Heading up the footpath towards Great Gable for a day of Classic Rock routes
It’s around about a 2 hour drive to Wasdale head from my home in Morecambe, and with five Classic Rock routes starting from the head of the valley it made sense to base ourselves there for a few days while we worked our way through the classic multi-pitch trad routes on some of England’s highest mountains.
Three routes on the flanks of Great Gable and two on the giant crags of Scafell; we ambitiously set ourselves the target of climbing all five routes over two days… I say ambitiously as the days we had set aside for this turned out to be some of the hottest days of the year, and boy does that kind of heat zap your energy!
After some route checking and map checking we decided to set off for our day of climbing in the afternoon; 13.30 to be precise as according to our calculations, this would mean that the crags and climbs in question would be shaded by the time we arrived at them.
We set off up the valley from the vans at 13.30 as planned and it wasn’t long before we crossed over a very dry Gable beck. Those of you who are familiar with the area will know that this is almost always a substantial steady flowing beck … I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this run dry?
Following the footpath up the west flank of Great Gable, in the baking heat, we were thankful for the intermittent small breezes we were afforded. It wasn’t long before we approached the steep ground and scree slopes indicating that it was our time to branch off from the beaten track. It was a further 150 meters of ascent up the scree path before we were at the base of Great Napes on the south face of Great Gable and it was here where our traverse below these giant walls began!
Working our way beneath the crags of Great Napes I got my first view of the legendary Napes Needle from below. The ‘Wasdale Crack’ Classic Rock route would take us to the top of this famous pinnacle… but not just yet.
After skirting around the base of Great Napes we came to another short scree scramble which led us to the start of our first route of the day…
The first view of Tophet Wall
Ade and I gearing up and putting on our rock shoes at the base of Tophet wall
Tophet Wall (HS 4b)
Rockfax topo of Tophet Wall (HS 4b) taken from my Rockfax app
The Classic Rock route ‘Tophet wall’ is a favourite of many and for good reason; often touted as one of the best climbs in the country, this phenomenal route is full of character and traces an audacious line across the face of Tophet wall. Tophet wall itself is a formidable wall which provides some outstanding extreme routes… and one Hard Severe, our route for today!
Working my way up the route on Tophet Wall (HS 4b)
The route winds its way up some impressive rock features and gives a real sense of exposure and ‘big wall’ climbing that I’d not yet had on any of the other Classic Rock routes so far. Each pitch has a technical rating, three 4a pitches and a 4b, following the line of weakness in the rock, I made my way up series of slabs, ledges and cracks.
The climbing was exciting if not a little unnerving with its semi-traverses and a bold swing around a pinnacle near the top of the climb!
About to make the move to swing right on the pinnacle
A 30 meter abseil down to Great Hell Gate and a short walk down the scree brought us back to the base of Tophet Wall.
Looking back up at our route we took a breath, picked up our backpacks, and headed off back around to Great Napes and the famous Napes Needle...
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As mentioned above, the image of the route topo is from the RockFax app. The lovely folk at RockFax have given me an exclusive code to share with my readers...
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Ade looking down to Wasdale from the Great Hell Gate scree gully
Ade silhouetted against the bright skies on his way up to Napes Needle
Rose, Just keep doing what you do. You've proved you can accomplish anything when you set your heart on it.