Ski England: An Epic Lakeland Adventure
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| Paradise View: The Sticks Pass (Ullswater just sneeks into shot) |
A typical day on Raise
Snow lay surprisingly thick on the ground as I pulled into the car park at Glenridding in the heart of the English Lake District, nestled in the shadow of Helvellyn. I was here to Ski with the Lake District Ski Club on Raise a neighbouring peak on the Helvellyn Massif.
Pulling my large ruck sack out of the back I fixed my skis to it using bungee cord. The straps and fixing points on the bag favour a criss-cross or X-shaped pattern for the skis. This gives a secure and stable pack-style. It also props the bag up nicely when placed on the ground.
One last task: boiling a kettle of water to fill up my flask before setting off up the track towards the old Greenside Mine workings. These days the lower buildings site the Glenridding YHA hostel.
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| View back towards Glenridding from the Greenside Mines track |
As I set off up the track a car approached from behind and as it passed the driver started chatting. Steve had driven up overnight from the South Coast near Brighton to pursue his passion for Snowboarding.
He offered to give me a lift up to the hostel/ski club car park which I accepted. I told him I was in the North during the Easter break from my job near Portsmouth. I had seen the overnight forecast for snow and driven up from Merseyside that morning.
As we pulled into a parking bay near the hostel a group of young adults were having trouble with their car; it was stuck in the snow. Bouncing a car out of a snow drift turns out to be an ideal warm up activity for an epic day of winter mountaineering!
We set off together hiking up the zig-zag path that runs past the disused Greenside Mine workings. It was Steve's first visit so he was grateful to have me as his guide. I was a veteran of three or four trips! Picking up the chimney pipeline we followed it up onto Raise and headed for the shoulder that leads to the ski hut. I knew that aiming too low would result in a much tougher walk as in these conditions we could very easily find ourselves waist deep in snow there.
On reaching the hut it had all but disappeared, buried under a great mound of snow with just the roof peeping out above the drift. Nobody else had arrived. It was 10.30am
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| The ski hut: Aim for above that shoulder! |
There was only one thing to do. After some scrabbling around individually we quickly developed an effective team effort. I hacked away at the mound with my ice axe for a period and then Steve would take over using his Snowboard as a shovel to clear the loosened snow. That process was repeated over and over until a narrow snow alley to the door of the hut gradually emerged. The hut I like to describe as the "best shed in the world". When I think of that phrase I imagine that Jeremy Clarkson is saying it!
Just as we were congratulating ourselves on freeing the doorway a line of about six Captain Scott look-a-likes appeared out of the mist over the shoulder of the mountain behind the hut.
"Oh, it's already been cleared. Excellent!" I heard the leader say.
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| A room with a view: "Best Shed in the World" |
The Ski Club
The club started in 1936 after a group of ski enthusiasts scouted Raise as the best location for skiing. The gully there held the snow for the longest period. It is north-east facing and collects and holds snow well. Skiing can take place on Raise, between November and May, on a narrow track of snow when everywhere all around is green. Twenty to thirty days skiing would be a good season.
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| Savages |
The club is run by volunteers who give up some of their weekends to maintain the tow and facilities through the summer months to get it ready for when the snow arrives. The wide-ranging skill-set of the members helps with the many tasks that are needed.
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| Bernie W (RIP): The Towmeister |
A helicopter is usually organised to drop fuel for the engine or deliver heavy equipment. This can be coordinated with work undertaken by Fix the Fells who use a helicopter to transport heavy boulders to repair hiking trails.
I spent one Saturday in August perched up on the pylons daubing silver paint to protect them from the worst of the Cumbrian climate. The clothes I wore that day still bear the hallmark. Sterling stuff. Worn with pride! It was fascinating watching eighty year old men skipping up the mountainside as they were making repairs to the bull-wheel at the top of the tow. Not all were that old but all shared the same passion for skiing on Raise.
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| Bottom of the tow |
Club facilities
The members hut has electricity fed by the generator that powers the ski lift. There is a kettle in the hut and bottles of freshwater collected from a nearby spring for making tea and coffee. Non-members are welcome to drop in to use this facility for a small donation of £1 (I think it was 50p last time I was there but £1 seems reasonable).
Skis and boots are stored in the hut so that members don't have to lug all their kit up the hill on each visit. The hut is spacious, clean and cosy with an amazing view across to High Street and beyond.
The button tow is sometimes, in very good conditions, supplemented by a portable rope tow. This is very difficult to hang on to unless you have the special widget that connects you to the rope.
