Grizedale Pike from the Whinlatter TC

i did it the other year on hottest day from sea level, little carpark (b5292) just NW of braithwaite,
some steep stone steps up through the wood) on the main plateu their seemed to be trails in and out of the trail centre.
google maps you can see tracks into out of the woods

791m push up, hike a bike with sparse peddling involved.. if i went up their again it'd be on a helicopter.
the valley south of GP and the subsequent ride down and the drop towards buttermere were good as was riggbeck

Yeah, it's easy to do and I've done it a couple of times when visiting. You can ride the South Loop to the top. You'll see where people have accessed through a hedge/clearing. You're then onto the trial leading up to Grizedale Pike. At the top you can go right and descend back down to pretty much the start of the South Loop again. Or go left and head to Buttermere and the numerous options thereafter i.e. Whitless Pike, Rigg Beck, etc, etc.

Hmmm. Some slightly weird suggestions above

Follow the South red then black to the summit of the black. After the final 7 hairpins you end up at some sort of congregation area. ( can't recall exactly what is there as I always mix it up with Hamsterley.)
Instead of heading leftish down the black you head rightish up through a crappy muddy path through the forest.
It opens out into moorland and you continue up the ever steepening slope to GP. This is the prized descent.
You can indeed go right from here and back to the start via Hobcarton End, but it's a bit rubbish really.
Much better to turn around and try some of the gnarr you have just carried up.

And as the other poster said you can continue down to Braithwaite as well, which is lovely and quite easy.

What I want to know is what it's like going up Hobcarton End via forest roads.... ie the reverse of what I said above. Would surely be more aesthetic than a there and back up the crux ridge.

<Edit>
Having reread the two first responses, I think I can join the dots. The first response is wrong because he is describing going up from Braithwaite, whereas you correctly surmised that the best ascent is via the Altura loop. The ascent he describes is indeed the lovely mellow descent I described. But God knows why you would ride up it. No wonder he said he'll never do it again.

Reply two seemed to ignore your comment to descend back down the same ridge.

Just to caveat the following:

Is this fairly straightforward?

Yes from a navigation point of view. From a riding point of view NO, NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY. It's very, very hard.

But great.

Were you meaning from a Nav point of view or tech difficulty?

The escape from the trail centre is literally 5-10 metres from the very top of the South loop. If you miss it you ride around to the left and there is an exposed rock area from where the main descent starts. The escape is off to the right - you pick your way under and through the trees - there is a helpful stile. Then the track up Grisedale Pike is the obvious steep bugger in front of you. It is a hike-a-bike with one awkward bit that is interesting in strong winds with a bike up around your earholes.

I had heard that the stuff in the trees at Hobcarton had gone as it had been forested. But that was a while ago. The moorland, scree trail across to it is great in its own right. Left off the top gets you towards Crag Hill and Rigg Beck. The route we did involved one carry of the bike around an exposed ledge. I didn't get on with Rigg Beck, but my head had 'gone' by that point as we had one of the group get crag-fast and some of us had to walk around that ledge more than once carrying various bikes. I need to do it again as it is a fantastic trail.

It was an adventure, that is for sure.

Here you go ( take the tracking of the first bit after the car park with a pinch of salt, but it's the upper bit that's important

https://flic.kr/p/2oFtdCJ

You can see the exit from plantation to fell here. It’s well trodden.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/orc9aqFsj1NnyGWE9?g_st=ic

I suspect you’ll have phone signal to validate where you are, BUT I don’t advocate that as a means of general navigation in the mountains.

@thegeneralist, are you saying i f***** up going straight up from Braithwaite :0)

2 meals and 8 pints of cider that evening didnt even touch the sides..

https://strava.app.link/VgLG5DZDpAb
This is the gps to the top and back down to braithwaite. You can then ride back up the road. Excellent descent as long as you don’t smash your face in on the steps to the wee car park

are you saying i f***** up going straight up from Braithwaite :0)

All depends on the bike really. It'd be fine on a nice all-round trail bike like an Occam. On something heavy and downhill orientated like Slash it'd be horrid 😄😁

Cue you telling me you did it a while back, before you got your shiny new bike....

@thegeneralist screenshot is right route up (sleet how from top of south black)

Coming down though I'm not sure I agree sleet how is the best way down.
The top is extremely difficult and high consequnce. I found it beyond me and I'm reasonably good.
After that it becomes faster and grassier but also a bit boring.

I much prefer hobcarton end. More variety and less terror but it does still have a nice amount of terror 😜
It's also better if you turn right off hobcarton when you hit the woods, down the whinlatter off piste, but as above would be a shame if that's now been destroyed by forestry work 🙁

Or, as per @whatyadoinsucker you can drop to coledale hause, over and down whitless which is an awesome descent. Finish down the back of Rannerdale Knotts. Long way back to whinlatter from there mind.

Coming down though I’m not sure I agree sleet how is the best way down.
The top is extremely difficult and high consequnce. I found it beyond me and I’m reasonably good.

Can't argue with any of this really. My take was that I failed because
A) I'm shite
B) I'd done about 2km of ascent whilst trying to keep up with Conti and was absolutely gubbed.

I defo fancy going back for another attempt.... but OP be aware it is proper tricky.

Cue Bieber coming along to tell us how he did it in the dark blindfold on a unicycle.
And that it wasn't too bad really 😀

After that it becomes faster and grassier but also a bit boring.

Agreed. It defo gets exponentially easier after the top bit.
Until the helmet steps of course 🙂

Dear God.

If you're talking about descending from Grisedale Pike back to the little stile near the top of the Whinlatter south loop...

You will need to be in the top 2-3% of regular mountain bike riders, I would say. That trail as a descent is totally unthinkable for me (a pretty average rider). One bit in particular is so steep than a OTB would probably have you falling 8-9 feet onto sharp bedrock. I'm told it is do-able and apparently there is YT footage to prove it, but not for mortals.

Loving the debate here.

Must do sleet how.

As others have said the route out of the top of Whinlatter South loop is obvious and brings you out two thirds of the way up Grisedale Pike. I was up there in April and didn't see the point of pushing to the top just to push back down. For an average rider just descending from where you exit Whinlatter and join the main path is interesting to start with without being that difficult to just roll down slowly. It then opens up to a fast flowy trail with decent sight lines. I wasn't risking the steps right at the bottom though. I'll certainly ride it again in preference to the south loop descent.

Not ridden GP but the loop from there to Coledale Hause > Sail > Rigg Beck would be a good one (have done Crag Hill > Rigg Beck up via Coledale Beck). Would obviously have to climb back up to Whinlatter at the end though, although the off road climb isn't that horrible.