This is a Classic Ride you’ve got to work for, but it’ll be worth it. Really, there’s just a bit more up…

WORDS JAMES VINCENT

PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES VINCENT

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace.

While many areas of the Lake District are somewhat bereft of bridleways in favour of footpaths, leaving you with just one or two obvious routes in a certain locale, the Helvellyn massif has no such problem. Putting aside the precarious Striding and Swirral edges that even the likes of Danny MacAskill would think twice about riding, there are bridleways heading away from the summit and criss-crossing the ridge in almost every direction. What’s more, each one leads to an absolute belter of a descent that poses its own unique dilemma – speak to ten different mountain bikers, and you’ll end up with ten different routes, with each rider adamant that theirs is the best.

Real mountain biking, on a mountain.

What’s that white stuff?

“Ride along the Dodds, then you spend most of the day above 750m on a great ridge ride before descending Dollywagon and Grisedale Beck…”

“No, no, no – the Dodds will be boggy as hell, unless we’ve had six months of dry weather. Climb up Sticks Pass, then hit the ridge and descend Dollywagon…”

“What? Dollywagon’s horrible. It’s just steps and water bars. No one can ride it cleanly…”

“Nonsense, my mate did it years ago on his rigid hardtail with V-brakes, it’s easy.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, go up Dollywagon. The steps mean you gain height really quickly.”

“Ooh, that’s not a bad shout actually.”

And so it goes on, reaching a dangerous crescendo of noise until no one hears last orders at the bar. Enough! It’s my ride and I get to choose the route.

Fortunately, my decision is made easier because Wil, who’s joining Tim (a local) and me for this epic, is staying at Glenridding YHA at the bottom of the climb to Keppel Cove, so it makes sense to start there. Next, the ride has to have enough scope to keep us entertained all day, and since you can reach the summit and be back down in time for breakfast (if you start early enough), simply descending via Dollywagon and Grisedale Beck won’t quite do. It sounds like we need to go up and over the ridge twice and as I’ve always had a soft spot for Birkside, that’s the first descent sorted. The only problem with this is that it drops you close to the shores of Thirlmere and there are no nice climbs out of that particular valley – for whatever reason, they’re mostly steep, long, soul-sapping, grassy slogs. So let’s focus on the descending options once you get back to the ridge instead – Sticks Pass or Grisedale Beck via Grisedale Tarn? Grisedale Beck is good. Very good in fact, but as a last descent of the day, you just can’t beat the feel-good factor and sheer variety of Sticks, plus there’s the added bonus that it finishes right where we started. Now if you’ve got the legs for it, there’s nothing stopping you from hitting the summit twice and finishing with Dollywagon, but I don’t, so once it is. Sorted. Let’s do this…