In the engine room at the base of the tow there is a toilet.
The car park at Greenside Mines is for members only. I prefer to park in Glenridding and walk if there is snow down in the valley. Frequently a member with a 4WD vehicle will give you a lift up to the mine (and back down again sometimes too).
You have to be a member to ski at the club. See the club website for full up to date details. Membership also entitles some skiing at the Yad Moss ski club near Alston.
First visits to Raise
My very first trip there was not to ski. I was on a winter hiking trip when I stumbled across the tow in near whiteout conditions. A few of the hardier ski club members were not deterred and they peered across at me through the clouds as they rode the single button lift. That day I used the nearby Keppel Cove as my escape route down to the safety of Glenridding Common where it was much clearer.
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| Skiing on Raise |
The first time skiing there I had hiked the long way round up to Brown Cove and worked my way up Whiteside Bank. There was insufficient snow on the ridge to ski-tour so I walked along and snapped into my skis at the top of the button lift on Raise. I skied down to the Members Hut and stopped by for a chat and a coffee but it was too late in the day to be doing any more sliding that day other than as far as I could get back down to the Sticks Pass.
The skiing on Raise
The skiing takes place on two main runs either side of the 360m long button tow. There is some snow fencing to help hold the snow. Looking down from the top The Presidents run is to the left and the steeper Savages Gully is to the right. Slightly further to the right you can guess where the steep Hut Face run takes you.
They are short runs but in good snow conditions it is possible to explore a large area of the mountainside. Having ski-touring bindings that can have the heels freed up is a great help.
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| Top o'the World : Raise actually with Helvellyn in the background |
Walking up to the summit from the top of the lift opens up Sun Down and The Run With No Name! These runs are not clearly defined and the piste-map on the club website is more a general guide to what is possible. It's also more than just a little tongue in cheek! Some members like to take a ski tour over the Dodds. Obviously if you ski below the bottom of the lift station its a hike back up for you.
Beyond the Hut Face run I have worked my way through some rocks to where there is a small "couloir". Enough space for two or three turns before the slope levels off onto a wide plateau that feeds back around to the members hut. One time in very good snow conditions this location held a stash of virgin powder waiting to be trashed. Having completed my first run I worked my way back to the tow hoping nobody else got there before I could make a second run.
My luck was in and I positioned myself between the rocks at the point where the ski-line opens out. I made my second short series of turns in the opposite sense to the first to form a figure-of-eight pattern in the snow. In skiing this bit of fun is known as "powder-eighting" your tracks and traditionally involves taking a helicopter ride in exotic locations in order to achieve it. So I was glad to have done it on Raise in my own back yard and under my own steam (mostly!).
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| Nice up here innit! |
Ski conditions vary widely. Powder snow on a good day, corrugated-iron-like ice on a bad day. If the tow is running then the members consider the conditions skiable! You have to be prepared for disappointment. Think of the skiing as a bonus earned after a winter's hike up the hill.
In truth a day of skiing here is better described as a day of winter mountaineering with some skiing thrown in as a bonus if you are lucky. You can forget the manicured pistes, schnitzel, gluhwein and raclette... et al. You can have gluhwein in your flask if you like (but only if you give some to me). This is PROPER skiing!
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| Catstye Cam: Yes, THAT gulley! |
A short history of Greenside Mine
The mine closed for good in the 1950's and is believed to have been in operation for at least 300 years. However there is known to have been lead and copper mining in Cumbria during the Roman occupation of the region. Lead from the mine was used to make bullets during the American Civil War. Lead ingots bearing the Greenside stamp have been discovered on a sunken ship off the coast of South Carolina.
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| Ski Club car park at Greenside Mine |
The mine was the first to generate its own electricity to drive its engines and lifting gear. I have an old map that shows the reservoir up the mountain that was used to generate the hydroelectricity. The water has now drained out but you can still tell from the shallow bowl in the landscape where it once sat. The brick works (of the dam wall presumably) provide good shelter on a raw day up the mountain. The chimney shaft is still visible (covered by earth and gravel|) today and I use it to navigate my way up to the Ski Club. The flue at the top of the chimney shaft has been converted into a stone shelter below the summit of Raise.
Greenside is the name of the mountain within which the mine is excavated.
BBC - Cumbria - History - Greenside Lead Mine
The Lake District Ski Club (ldscsnowski.co
lakedistrictskiclub@ldscsnowski.com
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