Green Gable

Gable Crag fills the view from Green Gable, which is the best place to look at it. Seen from Ennerdale the fell has a pointed, gabled outline, but only its lower slopes are green. The summit is a desert of stones with a cairn and a wind shelter.

The top of Honister Pass is the high start. The slate mine has car parks and the seasonal 77 Honister Rambler stops there. A path contours round Grey Knotts and Brandreth, climbs to Gillercomb Head and follows a line of cairns to the summit. From Seathwaite in Borrowdale, where parking is on the roadside verge, the stone-pitched path beside Sour Milk Gill climbs into the hanging valley of Gillercomb and up past Base Brown. Another way from Seathwaite goes towards Sty Head and turns up Mitchell Cove. From Ennerdale a long walk up the valley ends with Stone Cove to Windy Gap or the easier grassy Tongue to Gillercomb Head.

None of these involves scrambling, though the path from Sour Milk Gill has a few rocky steps and the ground near the top is stony throughout. Most walkers carry on over Windy Gap to Great Gable.

Moses Trod

The contouring path from Honister also leads to Moses Trod, a high route round Great Gable to Wasdale. Local stories say Moses was a Honister quarryman who doubled as a trader and whisky smuggler, though he may never have existed.

From the summit you see up the Buttermere valley, across to Scafell Pike, and straight at the dark face of Gable Crag. Below, at the foot of Aaron Slack, lies Sty Head Tarn, about 30 feet deep.