The Napes of Great Gable. Mountaineering in the Lake District

Needle-ridge-Great-Gable

The gendarmed arete of Needle Ridge

Today was all about mountaineering, a big day on the high crags, moving rapidly up easier rock and scrambling routes. And where better to do this than The Napes area of Great Gable, right next to the most iconic piece of rock in England, Napes Needle.

Needle Ridge is a 'Classic Rock' route graded V'diff and whilst it's all very good, it gets better as height is gained, as all top quality rock routes should. To finish this route is a magnificent gendarmed arete with Wasdale as backdrop, such a stunning location.
After a quick snack stop we made our way over to Westmorland's crag for our continuation route, Pinnacle Ridge. This gives a further 150m of quality scrambling and for this we chose to 'move together' in an Alpine style. This provides a higher level of safety than soloing, but less so than pitched climbing. A mere 15 minutes later we were at the top of this route too and enjoying spectacular views of the whole of the Lake District, over to the Isle of Man, and Scotland.

We took a stroll to the summit of Great Gable before descending via Styhead tarn back to Borrowdale.

A really good day out, thanks Jane 

Napes-Needle-Lake-District

Setting off on Needle Ridge

Memorial-on-Great-Gable-summit

The recently replaced memorial on Great Gable summit

Categories

Archives