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a wilfully illegal act Interesting that the ramblers today are so keen to have the law on their side when it comes to who can use certain ROADS
Helicopter used for mountain path A helicopter is to lift more than 700 tons of stone onto mountains in Snowdonia as part of a project to repair eroding upland paths. Five teams of path workers will spend a fortnight laying the airlifted stone into place on four sites, Snowdon, Cadair Idris, Y Garn and Tryfan Bach. The stone is brought in by helicopter so as not to disturb stone near paths, which might host delicate plants. Around 350,000 people visit Snowdon, Wales' highest mountain, each year. Both Snowdonia National Park Authority and the National Trust have path teams at work. 'Durable paths' Alan Hughes, of the Snowdonia Upland Path Partnership said: "The trick is for the finished path to blend into its surrounding environment, be comfortable to walk on and for it to appear as if nothing has been done. "A variety of methods are used to carry out the work of rectifying the damage - a fully trained path worker can build some two metres of path a day. "Generally the teams use as local as possible stone to construct durable paths, using a technique known as 'stone-pitching,' using some one ton of stone for every 1.5m of path built." The National Trust said it cost between £50 and £100 to construct each metre of footpath and it needed to raise £80,000 per year to fund its footpath team.
23 Feb 2006. LDNPA News Article.One of the worst cases of Lake District footpath erosion where hundreds of tonnes of earth were washed away leaving ugly, four metre deep ravines has been given a radical £20,000 make-over.Around 400m of a route on Coledale Hause above Buttermere had fallen victim to extensive damage caused by walkers and weather, leaving a gaping gully up to six metres wide.Salvation came courtesy of acclaimed Scottish digger driver Iain McCurrach, who drove the machine up to the 700m trouble spot and set about re-profiling the path, establishing drainage and stemming the water flow.“The result is a great new path that blends in with the rest of the stunning scenery,†said National Trust upland access project manager John Atkinson, who paid tribute to Iain’s renowned skills. “This is a fine example of restoration work and should encourage walkers to stay on route rather than trampling on vegetation and potentially starting the whole process again,†said John.The Lake District National Park Authority’s upland paths adviser Richard Fox added that it was “a fantastic job†and already hard to imagine how bad the problem had been.“It is vitally important that we can find on-going funding so we can stop other paths getting into this dreadful state. A stitch in time is very relevant for footpaths and people who love the fells are encouraged to help us in their care and repair.†Coledale Hause restoration was paid for by online fix the fells appeal, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Tourism and Conservation Partnership.Already 70 paths have been repaired thanks to fix the fells donations totalling £359,917, but a further 75 are still in desperate need of attention. Erosion caused by millions of walkers and weather takes a serious toll on the hills.
Apparently to gain access to the forum you have to be a paid up member of the RA & you have to write to them requesting access & giving some good reasons & telling them something about yourself, so they can 'Vet' you for suitability. :roll:
