A wet start to summer on the Helm Crag path

Over the past few weeks we've been steadily getting further up the path at Helm Crag. It's been fairly wet over this time and we've had some really torential downpours, but at least they give us a break from the midges!

Pitching in the rain...again

With our type of work we carry on regardless of what the weather's chucking at us. Unless it reaches a point where it really is starting to get unsafe we'll just keep plodding on with our work.

One such instance of the weather being too unsafe to work in was when we were caught out in a recent thunderstorm while out on a drain run near Harrison Stickle. The storm suddenly appeared from nowhere right over head and we noticed lightning strike the ground just a few hundred metres away. We quickly downed tools and crouched down next to a nearby crag so that if the lighning was to strike it would (in theory) hit the higher ground rather than us.

The storm stayed for a good fifteen minutes with the lighning hitting the ground all around us. When it appeared that there was a bit of a break we quickly headed off down the hill via Stickle Ghyll.

Finishing off the first section of path

Back to Helm Crag...since the last blog update we've all almost finished the sections that we started. Once we finish a section we join up to the person working infront and then leapfrog to the top of the path. We carry on like this until the path is finished. Working like this means you're not usually too far from another Fell Ranger so if you need a hand at any point there's somebody close by.

Putting down some grass seed

With the first section of path completed the area to the sides of the path was landscaped and grass seed was put down. Hopefully with all the warm and wet weather we've been having it shouldn't take too long to start growing.