Southern Team
September 2010- A Month of Variety
Written by Sam Stalker
September has been a month of variety for us, where we have unusually had a change of scene and a variety of people to work alongside. Primarily September has been divided between working on our own project on Hell Gill in Langdale and working alongside the Western Valleys path team on Mickeldore in Wasdale.
Working on these two projects has been interspersed with days working with volunteers and work parties, including a Fix the Fells work party on Lingmoor, a Basecamp working holiday on Pike of Blisco and a group of students from Kendal College working on Stake Pass. All of the work that we have done alongside the volunteers has been really valuable and has allowed the word to be spread about the Fix the Fells project and what we are striving to achieve.
Our own project on Hell Gill has been tackled on two fronts, with Ian and Nick mainly tackling the landscaping work on a steep section of path adjacent to the deepest part of Hell Gill, whilst Gavin and myself have been constructing a retaining wall over a landslip area. The wall carries the path on top of it, as well as holding back the ground to prevent further landslips.
Above: Gavin building the retaining wall in Hell Gill
The work has involved moving approximately 30 tonnes of rock across a slope and carefully into position - a slow task, but safety necessitates this. Unloading bags of stone is a task which can be potentially dangerous if it is undertaken in a haphazard manner, in this case many of the bags were leaning upon each other or on top of each other, therefore if one stone is moved, many of the other stones could move unpredictably. The task therefore has to be undertaken in a careful and systematic manner. Once the bags are emptied, then the stones are rolled and carried to the wall to continue the building.
On Mickeldore we were assisting the Western valleys team on their project, our work consisted of predominantly pitching, which has been a nice change, as we have had a relatively small amount of pitching to complete on our own projects this year.
We went over to lend a hand in order to push the project on and enable them to complete it before weather and reduction in daylight hours mean that they have to cease work on the fells for the winter. A change of scene and the opportunity to work with other path teams is always welcome, as we are often confined to our familiar areas and paths and don’t get to see many other path team members, other than those on our team.
Above: A different landscape to our usual view, as we look from Mickeldore down to Wastwater.
To find out more about the work carried out by Rob and his team, visit the team diary archive.