We thought we may have been up Great Gable on a previous occasion (I checked later, and it turned out that we had gone up it in 2009). In any case, we knew that we had not gone up ‘direct’ route up the south-west ridge, through the charmingly named Little Hell Gate.
I forgot to look out for Moses’s Finger, from around which we probably should have started going rightwards (eastwards). I might have got quite preoccupied with picking my way up the mixture of scree and rocks on the steep slope. B eventually persuaded me to join him a bit further over to the right, where we discussed the way ahead, and we decided to head back down for the best way across. We came to a climbers’ traverse path, which we followed until we reached the edge of the Little Hell Gate scree. I stuck to the edge as we made our way up to the top, as the scree was very loose and the gradient very steep.
There was some snow at the top, though not as much as over Mickledore and Sca Fell the previous day, so put on our crampons. After some food we made our way down the south-east side of Great Gable to the Sty Head pass junction. Without our crampons again by this point, we took the good diagonal path which took us the most direct way back down to Wasdale Head.
View Great Gable via Little Hell Gate – Apr 2013 in a larger map