The Nan Bield Pass - a Lakes MTB Classic with added crazy
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- The Nan Bield Pass - a Lakes MTB Classic with added crazy
Nan Bield Pass, between Mardale and Kentmere, is one of the classic Lake District MTB routes, and is a rite of passage for many mountain bikers. I have been telling Marc and Christian about it for a long time now and finally the opportunity arose for me to show them what it is like.
Of course, first you need to get to the top of the descent and to do so, we crossed over into Sadgill and climbed up Gatescarth Pass but instead of descending to Mardale and climbing up the back of Nan Bield, we cut up onto and over Harter Fell, the descent off which is one of the most technical I know. Get down Harter and you are at the shelter at the top of Nan Bield and what follows, very technical in itself, doesn't seem quite as bad compared to what has come before.
We were blessed with perfect weather and as a result, perfect views over the Lakeland Fells, not that we could concentrate on the views much as we were descending.
Joining me in this one were
Marc (TheGibMTB) / @hallmarc_trails
Christian (Electric Mountain Biker) / @electricmountainbiker
and Shaun.
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Wow, what an breathtakingly beautiful trail down Nan Bield Pass. This could well also be in the middle of the alps. Stunning, great ride!
It's incredible mate, beautiful scenery and really remote feeling. I reckon that the Lakes has riding to rival the Alps, it's just that you have to put the effort in to get up to the tops first.
@@Stopadoodledoo It certainly looks like that!
Great commentary on the tech sections
Thanks mate, I try to keep it a bit more interesting than just watching someone riding a bicycle 👍
That climb, even on the ebike was just brutal!!! And then the descent was equal to that. Bloody loved it! Epic day, amazing views in fact just EPIC all round.
So many more skills to now learn but cannot wait for the next one.
For those watching if you are unsure just do it, can walk the bits which scare you 🙃
Yeah, the climb is a killer mate but so worth it for the huge, long descent on the other side. There are two other ways to get to the top of Nan Bield but both would have seen you carrying your bike and I didn't think you would appreciate that 😂
Without wanting to sound all Billy Big Bo11ocks, Harter Fell should definitely not be under-estimated. Some bits of it are incredibly challenging!
All hail XC, all hail singletrack, all hail chemical toilets! Truly stunning place to ride. So jealous!
You know it mate, Shaun's life would be hollow if it wasn't for the chemical toilet in the back of his van 😂
Your turn will come to ride up there with us mate, you just need to heal up first 👍
Harter looks bonkers mate!
Mate, it’s utterly ridiculous; video doesn’t do it justice 😃
yeah! 🔥
Cheers mate, was one hell of.a ride 👍
What a day this was, most horrific climb up followed by the most horrific descent down 🤣 joking aside, that was one of the best rides i've ever endured, harter fell was just crazy, well done for riding 99% of that, i guess you learn how to ride a little bit more each time you go, nan bield was a stunning trail, lovely tight switchbacks and some great techy singletrack, full of heart in mouth moments for sure lol, superb video mate 👍
Cheers mate, this really was such a great day and ride.
Definitely learn as time goes on and you ride the rocky Lakes trails more and more, you get an eye for what's possible (what you can get away with), which is a surprising amount as long as you take a bit of speed into stuff 👍
Watching that has reminded me how much I love the riding up there so much! Can’t believe we have ridden Nan Bield on hard tails, almost as good an idea as taking them to Morzine 😜. Got to get up and join you for a ride in the next couple of months.
Cheers Twelve, proper looking forward to you and Dango coming up, it's been far too long. Got a fair few trails in mind to show you guys, definitely not hardtail friendly.
Least said about hardtails in Morzine the better 😂
Great riding mate. wish I was as quick on the gnarl. Cant beat the lakes. either walking or riding. I don't mind. love the place
Cheers Andy; I was having a pretty good day when we did this, got down all of Harter Fell for the first time (albeit stopping a couple of times to have a look at stuff).
The Lakes are hard to beat, especially on a warm and clear day 👍
Epic mate ....truly epic ! You certainly put the boys through their paces .....I could only imagine how technical and tough that was in places ....well rode mate 👍.......and you even had time to chat up a couple of girls lol 😂
Cheers Paul, appreciate it as always. This was one hell of a ride, a fair bit easier than when I did it on my cheapo hardtail last Summer.
As for those girls, they were probably wondering firstly what a tramp was doing on a bicycle and secondly, why he seemed intent on riding it down stupid stuff 😂
Sensational looking trails Jason - a proper challenge. Apart from all the sheep, you could easily mistake it for the Alps. Singletrack is where it's at!!
Cheers mate, they are lovely trails although the one off Harter Fell is more of a freefall down a rock-strewn mountain face than a trail 😂.
Definitely has an alpine feel to it up there, especially when the weather is as good as it was on this day 👍
"Putting single track back on the map " great slogan 👍 I imagine it's more differcult to make a long single track edit exciting and the camera never does the views justice. So hard to get that across but you manage to do it mate, the description/knowledge and your passion for the area and riding single track really comes through to the viewer makes it really interesting. Cracking edit 👍 anyway I'll climb out your arse now if that's OK 😂👊
Cheers mate. To be honest, it was easy enough on this day as the Nan Bield Pass is absolutely amazing singletrack in a stunningly beautiful, remote valley. It goes on for well over a mile and is pretty demanding; hard to keep speed up in places.
