The Olympic Torch Arrives In Whitehaven

Yesterday along with several thousand others we headed into Whitehaven to watch the Olympic Torch Relay as it passed through the town.  It was forecast to rain, but thankfully during the relay it didn’t really come to much.

This picture from The Whitehaven News gives an idea of the number of people on Lowther Street

We decided to stand on the slightly less crowded harbour front

The town had been decorated with London 2012 banners

We saw the final leg where the torch was carried by Shameem Arnold

A short video of it passing us

Getting in the spirit of the games with our Olympic mugs

Fixed Point Photographs on Haycock

Yesterday was forecast to be the last good weather day for a while so Karen & Crag took the opportunity to finish off the Wild Ennerdale fixed point photographs.  There were two left to do, one on the summit of Haycock & one on the smaller mound Tewit How on the ascent.

The path follows Deep Gill before turning & starting the steep ascent up Tewit How (left), Haycock is the summit in the distance

Part way up the bank & a little bit of Ennerdale comes into view

The path is indistinct & you just pick your way through the ferns & heather

Higher up & more of Ennerdale is in view, Deep Gill looks a long way down now

We have done the steepest part of the climb & are now on the ridge line upto Tewit How

Somebody is a little worn out as he has been chasing sticks most of the way so far

The summit cairn on Tewit How

The 1st panoramic shot, Steeple around to Haycock, you can see the route up from here

And the second one, Caw Fell across the lake and around to High Stile

Zooming in on Steeple & Scoat Fell

And across the valley to Red Pike & High Stile

A small tarn on Tewit How

We then climb up to the next ridge line where we meet “The Wall” (it stretches for 6 miles along the southern side of Ennerdale & when you walk it it seems to go on forever)

The wall in the opposite direction to Scoat Fell

Looking back once we have started the climb up Haycock

Zooming in on Scafell Pike & Sca Fell

The shelter at the top of Haycock (797m)

The panoramas aren’t as interesting here are the summit plateau is pretty barren

The wall crosses through the summit

Most of Ennerdale Water is in view here

Then we begin out descent taking a slightly different route back, Crag playing in a small beck

Then looking for a stick, piece of heather, root, actually anything that can be thrown is fair game

It was nice to get out on the tops again although the paths or lack of them doesn’t make Haycock the most pleasant of ascents in places

Bridge Building Over High Beck

Last week saw us on two work parties starting the mammoth job of rebuilding the bridge on the Liza path over High Beck.  This job was made harder by the huge quantity of midges, even the National Park & Forestry staff said they had never known as many in one place.

The helicopter had delivered the materials a few weeks ago all we had to do was assemble them (and a bit more).

The abutment on one side had been washed away so the first job was to dig out new foundations & collect a lot of stone to build with.

Large stones were used as the facings for the abutment with smaller ones as infill

Andy was collecting stones whilst Karen helped build the abutment, it was very similar principles to dry stone walling, although we were using a little concrete to hold some of the stones in place

It takes  plenty of deliberation over which stones fit best where

Andy busy mixing the concrete.

At the end of Tuesday the abutment was almost complete, we needed to raise it about 3inches & fill the middle with concrete.

So Thursday we were back on it, thankfully there was a little breeze & only a few midges.

The abutment was finished, now the small matter of moving the beams onto it.  The beams were 11m x 36cm x 23cm so not light

Using cantilever principles & some good old brute force the beams were slowly lifted into place

Using the lats from the old bridge as a rest slowly the beams are lifted higher as more are inserted

And finally the first beam is rested on both abutments

It’s tiring work.

Then its time to start on the second beam, Andy, Angus & Julian act as a counter weight as the beam is moved into place

 

Once the beam is on both abutments the last job is to roll the beam over

 

Job done, it’s been a hard but rewarding two days work

Although the beam is not in its final position & it doesn’t actually matter if its not completely level we haven’t done badly that’s 3.3degrees off level.

There are a few more work parties needed to paint & assemble the final bridge.