Snowy Lakeland Weekend; Borrowdale Bash - 4 Dec 2010

Gumpy and H picked Sudders up from work at 4pm, just as Dimitri was being given a tour of the Fountains Cottage in Keswick.

We headed up a quieter than expected M6 and hit the snow. It started to get a bit tricky as we headed up to the Shap summit, and the A66 from Penrith to Keswick was pretty dodgy. We were grateful to arrive and slip/slide our way to the cottage. We were straight out again for a snowball fight (H's legendary arm proved invaluable!) and straight into the nearest pub for beers and food - until the French waiter refused to serve us food (too late apparently).

We headed onto the next pub for some very interesting live music / miming "in the club style" and very enjoyable Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer.

We finished the evening with a brief visit to a "choc-a-bloc" Loft nightclub and a visit to Pizza Panorama.

The next morning was a struggle for us all, but Gumpy's breakfast certainly helped, as did the fantastic looking snow outside.

We all donned our winter gear with Sudders particularly proud of his new bib tights....

....and Gumpy very pleased with his free mbr snood!

After much faffing, we were away on the road around Derwent Water and soon enough heading steeply uphill towards Watendlath. The first climb was really hard but all ridable thanks to some 4x4s that had made it up before us.

We were soon rewarded with some fantastic views back towards Keswick....

....and we eventually found a snowy viewpoint with amazing views over Derwent Water.

The snow got deeper and deeper as we climbed, and Dimitri took a nasty tumble over a cattle grid....

....He was a bit more cautious as we passed the next one!

We soon reached Watendlath, and briefly stopped on the stone bridge for a breather before heading offroad for the first time on the snowy bridleway.

After a bit of pushing, we were soon descending - and it was tricky to say the least with Gumpy the first to take a tumble....

....followed by Sudders....

....then Dimitri!

We soon got the hang of it though, by getting our weight a bit further back we could get over the obstacles that we couldn't see under the snow. The descent was awesome and we were soon bottoming out at Rosthwaite.

Next was the Honister Pass climb which was even tougher than usual in the snow. We were passed by a landrover that was flying up, and that had most of us off and walking for a spell.

Eventually we reached a cattle grid, with Sudders clearly in need of a rest. A snow plough came flying down the hill towards us as we rested, and the driver stopped to apologise for flying past in the landrover earlier - it was the only way he was going to get up apparently.

Gumpy arrived, and we were soon on our way again. The next offroad section was covered in the deepest snow we'd encountered and we were having to pedal hard to go downhill and push on flat / uphill ground.

Spirits remained high though because the scenery was absolutely stunning!

We eventually reached Castle Crag, and the view opened up over Derwent Water. After a brief chat with some lads out walking and calling us mad, we were descending again towards Grange. This was a fantastic descent, we were all getting the hang of riding on the snow and there were some great sections to enjoy before we reached the river at the bottom of the valley.

After some road riding, we were off road again beneath Cat Bells with more fantastic views over Derwent Water.

After a last bit of road riding, we were back at the cottage. A 3 hour ride had taken us 6 hours in the snow and we were all totally knakkered. It had been a great day - a proper adventure.

Snowy Lakeland Weekend; Whinlatter - 5 Dec 2010

Fortunately we all felt better on Sunday morning than we had on Saturday morning. Although we had another good night in Keswick, we were so tired that drinking was hard work. We tried to change things up with some different drinks, but the weather meant a lack of deliveries and that meant some very embarrassing choices and (50%) performances.

We were still struggling with tiredness though, and it took us a while to get started. Eventually, we got organised, packed the bikes onto the cars and set-off on a rather treacherous drive up to the Whinlatter forest centre for breakfast.

When Gumpy eventually finished his (ahem) hot chocolate and failed with his breakfast we were off to tackle the North Loop.

The trails under the trees were much easier to ride than the previous days trails and we were soon out in the open and enjoying some awesome views over Bassenthwaite Lake to Skiddaw.

Things weren't so easy without the cover of the trees, with deeper snow making some pushing inevitable.

There were lots of photo stops with snow covered peaks and mist covering the lower level land below.

We even dusted off the 'Usain Bolt' for some team shots!

What followed was a rather more painful long push in deep snow up a gradual fire road incline. It just seemed to go on and on and the snow was just far too deep to cycle for more than a few yards.

Just as this became very unfunny, we were back onto the singletrack in the trees again. Although this was just an undulating trail, staying upright was a challenge and it was much more fun than it would have been without the snow.

After another quick fireroad section, we were on undulating singletrack again before a quick pause at the top to prepare ourselves for the downhill.

This was great fun, with berms and drops. The sections under the trees were the easiest to ride and probably the most fun, but the open sections were also good with stunning views. Hitting tabletops was really difficult though - it was hard to get enough speed to clear them and the landings were often dodgy.

We were at the bottom in no time and wondering wether to call it a day. Although the North Loop had taken much longer than expected, we weren't quite ready to call it a day, so we headed out on the South Loop.

Again, there were some rideable sections under the trees and some tricky stuff out in the open.

Before too long we reached the tiny bit of North Shore that marked the highest point we were prepared to get to in the heavy snow.

This descent is usually great fun, but it was really tough in the deep snow, and we had to pedal really hard to keep going.

We had the cottage for an extra day, so we were able to head back for a very welcome warm shower before heading home.

A very successful winter biking trip!