I saw this:
BBC.CO.UK I can’t work out which is more insane - queueing to get to the mountain top and touch a trig point or the entitlement that because you are doing it for charity or have already done two other mountains you should have speedy boarding!
The world is going mad.
But at least they got it for socials which is the important bit
Been up there several times, but only ever to the trig once. Just couldn't be bothered
TBH doing it on a bank holiday seems a tad mad.
I know where I stand. This bit got my blood pressure up nicely:
"There's no policing of it at all, it is purely free will, if you want to queue you can."
Not sure where to begin. Queues are for people who like queuing? Why not have some sort of rolling ruck or survival of the strongest instead?
And sorry to anyone who might have done it but I'm afraid the British 3 peaks 24 hr "challenge" is pretty controversial (lots of driving, large numbers of inconsiderate parties arriving in Wasdale in the middle of the night) . Sad obv their mate's got mnd but that doesn't give them licence to dickhead. There, that should do it.
I know where I stand. This bit got my blood pressure up nicely:
"There's no policing of it at all, it is purely free will, if you want to queue you can."
Not sure where to begin. Queues are for people who like queuing? Why not have some sort of rolling ruck or survival of the strongest instead?
And sorry to anyone who might have done it but I'm afraid the British 3 peaks 24 hr "challenge" is pretty controversial (lots of driving, large numbers of inconsiderate parties arriving in Wasdale in the middle of the night) . Sad obv their mate's got mnd but that doesn't give them licence to dickhead. There, that should do it.
You can bet half the people Qing took the railway up as well. If the lads got to the trig by a different route than the Q, good for them I say.
Why not have some sort of rolling ruck
Nice idea, given the Welsh obsession with rugby the locals would have an advantage too which seems reasonable!
If the lads got to the trig by a different route than the Q,
uh? They bypassed the queue feeling entitled to do so. That's the story. And anyone who jumps a queue is a twit.
Whether there's any point in queueing to touch the trig is another matter. Obviously there is no point but so what if people want to do it. How you actually got up there is another matter again. Should anyone who got up by ebike defer to folks who hiked a normal bike up there? A hierarchy maybe with climbers at the top (not that anyone would bother with going to the top) train riders at the bottom? Or ranked by how much they're raising for charity? No. A queue is a queue.
I can’t work out which is more insane
trying to do the 3 peaks on a BH weekend is insane! traffic is worse, summits and paths busier, madness...
Been up there several times, but only ever to the trig once. Just couldn't be bothered
I've never bothered with the trig. Been up countless times.
I've said it before and I would like to say it again: Take your time with the 3 Peaks. Make it a week, stay at a local B&B, have nice meals in the local pubs or something and take your time driving between the sites. That way, you still get to do it, but you get nice meals, decent breakfasts and a lot less stress than spanking a hire Transit south from Fort William at night hoping you don't meet a deer on the way south.
This and 270 odd people submitting Everest in a day. I hate being behind one party on a route and will usually find something else. Doing popular stuff at busy times is just nonsense. Not for me. Oh tge solitude of the mountains etc...
Toll booth. It's the only solutions.
Edit: Obviously you'd have to build a big wall around the trig point but that would make it a better, more personal experience.
John x 2 by name John x 2 by nature 🙂
"trig point number 3 please"
I actually doubt anyone in the queue had actually brought a theodolite with them
Yr Wyddfa is madness these days.
Just full of everyone and the dog.
Queueing because of the sheer numbers = mad.
Pushing past a queue because 'charity challenge entitlement' = mad
Shouting at others to influence them in this situation = mad
Going to BBC news because you feel aggrieved your entitlement was booed = mad
Being on that mountain on a sunny bank holiday = mad
The world is mad.
Last time I did Yr Wyddfa we also had a gathering of folk around the top, with a really scary wall of folk arriving up the path from Llanberis. We ran up to the trig, touched trig for a 5 second photo from the next person in the queue, then took photo of next person ourselves, then ran away....I can see why a sunny bank holiday brought out the masses and allowed the loons to express themselves.
Last time I went up there I climbed from a south eastern ridge line, must be 20 years ago now, the "queue path" was always from the direction of the cafe/rail stop.
If the lads got to the trig by a different route than the Q,
uh? They bypassed the queue feeling entitled to do so. That's the story. And anyone who jumps a queue is a twit.
The people queuing to take selfies are the problem, without them there's no need for a queue. As someone who just wanted to get to the top last time I was up there I just walked straight past them all, touched the top and then started back down.
Toll booth. It's the only solutions.
Edit: Obviously you'd have to build a big wall around the trig point but that would make it a better, more personal experience.
Isn't that essentially what the Cornish have done to Lands End?
You can arrive at the end of your charity venture, pay for the overpriced car parking, buy some overpriced food in the cafe, play the rigged arcade games, and then if you pay a little extra you can walk upto the signpost and have your picture taken.
