NW Lakes trails advice please

Hi all,
Trying to string a ride together for next weekend, I’ll be combining stuff I already know into this, just hunting out some new stuff too.

Have done the usual Google earth & Strava segment / heat map / STW forum trawling!

Some specific questions (sorry, quite a few!):

Robinson area

1) Robinson NE off Blea crag – rideable down? [Minimal on heatmap no segments, I think not]

2) Buttermere moss down to the top of Newlands Hause – rideable down? [Minimal on heatmap no segments, I think not]

Crag Hill Area

3) Newlands Hause – Knott Rigg – Ard Craggs – Rigg Beck (top of). Rideable? [Thinking it may be an alternative to Sail Beck out of Buttermere. Bit of heat map activity but the drop into Rigg Beck looks featureless]

4) Are the zigzags NE off Sail (below cragg hill)anything to write home about? They look a bit boring.

5) If at the saddle NE below Sail , is the better descent, to drop SW into Rigg Beck, or to drop NE over High Moss into Stonycroft Gill. (I’ve ridden Rigg Beck many times but not Stonycroft) [both very prominent on heatmap]

6) Drops off Barrow (or Barrow Door) NE to Braithwaite – any good? [Both fairly prominent on heatmap]

Thanks for any advice!!

Buttermere moss down to the top of Newlands Hause…

Not ridable at the very end as you come to the pass, but it’s a fairly easy carry down.

Newlands Hause – Knott Rigg – Ard Craggs – Rigg Beck (top of). Rideable?…

It’s a carry up from the top of Newlands pass but the rest is rideable. You have to go off-piste from Ard Craggs to drop into Rigg Beck.

Are the zigzags NE off Sail (below cragg hill)anything to write home about?…

They’re ok. The previous descent from Cragg Hill towards Sail is excellent if you like steep and techie.

drop NE over High Moss into Stonycroft Gill…

I prefer Stoneycroft to Rigg Beck – fast, long with techie sections.

Drops off Barrow (or Barrow Door) NE to Braithwaite…

All pretty dull – Barrow is mostly grass and very popular with walkers.

Agree with pretty much everything Parkedtiger said, except that Barrow Door is worth a go sometimes, but probably not at a weekend as it will be busy and is best ridden flat out

Barrow Door is best ridden flat out

Agreed 🙂

Nice one, exactly the info I was after – appreciated!

As per parkedtiger really- barrow is a great evening blast and a local classic quick route. I too like Stonycroft better than Rigg beck, even better is to push up scar crags and ride the ridge to causey pike, scramble off the top then sketch down the steep loose myriad of options to the shoulder, then yeeha down to the road at the bottom of Stonycroft. YMMV!

Hey all, for future reference we rode the

3) Newlands Hause – Knott Rigg – Ard Craggs – Rigg Beck (top of).
trail

It was a good alternative to sail beck – got loads of height easily on the road from Buttermere to Newlands Haus, bit of a push up knott rigg but then a nice trail mainly rideable along the ridge. not too boggy.

I think most of us preferred it to the sail beck slog.

For the drop into the top of rigg beck, there is a very feint sheep trail about 200m from the summit of knott rigg. Traverses around the NW of the hill and then drops straight onto the top of the rigg beck trail. It was actually really a really fun bit of the ride. Glad we did it, not featureless / boring as I thought it would be

Ard Craggs is a much better alternative to the slog up to Rigg Beck. I really dislike that climb.

Views from Knott Rigg are pretty good too.

20180428_144201 by Dave Lowe[/url], on Flickr

For the drop into the top of rigg beck, there is a very feint sheep trail about 200m from the summit of knott rigg.

Was squinting at the aerial view of this last night – did you mean the one which doubles back near ‘Aikin Knott’ on the OS Map and then contours around to pick up Rigg Beck just beyond Addacombe Beck? Couldn’t see anything obvious further back up the ridge.

No further to the sww than that, breaks off from the ridge trail about Here

Good luck finding it on the satellite view! Barely visible on the ground, it’s a slot in the heather, but it is definitely there

1) Robinson NE off Blea crag – rideable down? [Minimal on heatmap no segments, I think not]

Just noticed you didnt get an answer… Yes.. Its a cracking descent with only a little bit of a carry down. I much prefer it to Hindscarth actually.

Pic is start of the ridge…
robinson by Dave Lowe[/url], on Flickr

Good luck finding it on the satellite view!

Cheers

Saw that one, but it seemed to peter out a bit so wasn’t sure.

Just noticed you didnt get an answer… Yes.. Its a cracking descent with only a little bit of a carry down. I much prefer it to Hindscarth actually.

Cool, that’s good to know, noted for the future. Could be v useful.

Did hindscarth last year – thought was great until you get to the disappointing carry down off the end 🙁

I love finding new lakes stuff

I love NW Lakes threads. Will give road+Ard a go over Sail Beck next time.

Ard Craggs and Knott Rigg are also good in the other direction (carrying up from Newlands Road rather than up Rigg Beck). Once you hit the tarmac again, you can carry up onto Robinson and have the choice of descending Robinson itself, Hindscarth or Dale Head. There’s also a nice descent from Buttermere Moss down to Buttermere.

Good luck finding it on the satellite view! Barely visible on the ground, it’s a slot in the heather, but it is definitely there

It’s definitely there on the satellite at https://goo.gl/maps/wfJd1osM4KiNx2SQ8

I’m gonna probably give it a go tomorrow so will report back on any other landmarks. Obvious scree patch to the north is a landmark but appreciate that might not be visible from the ridge line. Other sneakier visuals are lining up with the track that goes down from the road at Keskadale Farm (assumes clear weather).

Just look for this segment if you want to get down to rigg beck from the top.

https://www.strava.com/segments/17526592

Going Tomorrow ? ? You lucky bugger… on a school day and the forecast is looking FINE! Pics.

Join me Dave!

If only mate.

Lowey’s strava segment (green) isn’t the same as ElBoufadour’s description (yellow). Lowey’s goes straight down the fall line, where as EB describes it as traversing.

“For the drop into the top of rigg beck, there is a very feint sheep trail about 200m from the summit of knott rigg. Traverses around the NW of the hill and then drops straight onto the top of the rigg beck trail. It was actually really a really fun bit of the ride. Glad we did it, not featureless / boring as I thought it would be”

Will report back tomorrow unless we come back via Gasgale / Grisedale.

Cracking day. The descent off Ard Crags seemed relatively easy to find. About a couple of hundred metres up the final ascent to the highest section of Ard Crags is a little slabby section of rock and just at the top of that (where my bike is on the pic) is the path off to the left. It’s not super obvious but it definitely looks like a path – it traverses around the hill side a short way and then flicks its way down to the Sail/Rigg saddle. Fun stuff.

Have a pic from Whiteless while we’re at it

Yep that’s the one scuttler, as per your diagram. Looks like you had great day, similar to the day we had. Distant memory now it’s pissing down relentlessly.