The Great Outdoors – August 2019

by Roger Smith

COMMENT

allow this. It shows a shameful lack of respect

for the hills.

The problem recurs lower down, too.

The Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle on Skye

has always been a good walk, along a fairly

rough path with a couple of awkward burn

crossings before you reach the pools and

their attractive waterfalls.

In recent years the walk has become

incredibly popular. This led to chaotic scenes

as cars, camper vans and even buses tried

to find somewhere to stop – and serious

sanitary issues as well. It was decided to

provide a 120-space car park (with charges)

and toilets. The toilets should have opened

in July 2019, but their provision was based

on a 2015 consultants’ report estimating a

maximum visitor figure of 100,000.

This has proved to be a serious

underestimate. Visitor numbers went up by

35% last year and the prediction for 2019

is 190,000. So the toilet block has had to

be enlarged, and will not now open until

later in the summer. The path has also been

‘improved’, with a firmer surface and easier

gradients. Again, all this leads to a lessening

of wild quality. Do you keep expanding the

car park and associated facilities – or do you

try to control the number of visitors?

We have many wonderful mountains in

our islands, so surely we can develop a means

of caring for the most iconic without taming

them altogether? Yosemite National Park

in California has a quota system – you need

to book in advance – and the same applies

on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru,

where the maximum allowed on the trail is

THE SISTINE CHAPEL is a must-see
for anyone visiting Rome, but it can be
an uncomfortable experience. You join a
long queue that shuffles along and as you
near the chapel the attendants become
ever more strident: “Keep moving! No
photographs!” The chapel – a small room –
is so crowded it’s impossible to get any real
appreciation of Michelangelo’s masterpiece
and before you know it you are outside
again trying to gather some meaningful
recollection.
This can happen with A-list cultural sites,
but I never thought it would be applied to
Everest. At the end of May a weather window
brought a huge string of summit hopefuls
onto the upper slopes, all creeping slowly
towards their goal.
It was an unedifying spectacle. This year,
the Nepali government issued a record 380
permits to climb Everest, at nearly £7,000 a
head. Each climber needed support and it is
estimated that at one point there may have
been 800 people on the upper slopes.
Not all of them survived and there is great
concern that climbing Everest is becoming
a ‘bucket list’ aim, with underprepared
people heading out to Nepal simply because
they can afford to pay the £30,000 or so
expedition costs. Fortunately the climbing
periods on Everest are relatively short and for
much of the year the mountain’s upper slopes
are undisturbed.
The same cannot be said for our own
iconic top two, Ben Nevis and Snowdon.
The John Muir Trust, who own the upper
part of Nevis, estimate that at least 150,000
people climbed the mountain last year. The
figure for 2007 was 90,000. This is a huge
increase and is unsustainable. Snowdon has
a similar footfall. In both cases it is simply
because they are the highest point (though
both are fine mountains). Trying to cope
with numbers at this level inevitably leads to
strengthening the path surfaces, smoothing
out the contours and more signposting – in
other words a diminution of the wild. Many
of those on Nevis in particular are climbing
it for charity or as part of an organised event
and there must surely come a time when a
cap is put on such events in wild places.
We have also had instances of paint
marks on rocks to direct runners in so-called
‘skyline’ races, using such wonderful wild
places as the Aonach Eagach ridge as part
of a racetrack. Sorry, but I would simply not

limited to 500. (Memo to the Vatican: check

out the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam;

they’ve got it sorted.)

I can hear the cries of ‘hypocrisy’

given my long involvement with the TGO

Challenge, but I genuinely believe that the

Challenge is a low-impact event.

With their multiple access points, and

our hard-won and preciously guarded

rights of access, we can’t look at any sort of

quota system for Nevis or Snowdon, but we

could start by putting a strict limit – even

a temporary ban – on mass-participation

events. There are plenty of examples from

the built heritage of buildings closing,

sometimes for years, while restorative work

takes place.

Many of the organised events do not need

to be on Nevis or Snowdon, and they should

be encouraged to go elsewhere. Spread the

load. Let’s ease the pressure on the top two

in particular and allow them to retain a little

dignity and a touch of wildness. That’s the

very least that they deserve.

The Pony Track,

Ben Nevis

Snowdon

summit

Photos: Shutterstock

The Numbers Game

Roger Smith calls for more respect for wild places

28 The Great OutdoorsAugust 2019