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By Rob Clarke, sponsored by Heart of the Lakes cottages
February 2010 – Winching conundrums and snowy helicopters
Working on the fells we get used to projects that take a number of months to complete, the sort of things that don’t usually turn up during the low level winter months.
This winter has been different however, mainly due to the floods last November. Mentioned in this team’s December entry, Tom Gill is a popular path up to Tarn Hows that was very badly damaged by the flood water. Most of the damage happened along one 25 metre section of the path. Considering this is a low level ‘easy’ path it was left very tricky, if not impossible, for some people to get past and therefore something of a priority to fix before the spring.
above: The damaged stretch of path.
So we swapped the steel toecap walking boots we normally wear on the fells for steel toecap wellies and have spent the last few weeks in the gill, building up a huge wall to support the bank and path. So far the job has mainly consisted of winching huge boulders into place – the bigger the better for the wall to stand up to future torrents.
There’s more to winching rocks than meets the eye though. We started by tying a rope round them, which worked ok except the rope kept slipping off as the rocks bumped and rolled over the rough ground. So we tried putting them in the bags we use to lift stone under helicopters – but found that the same rough ground soon tore these to bits. Finally we’ve settled on some metal chains that can be wrapped around the stones and stand up to the rough treatment. This works very well except it can be a little tricky getting them out from under the rocks when they’re lowered onto the wall! Things are progressing well now we’re over the worst of the teething problems and we’re confident of finishing the work in time.
above left: Using ropes.... above right: Using chains - but how to get them out?
above: Using a helicopter lift bag
Back with helicopters, the heavy snow after Christmas meant the RAF didn’t make it here with their Merlins. The bags we filled didn’t go to waste though as our normal helicopter company came in mid February to lift them into place.
above: Helicopter blown snow catching the sunlight.
As this picture shows we had some stunning weather, but there was still plenty of snow around. What looks like white dots and dust was powder snow being blown up by the helicopter’s blades – described by one team member as ‘like someone rubbing your face with sandpaper’! Maybe it’ll help to toughen us back up in readiness for our return to working on the fells in a couple of months.
above: Waving the bag in before the full sandpaper treatment!
To find out more about the work carried out by Rob and his team, visit the team diary archive.
