Great Gable & Kirk Fell from Wasdale Head

On this glorious late Indian summer's day Zaiming Wang and myself decided to have go at arguably the the best peak in the Lake District with the most stunning views.

Setting our alarms for 6am we met up in Liverpool at 7am to drive up to the Lakes in one car. The M6 was a piece of cake compared to where the satnav has taken us. Single track mountain passes with 14% gradient all the way westwards to Wasdale Head.

At the start of Wastwater lake, we had to stop the car for this iconic shot of the peaks (Yewbarrow, Kirk fell and Great Gable).

Another shot from the edge of the lake, we couldn't belive how calm the water was.

Back to the car and we drove to our destination at Wasdale Head Inn car park.
A journey of 4hrs, with two thirds of it navigating through some single track steep roads, was worth the effort when you are greeted with views like this.

After changing into our hiking gear we set off from the car park at 11:11am. 

ZW with his Canon EOS 60D armed and ready! Plus his Bear Grylls Craghoppers.

We approached Great Gable(899m) from the south along the path from the Inn.  Amazingly the weather was perfect, no wind, dry and warm. The only we were hoping was a clear view by the time we reached the summits.

As we approached the barn we were too busy chatting so that we completely missed the sign for the public footpath! We had to back track a few hundred yards to notice the sign on the wall.

Looking up at GB's scree slope topped off with some serious scrambling rock face. Somewhere up there is the famous sphinx.

A view looking back at the valley to Wastwater.

ZW taking in the views of Lingmell (807m)

The path leading along side GB is well defined and not too challenging but still a way to go until we climb to the summit.

The path gets a little bit less defined as we turn and head straight for the summit. 

Time to get some hands on rocks fun! This whole section requires a lot of scrambling and own path finding.  The rocks were dry so there was no problems with slipping, but we wished that we wore our scarpas especially on the small foot holds.

Initial part of scrambling, as you can see here with ZW, is not too steep just big boulders.
A side shot showing some height gain from our climb and the angle of rocks to scramble over.

Scrambling became more of rock climbing as demonstrated here by ZW.

From Styhead tarn, the ascent was steep and rocky.

We all had to get hands on rock most of the way up!

People at the summit on a lunch break.

A memorial plaque in remembrance to those who fell during WW1 who also loved to climb.

  

Lunch break on the summit of GB looking toward Kirkfell.

GB's summit marker with clear views of Wastwater below, a rare day indeed!

ZW leading the way down the scree slope for our next summit of Kirkfell with Pillar in the background.

Descending GB onto some steep stuff!

Kirkfell and its route up, some more scrambling to look forward to.

Not sure what the description of this point is, some where between GB and Kikfell.

Half way up Kirkfell with the dome of GB in the distance.

View of GB as seen directly from Kirkfell Summit.

Kirkfell Summit (802m) cairn. Great as a shelter from the wind.

On our way down we get a spectacular view of Wasdale Head. 

At this point I wished I bought my cap, shades and sun lotion as the afternoon heat was quite intense on the way down. My feet were burning!

Here I was trying to capture a shot of the steepness of this descent off Kirkfell.

Looking back the way we came with late afternoon sunshine.

Red Pike to the left of the picture.

ZW cooling down washing some sweat off!

Some flat trail leading to our final stop of our trek never felt so good.

Refreshment stop at the Wasdalehead Inn. We had a great epic day in the Lakes with perfect conditions all day!

Our route summary tracked by Garmin and uploaded onto Endomondo.  

Kit List:- (used)
North Face Hedgehog Mid GTX XCR
Berghaus Roam 25
Montane Terra Pants
Moremile Alaska Long Sleeve (only top I wore all day)
Garmin Forerunner 210