Start point: Wasdale Head (NY 186 084)
Wasdale Head – Kirk Fell – North Top of Kirk Fell – Beck Head – Great Gable – Westmorland Cairn – Great Hell Gate – Napes Needle – Sphinx Rock – Moses Trod – Wasdale Head
Distance: 5 miles Total Ascent: 1100 metres Time Taken: 4 hours 30 minutes
Weather: Icy at first, sunny later. -2oC at first, 7oC max.
I would have liked to have made it to Great Gable yesterday as it was the FRCC annual Armistice Day service up there, but not to worry as I had my own service in solitude today. It was really icy and cold when I set off and that soon gave way to sunshine and clear blue skies. I descended Great Gable by way of the Westmorland Cairn and down to the rough and rocky Great Napes descending Great Hell Gate and traversing to Napes Needle and Sphinx Rock.

The FRCC remembrance plaque on Great Gable. It was good to see that there were wreaths and poppies up there despite the edict that people shouldn't leave them as it causes a littering nuisance. I left our families poppies up there today, I told Connie I would so that she may remember in future. Remember her great-grandfather that survived a mustard gas attack at Arras in the First World War and who was never the same again; remember her great-grandfather who was nearly blown to kingdom come in a mortar attack at Arnhem, ending up with less legs and digits than he had previously and who was never the same again; remember her great-grandfather who went to Burma and didn't see his daughter for 5 long years, caught malaria and who was never the same again. Remember them all Connie and shed a tear. I did. I hope the poppies don't offend anyone; please remember the thoughts behind them.