Advancing up the Helm Crag path

Since our last blog post we've been steadily advancing higher up the path at Helm Crag. Most of us have started work on fresh sections of path as we've joined up with the person working above. The photo below shows Pete just after starting on a new bit of pitching.

Shortly after starting a new section

After just over a week he's moved further up the path and Nic (who was working below) has joined up to where Pete started. The original path went through the soil on the right hand side. By taking this different route some of the gradient has been removed, meaning that the steps don't need to be as narrow or high. This makes the path much easier to walk down.

Joined up sections of path

In the following photograph Pete has almost joined up to the section above and is starting to put in a stone drain. The section above starts roughly next to the rucksack on the wall.

Approaching the next section

The next photograph shows some of the old path running alongside the wall, you can see how the path is angled which makes it difficult to walk down. When the path is wet or if gravel gets on to the path it can make a descent even more awkward.

The old path

The photograph below is the same section of path as that in the previous photo and nicely demonstrates the contrasting styles between the old and new footpaths.

The newly built path

The same section of path can be seen below after just over a weeks work. Again, the new path has more bends in it than the original path. As well as making it easier to walk on, it also makes the path much more pleasing to look at as it winds up the fell side. Once the surplus rock is removed and the area has been re-seeded there will be a dramatic difference in how the path looks.



Adding some more bends