Great Gable

Height: 899m or 2949 feet

Grid ref: NY211103

01 November 2008: Will you marry me on the summit of Great Gable !

well today the 1st November was a perfect snowy day and so i took a walk up Great Gable. Imagine my surprise when I got to the summit only to find a man on one knee proposing to his girlfriend !

I'm afraid i didn't get your names but am happy to say the young lady said YES !

So if you are the couple in the pictures email me you names and I will send you the photos, all that's left to say is CONGRATULATIONS

Character: A rocky but impressive fell dominating the Wasdale skyline, not an easy fell but has some wonderful paths and routes to the top to make it as hard as you like. A great rock climbing fell and home to the famous Napes Needle.

WasdaleWeb's opinion: A fantastic fell, no matter how many times you climb this fell you can find something new. From the airy climbers' traverse, to gully scrambles and fine pitched paths, Great Gable lives up to its name. Known originally as Great Gavel it was given as the home of the gods by the Viking dwellers in Wasdale as even in good weather it seemed to have a wisp of cloud tottering over the summit. Today it hosts a war memorial and every Remembrance Day a non-denominational service is held on the summit (click here for more info)

Approaches: The true ascent is done from Wasdale, choosing either to ascend up the Styhead Pass to the tarn and then up a very well pitched path known as the Breast Route to the summit, or going first to Beck Head and up a scrambly path to the summit. While these are the most common there are hundreds of other routes, including parking at Honistor and climbing via Green Gable.

If you have a route description or photos or story of your Gable experience, send them in to Guy or Jeannie and we will put them live here

Great gable was a well worth climb and very enjoyable the views were unbelievable, we started out at 12.15 lunch time and reached the summit at 4.30pm, and as we were in the clouds and visibility was about 15 – 20 meters we had to climb down the same way towards beck head and reached the bottom at wasdalehead inn at 8.45pm. Our plan next time is to leave early. Always go well prepared and include head torches without these as it was pitch black, I don’t think we would have made it down.

Tony crane and family

Great Gable and the war memorial above