Whinlatter challenge ……

Karnali are you not around?

I’m around and riding tomorrow, not up for a huge effort, 2-3 hours pedaling time or so. I was thinking about just going to Whinlatter anyway as the trails are riding great and anything else is going to be unpredictable. Need to keep the altitude relatively low too which rules out a lot of stuff.

If it looks ok when your’e in the forest you can always crack on to the top of Grisedale Pike and do Hobcarton End, or the rocks in Coledale could work too, but best to see when you get there I reckon.

Anyone know what the Borrowdale Bash is looking like?

I am but mrs is swimming in morning, training 4 keswick! may get out late pm instead

I’ll be needing a refund, can’t do the new date.

And why they waited until 15:30 to cancel I don’t know..

The weather is bad I don’t dispute that, in fact I think it’s right to have cancelled BUT why mislead us this morning????

The conditions defiantly weren’t getting worse and the emails / twitter posts coming through this morning, suggesting that they were test riding the course and had new parking arrangements, meant that even having delayed the start time of my drive up as much as possible, I was still 160 miles into a 180mile journey.

Still at least I get to do some “proper” Lake land riding tomorrow! 😉

paulrockliffe that sounds ambitious. I wouldn’t recommend anyone going that high or remote unless you know the area and are prepared.

Boxelder gave a good cheeky route earlier. He’s yer man for local knowledge. See the local bike shops too for advice.

Hello, I do know the area very well, I grew up here and was riding off the big stuff up here when I was 16. It’s a good route because you don’t have to commit to going up high until you know what the ground conditions are like. Once you’re at the top of the South loop you can fairly easily assess whether to carry on or not and bailing still gives you a great ride out. Most alternatives you’re either committed or abandoning and going back the way you came.

The climb to the summit is 30 minutes and fine if it’s not windy, you can find that out before you get to the narrow bit, so minimal risk. Once you’re on the top the descent is a good one to do under a bit of snow and you’re sheltered and away from any dangerous bits and you’re back in the forest in 15 minutes or so.

I wasn’t saying it was definitely on, but it’s a good route that lets you play things by ear. As it is most of the snow round my way has cleared today and it’s pretty calm, so it might have worked. I stayed in and watched the F1 though 🙁

Pretty calm… don’t think the wind gets down pardshaw way. 60-70mph on the tops today that ridge onto Grisedale would have been impossible with a bike on your shoulder today… I think Thats what les was referring to 😉

I’ve just been running over Blake Fell and my sunglasses blew off which was a first! 😀
Definitely quite windy on the tops…

It does get pretty windy here, but not today. If it was windy on the ridge you wouldn’t go up, but you can find out when you get there and still have a good and safe ride in the forest. Can’t think of too many routes like that, which is why that would have been a decent plan today.

We rode the Borrowdale bash and was great fun! not all rideable as such and a challenge in parts but guess thats why we love Mountain biking eh??!!

What bones76 said, Borrowdale bash was brilliant fun. Plenty of snow (and in places wind) but a clear sky and great views. Thanks Steve, and friends, for allowing me to come along/ guiding me.

Drove up Friday night and wild camped in my van and rode the Borrowdale Bash on the Saturday and cycled the very quite trails @ Whinlatter so no whinging from me, just made the best out of a difficult situation for the organisers 😉

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DSCF2785[1][/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

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DSCF2809[1][/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

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DSCF2797[1][/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

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DSCF2794[1][/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

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DSCF2795[1][/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

So I drove from Yorkshire with no problems expecting bad roads. No issue at all getting into Keswick. We were booked into YHA and had paid so went anyway. No 3G signal in pretty much all of the area so updates not forthcoming. Eventually got a texted twitter update from my wife saying postponed. What followed was an exploration of the many, many real ales available…
Rode from Keswick up to Whinlatter visitor centre and then had a few minutes on the trails. My mate was on Conti X-kings and they were garbage on the snow. I was on (admittedly new) Rubber Queens and they never missed a beat.
Postponing wasn’t a problem as I still had a good weekend away (£60 of diesel though….). I just wish they’d taken the call earlier. I can’t believe that if the Emergency services had been consulted on Thursday or Friday their response would have been any different to Saturday. Not sure if I can make the reschedule so expect that £27 refund will be forthcoming. Go

postierich…. no gloves??? crazy man

Must just have been while he got the camera out? 😯 if not!

Only partial refunds offered it seems. Bit of a bind if you can’t make it next month or would rather not wait a year to do the challenge.

Gloves were off for the self timer 😳
I find it strange when people are complaining about petrol/costs when the event being cancelled did not stop them from riding and chilling in a beautiful part of the country!
A few more pics from the weekend

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Photo by Gavin Maudsley[/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

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555087_10200875635042367_1280519548_n[/url] by Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr

Anyone that was registered and cant make the new date could do worse that get in touch! My partner is looking for an entry. Lets talk

Get in touch and Ill contact you with my email details

Johnny – I can’t make the new date and was going to get (annoyingly) the partial refund. If you want to buy my entry off me I’d be more than willing