Destruction of natural beauty

[Amp34]

The title might sound ambiguous, but at the moment i'm talking about the incesent need to build "roads" up mountains. I went to snowdonia over the weekend and the thing that always depresses me is the paths, gone are the small winding, difficult paths (although there are still some), replaced by the gravel pavements winding all the way up the mountain. One of the best examples is the Miners and PYG track up Snowdon, both now consist mainly of 6-8 ft wide graded gravel paths, with stone steps up anything remotely steep. The sort to path that wouldn't look out of place in an inner city park and could easily take a ford fiesta up a large proportion of it (although I do admit the base of the Miners track does go to a shed so it may have been designed to do that).

It drives me nuts, they stick out like sore thumbs and remove any challenge, which I guess is why they are there, like so many parts of the "wild" in the uk it needs to be accessable by the "flipflop brigade", those people who decide they want to amble up Snowdon, or along a desolate stretch of coast with just their flipfolps, jeans (or skirts...) and handbag. These people have no idea what to do in bad weather, and even if they did they wouldn't have any equipment, but instead of learning how to do it, we need to make it completely safe for them to do it anyway... Huge swathes of the desolate beauty of the UK are now being taken over by long winding gravel tracks and it's ****** annoying. Yes I know there is a case for repairing tracks (although most of the repairs seem to be repairs on the man built sections, not the natural pieces), but there is repairing a track... and building a path... There is so much concrete up Snowdon now the "repairers" may as well build a proper road up, they certainly have enough ton builders bags along the paths for it...

Sorry, I know it's a bit of a pointless rant but it really annoys me that so many empty areas are now being destroyed by these monstrosities, which are a double edged sword, as the easier and more path like they get the more people go up them. For example walking along even the "desolate" areas of the SW coast path it's difficult to find a stream without a wooden/steel bridge over it, or concrete paving slabs around, yes it's a shame if you are old or one of the flipflop brigade and can't walk on that bit, but if you can't swim you don't jump into the deep end of the pool either do you?

/Rant

 

[Amp34]

If I remember, part of the reason for building defined pathways, is to protect the surrounding environments.

otherwise, what starts out a small path, gradually grows over time, as people stray from it, causing untold damage to the surroundings.

There was an article about it not too long ago, I will see if I can find it.

I realise that, however my rant is that it is one thing to repair and keep a single path in good order to protect the surroundings and another to lay a gravel track from top to bottom, which is just as bad as a tarmacked road through it.

I've got to say, normally I just get the map and compass out and make my own route up, maybe joining the occasional path up in places like snowdonia, however I was with a dog, someone with a slightly dislocated arm and my mother so doing a "proper" route up would have been out of the question as such.

"No one should ever be able to get anything easily because I have done it the hard way".

Sorry I know it was a rant and I get where you are coming from about making everything accessabile to everyone, but as people have said, its not always the case.

I mean if they built a ski lift to the top then I would agree it's rediculouse, but a safer and more defined route is nothing more than that, stopping people killing themselves and damaging the environment more than they have to.

Not in the slightest, I don't think they should build a smooth path/ski lift up everest for example, yet I would like to go up, however I realise I need some experience and equipment before I do (or going diving, powerboating, climbing etc). The problem is these paths really do seem to be designed for the flipflop brigade to have a nice sunday stroll up the mountain in their flipflops, jeans and t-shirts, it must be a nightmare getting them all down again when the weather closes in suddenly.

Just to point out for the Snowdon example there is already a railway (around 150 years old) that goes up, as well as a graded path alongside it, so plenty of opportunity for people to get up without problems. The problem with all the tracks/paths being made into roads is we are in danger of making what is left of our wilderness into an amusement park for the flipflop brigade, people who can't actually be bothered to learn how to do it properly. It's an unfortunate state of affairs, and partly why I now leave the country at the earliest opportunity so I can go to places that still actually have wilderness, where following a path involves clambering around looking for intermittant yellow and white paint blobs, and god forbid actually using a map and compass/GPS. I'd hate to know the percentage of people that had a map let alone compass and knew how to use it, having said that the need for one now in a lot of places in the uk is getting smaller and smaller...

 

[Amp34]

Agreed. Just because there are a few easy routes doesn't mean you have to use them. Trouble with touristy mountains is there is always loads of people at the top!!!

I'm not disputing that, I mentioned that I don't normally, however this time it was the only real option as my mum wanted to go up a track she had been up before (30 years ago, and very different!), plus I wanted to amble up snowdon for the first time. BUT you still have the problem of these paths that are the scurge (IMO) of the landscapes, even walking up other routes you can still see them a lot of the time. It's even worse when there is no chance of doing another route, such as along a coast path. Snowdon was only a very recent example, there are plenty of other examples I can give unfortunately.