In this thread
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lakeland-terra-ingognita/

@ton says the following

simon, i have been through that area with a bike.
tha path that goes through ore gap………………. 😯

Any chance you can cast your mind back a decade and give some more info 😄

I’m guessing the experience wasn’t pleasant… The question is how bad was it? Deeply want to do the 4 passes in May, but we’re staying in Seathwaite ( no, not the Borrowdale one, the Duddon one 🙁 ). Trying to find a way to get to Styhead Tarn without getting too exhausted.

Mosedale North from Cockely Beck is an epic bog trudge, bad enough without a bike (I use it to approach rock climbs) very little would be rideable from the tarmac to Ore Gap. You could always wild camp in the great spot at Green Hole to split it a bit? If you can park in Eskdale I’d use the Burnmoor tarn BW as an out-and-back to do the passes loop from Wasdale head. Riding to Eskdale over Harter Fell from Seathwaite is the least painful way to avoid driving but it would be a long day out!

Any chance you can cast your mind back a decade and give some more info 😄

right then let me think back, when we did this it was on a diamond back apexbike, so about 1980.
a long rime ago.

we rode uo wrynose to cockley beck, then across mosedale, which back then wasnt to bad iirc. it was summer and warm. cant remember it being a bog fest.
from mosedale we headed on the fp between bowfell and yeasty riff cragg. to ore gap.
we went left over esk pike and hesk hause to sty head and then down to stockley bridge.

we did a fair bit of carrying i think through to pass to ore gap, but not much after then.

the route we did on light steel hardtail bike was taken from a RSF book. i was a RSF member back then
i can remember thinking, if a load of old boys on tourers did this, then we can.
it was pretty awesome. and we then spent the night camping at borrowdale yhs.

on a modern full susser it should be good.

hope this helps

I suppose it depends how much punishment you want. It must be 12 km north from Seathwaite to get to Gatwick Gable and the alternate name for Four Passes is the Tour of Great Gable. It is also 12 km of ardous terrain and let’s fade it 4 passes isn’t many more kms and that is a big day out.

You could drive to Old Dungeon Ghyl and do the 5 passes, essentially heading up Rosset Ghyl and heading for Styhead to loop round and finish on Stakes pass.

I remember heading over to Esk Buttress through there on foot. Wasn’t an entirely straightforward experience – fair bit of bog-trotting. You’d be mainly pushing.

Four passes from (the wrong) Seathwaite would be a massive day. You could always ‘just’ do the bottom half of it – Walna Scar, Rossett Gill, Wasdale, Burnmoor, Harter, Wallowbarrow.

You could drive to Old Dungeon Ghyl and do the 5 passes, essentially heading up Rosset Ghyl and heading for Styhead to loop round and finish on Stakes pass.

Yep, going from Langdale was the original plan, based on having a cottage booked there. But that was cancelled and we now have a cottage even further away. When I asked about the five passes in this thread the consensus was that getting from the top of Rosset to the top of Stakes was a nightmare, so either have to go down Rosset ( which apparently sucks) or back down Styhead for a second time then back up Längstrath and over Stake.

Lake District Five Passes Route

Clearly the ultimate goal is Seathwaite, Walna, Coniston, Langdale, Rosset, Styhead, Honnister, other 2 passes whose name escapes me, Wasdale, Burnmoor,Harter Fell, but even typing that is tiring… Never mind riding it.

What’s a good app/ website for plotting a route on a map and getting distance/ altitude gain?

Aha, @Stevedoc’s suggested route https://pedalnorth.com/coniston-wasdale/ plusr the 4 passes is almost exactly what I was garbling about above. 36 miles /8000ft
Added to 15 miles /5000 ft for the 4 passes. Subtract 2 miles and 1200 ft as the last 4P climb out of Wasdale is redundant..

80 km / 4000m

Ha ha ha.

The above route is not one for a cold winters day. ive yet to do it but my guess is thats a good 8 hours as plenty of shouldering and knee ache after. Roll on April 12th 😉

Going down Rossett Gill only sucks if, like me, you lack serious balls and skill.

Just doing Walna Scar to Coniston and round to Langdale to do Rossett Gill Sty Head and Stakes Pass and back would be a big day out.

Another alternative would be to drive round to Wasdale and head up to the stretcher box go down Sty Head to the other Seathwaite, up Langstrath and down Stakes Pass and then head up Rossetl Gill and go back down to Wasdale.

Just adding a bit more info in case this comes up on a search in future. We walked up Mosedale to get to Esk Gorge last week. The 3km or so of bridleway was indeed very boggy in places, but would be reasonable if it was very very dry. The rest of the route to Ore Gap looks awful. Not recommended.

The Esk Gorge however is still my mostest favourite scramble in the whole world ever 🙂