Western Valleys team
by Iain Gray
April 09
When spring arrives a footpath worker’s thoughts turn invariably towards...hundreds of tons of stone being loaded into helibags ready for the arrival of a helicopter in late March.
During a hectic week of flying in the face of hostile weather and also the presence of a BBC T.V. crew recording for Countryfile, we moved a large amount of stone onto three sites where we will be working throughout the summer and probably autumn too!
Photo: Working in the snow
The highest site is around the Three Tarns area between Bowfell and Crinkle Crags, this will be a joint effort with the Coniston team. Early in March we endured several days of near Arctic conditions on the side of Bowfell.
We filled 180 bags to be used in landscaping the heavily worn areas immediately beside the 3 tarns, the top of the Band and also rationalising the web of paths in the area. Because this will involve moving large amounts of debris, two power driven barrows were flown rather spectacularly to the site.
Also receiving stone was the route from the Three Shires Stone on Wrynose pass up to Red Tarn. This section of path will be repaired with volunteer help later in the summer.
The briefest flight brought 15 bags of stone to aid further remedial work on the now very busy Brown Tongue path in Wasdale. This work is already underway and should be completed in May with help from the Fix the Fells lengthsmen and a group of RAF volunteers.