Saying that, I edited huge chunks of it out as I didn't think a full run of it would translate to video very well. Luckily, I can usually edit around when I have been talking my rubbish, which makes it easy 😃👍
Epic views with epic riding! 👏👍
Cheers Russ. It's absolutely beautiful up there, and the riding is pretty damned good too. What we failed to get on camera was that I pointed out to Shaun that Shap, where he grew up, was about five miles away as the crow flies. He was flabbergasted 😂
That trail looks absolutely crazy! But in a good way. Would love to do one like that, although I'm sure my legs wouldn't again 😅
It is crazy Gaz, proper full on from the top until you get to the shelter at the top of Nan Bield, and it's no walk in the park from there down either.
It is a killer of an ascent but so worth it 👍
Came over from Trail Finder 👍
Nice one mate, hope you like what you see here 👍
Id recommend Bowerdale valley descent to you as you say you love the classic single track ides. Descent from top of Howgills
Cheers, will look into this. I've never ridden in the Howgills yet, the draw of the Lakes fells has always been too great but I am always interested in new places 👍
@@Stopadoodledoo Recommend to wait until it's dry as the climb up from Sedbergh is over grassy bog & hard work at the best of times.
We're all for singletrack! And we agree.. grading trails like this against tame trail center gradings, is irresponsible... I'd class that as an All Mountain singletrack trail. -It's also much more gnarly in real life. The Gopro, doesn't do it justice!...
Great vid, as always!...
Cheers mate. Not sure how I would class this one as it has a mix of XC, trials and DH (you can tell I'm an old fart with that terminology). Such a great route though, fully recommend it to likes rocky technical trails 👍
Awesome mate. 👍
Cheers mate, appreciate that 👍
Great mtb video! Cool to watch your improvements! Just subscribed to you😁
Thanks mate, really appreciate that 👍
The 29er comment 😅 so I basically won’t be able to turn down those switch backs 😂
You'd be fine, I know that people do ride them on 29ers all the time; guess you just have to plan the corners slightly better (or I could be talking rubbish - it's not unknown 😃).
I just prefer 27.5 myself, as I am quite the luddite 😃
XC trail 🙄 that's what me and my mates class as "all mountain" great vid for my late lunch break!
I'm old mate, when I started riding it was XC, DH or Trials and that was it. This route contains elements of all three 😃
@@Stopadoodledoo Hahaha F'off Jason your not that old, I do agree with ya though to me that's all mountain all of the lakes is, peak district, rivington it's all "all mountain" am not down with the kids lingo these days to me when someone says a "Flo" trail what they actually mean is should of brought a hardtail 😀 but single-track is simple it means one at a time single file 👊
@@JoeJoe-C137 I'm no spring chicken mate, at 50 years old 😃
Totally with you on Flow Trails, just says 'Easy Trails' to me.
@@Stopadoodledoo behave kid only as old as you feel, got a 63 year old in are group ok his retired to an ebike but still sends it 👍
Yes it's hard, that Harter Fell DH. Done it twice, nowhere near ridden it all. But then I can't do the jumps on a Black graded DH track. So I'm not sure which is the most "Black"
Harter, definitely. The big jumps on DH tracks invariably have chicken runs whereas on Harter, the chicken run is basically lowering your bike down a massive jumble of rocks.
The comparison of grading was really comparing it to trail centres rather than bike parks; trail centre grading seems to be a bit of a mish mash anyway; the black trails at Degla for instance aren't difficult in the slightest. Even where they are more justified as black trails, they are nowhere near as technical as Harter :)
I’m with you Jason I love large picturesque loops. Lake District is just too far for me. Need to come up and camp
You certainly do Rich. If it's big country and views for ever that you love, then the Lakes has it in droves 👍
So... what is the best trail in the Lake District? Obviously your opinion! Could do a video compiling some footage of top 5 ? Explaining what you like/dislike about them all. Great video as always !
Such a great question Matt, you've got me thinking about which are my top five favourites and how I could pull together a video without angering people as at least four of my top five would be footpaths.
In the top five would definitely be one that heads off the top of Skiddaw in the direction of Bassenthwaite, that is just stunning but to film on it would incur the wrath of a lot of people 👍
@@Stopadoodledoo Hahahahah! I feel so lucky to live so close to these ‘trails’ yet never take advantage of the fact. I need to get exploring and stop riding the same fell over and over again, however much fun that is. If I followed your Strava would I find the Skiddaw loop ? Thanks 👍🏻
Hi mate, have u got downloadable route for this ?
Hopefully this will work:
strava.app.link/kwaxmJsDvJb
If not, you can find me on Strava under Stopadoodledoo, ride is called Nan Bield with Pete. It’s a better route to get over to Long Sleddale than the one in the video (trail over Cocklaw Fell will be a bog at the moment)