Great Gable
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| Great Gable | |
|---|---|
 Great Gable from Wasdale. The cliff at centre is the Napes of Great Gable. |
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| Elevation | 899 m (2949 ft) |
| Location | Lake District, England |
| Prominence | 425 m |
| Topo map | OS Landrangers 89, 90 |
| OS grid reference | NY211104 |
| Listing | Marilyn, Hewitt, Wainwright, Nuttall |
Great Gable is a pyramid-shaped mountain lying at the very heart of the English Lake District. It is one of the most popular of the Lakeland fells, and there are many different routes to the summit. Great Gable is linked by the high pass of Windy Gap to its smaller sister hill, Green Gable, and by the lower pass of Beck Head to its western neighbour, Kirk Fell.
Routes to climb to the summit start from all of the main dales that radiate out from central Lakeland. There are multiple routes from Wasdale to the southwest, Ennerdale to the northwest, Borrowdale to the northeast and Langdale a little further to the east. The most popular routes converge at Sty Head Pass and ascend the southeast shoulder of Gable. The hill does not possess any obvious ridgelines, save for the high link to Green Gable. All routes are steep and somewhat loose underfoot.
The summit of Great Gable is strewn with boulders. Due to its central position within the Lake District the summit has some of the best panoramic views of any peak in the area. There is a plaque commemorating those who died in the First World War; an annual memorial service is held here on Remembrance Sunday.
[edit] Rock climbing
Great Gable has cliffs to the north (Gable Crag) and south (Westmorland Crags, the Napes, and Kern Knotts). The Napes are important in the history of English rock climbing: W. P. Haskett Smith's ascent of the remarkable detached pinnacle of Napes Needle in June 1886 (now graded Hard Severe) is thought by many to mark the origins in England of rock climbing as a sport in its own right, as opposed to a necessary evil undergone by mountaineers on their way to the summit.
[edit] External links
- W. P. Haskett Smith's account of the first ascent of Napes Needle from the FRCC Journal, No. 8, 1914.
- Computer generated summit panoramas North South index
