy but there is the odd patch, the grass can be a slog with nobbly tyres on, but the descent is 100% worth it