Great Gable Route 4
Thrills around – not up – a Lake District classic
Is this the best walk in the Lake District that doesn’t aim to reach a summit? Quite possibly. The Gable Girdle is a high-level circumnavigation of Great Gable that combines the classic north and south traverses. It offers a more intimate and dramatic interaction with the mountain than the usual slog for the top. You won’t need a helmet, ropes or carabiners – but there’s still the chance to enter a world that is usually the preserve of expert rock climbers. Your hands will touch bare, cold rock. You’ll get up close and personal with the 20m-high teetering spike of Napes Needle – the birthplace of British climbing; and the iconic, much-photographed Sphinx Rock. Your feet’ll slide on rivers of scree and your heart will race during adrenalineinducing scrambles. The Gable Girdle can be walked in either direction – but this is an anticlockwise route, leaving the excitement of the Great Napes towards the end. Great Gable is unquestionably one of the great Lakeland fells. It’s a towering, rugged mass of rock, crags and cliffs. It’s captivating to look at – an unbroken, devilish pyramid from the south, the dome of a sleeping, curled-up giant from the north. The Gable Girdle lets you experience it all.