NY2250013554 As you leave Honister, be mindful that it's a working site, so expect wheeled loaders and dump trucks to be whizzing around and rein in any overenthusiastic children or dogs. Take the sloping, signposted path on the south side of the pass. This quickly develops into a ruler-straight line (marked as Dismantled Tramway on the OS map) heading west-south-west. Don't get too set on this straight line though, as you will soon divert from it.

NY2158913471 At a prominent and rather incongruous causeway, turn left to pick up a southerly bearing heading up and across a broad moorland. The scale of this moor gradually becomes apparent: a vast, tilted plateau draining into the upper Buttermere Valley at first then, later, into upper Ennerdale. If it's clear, Gable Crag will overtop the lot and you are quite likely to gulp. There is also no better vantage-point from which to survey the vast northern face of Pillar, with the Rock striking an impressive pose just below the summit.

NY2112812032 When you cross the fence line running down from Brandreth's summit, look out for a thin line in the grass trending down to the strong contouring line of Moses Trod on a lower parallel. Once you're on Moses Trod proper, the way should be obvious. Moses may be a semi-mythic figure but his Trod is a hundred percent real, bequeathing us a highway that efficiently connects the headwaters of four valleys: Borrowdale, Buttermere, Ennerdale and Wasdale. Gable's preposterous dome will lure you on and you should start to see the graceful curve of the Trod contouring round the scoop of Stone Cove, under Gable Crag to the crest of Gable's northwest ridge. Follow this.

NY2079010725 If the weather is clear, the arrival on the northwest ridge will be a Halleluiah moment: even though you still have some hard work to do to reach the summit, the view down into Wasdale is already glorious. Turn left, dig deep and head up a series of little rock steps through a steep and chaotic boulder-field. Cairns will be found at suitable intervals but the ridge is sufficiently well-defined that you would struggle to go astray.

NY2113410322 The arrival at the summit may induce more Halleluiahs, partly from the respite from effort, but mostly as the view south opens up: the north face of the Scafell group looks tremendous from here - a scene of savage majesty. In mist, the summit is unmistakably marked with a plaque to those members of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club who were killed in World War One. Depending how close to Remembrance Sunday you are, you'll often find a poppy wreath laid against it. From the top, pick up a line of cairns heading north-east, then swinging east on steep, sometimes unpleasantly loose ground. This soon alleviates at the stony col of Windy Gap, with a very short climb to the lesser summit of Green Gable. I say lesser, but it is still one of Lakeland's 800m plus peaks, and provides an unimprovable perch from which to survey the northward-frowning buttresses of Gable Crag.

NY2146510713 From Green Gable, head north, taking care not to be drawn right down towards Base Brown. Follow a hummocky, switchbacking ridge with an old fence line as a guide, down to the sprinkle of tarns at Gillercomb Head, over Brandreth to the rocky tor of Grey Knotts. From here, there are a wealth of alternative lines of descent to the pass but the one shown on the map is not too steep.