They bypassed the queue feeling entitled to do so. That's the story. And anyone who jumps a queue is a twit.
The people queueing are doing so to get a picture.
These lads walked up to tap the trig and finish their challenge. They effectively because the fast lane queue of two for folks not getting the photo.
That's not exactly entitlement is it? If everyone just tapped the trig there wouldn't be queue.
Isn't that essentially what the Cornish have done to Lands End?
You can arrive at the end of your charity venture, pay for the overpriced car parking, buy some overpriced food in the cafe, play the rigged arcade games, and then if you pay a little extra you can walk upto the signpost and have your picture taken.
The signpost has a small cordon around it but you can stand literally 2m away and still get a shot. The reason the queues develop there is because one of the fingerposts on the sign is customisable so you have to wait between pics while the photographer changes it to show your name / cause / charity etc.
The same company own the John O'Groats signpost too.
Both places are a bit of a dump - tourist tat and nothing else there.
With Snowdon, I imagine it's actually fairly easy to arrive at the top from a completely different direction to the queue (which, as noted, forms from the top of the railway) and just walk right up to the trig. Ingleborough is accessible from about 4 different paths, there's always a big line of people on the common Three Peaks* route but hardly anyone from other directions so you could easily walk to the summit from one direction almost without realising there was any form of queue from another direction.
*the three Yorkshire Peaks, Ingleborough / Wherenside / Pen y Ghent, not The Three Peaks of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon.
I walked up Yr Wyddfa with my now wife intending to propose at the top. On a bank holiday Monday.
It was only when we got to the top and I saw a que.of angry people shouting "get a move on", "you have had your turn" that I remembered there was a train line up and it was a bank holiday.
I proposed further down where there were no other people around, because that I how I imagined a mountain something would be! She said yes 😃
I've avoided tourist landmarks at bank holidays ever since 😱
What are people doing to that poor trig point if they are spending so long 'touching' it that a queue ends up forming?
The same company own the John O'Groats signpost too.
The JoG signpost is free access. There are occasionally small queues (unless it's RaB day). I must have photographed over 100 folk there 😂
I proposed further down where there were no other people around
I admit I'd be a bit put off by a line of guys in front of me waiting to propose to my prospective spouse...
They effectively because the fast lane queue of two for folks not getting the photo.
That's not exactly entitlement is it? If everyone just tapped the trig there wouldn't be queue
The "3 peaks or less" queue? (Or "fewer" as they say in Booths.) The point is not what would be more efficient (taking your pics a few m away), it's how they made the folks queuing feel, because of their feelings of entitlement.
Don't make me have to post this twice...
I think if you're climbing a mountain and theres a queue at the top, you're climbing the wrong mountains and are just partaking in a glorified theme park experience. 99% of those people will have probably "climbed" up on the train as well?
With Snowdon, I imagine it's actually fairly easy to arrive at the top from a completely different direction to the queue (which, as noted, forms from the top of the railway) and just walk right up to the trig.
it’s on a weird built up platform with steps up it and a platform around it. Perfect for queueing if you like that kind of thing..
I proposed further down where there were no other people around
I admit I'd be a bit put off by a line of guys in front of me waiting to propose to my prospective spouse...
They effectively because the fast lane queue of two for folks not getting the photo.
That's not exactly entitlement is it? If everyone just tapped the trig there wouldn't be queue
The "3 peaks or less" queue? (Or "fewer" as they say in Booths.) The point is not what would be more efficient (taking your pics a few m away), it's how they made the folks queuing feel, because of their feelings of entitlement.
Don't make me have to post this twice...
How far back in the queue were you when this happened?
What are people doing to that poor trig point if they are spending so long 'touching' it that a queue ends up forming?
"Welcome back to my Youtube channel guys. Today I am on the highest mountain EVVA in Wales and if you stay around you can see me in a swimming costume two sizes too small when I go for a swim in Lake Llydaw...."
I think there is a commercially successful guide booked that needs writing called something like...
"Were going to walk up Snowdon......walk up xxx instead - better views"
"Were going to go to the fairy pools.....these ones are better"
etc
If you made a venn diagramme of people who queue from a trainstation to touch a trig point vs people who queue in one lane and get snarky at the merge in turn...
Would you bother drawings two circles?
it’s on a weird built up platform with steps up it and a platform around it. Perfect for queueing if you like that kind of thing..
But if you walk around the far side of the platform thing, away from the cafe/train, you can walk up to the top without pushing past the people queuing on the steps. Although you may get in the background of whoever is having their allocated time with the poor old trig point and spoil their pics. 😀
Turnstile on a timer, job done.
Couldn't give a ****. Sacrificial hill, one of many (Pen-y-fan, Helvellyn,the Pike, Bens Nevis/Lomond etc); soaks up dickheads, stops them spreading out elsewhere. Think of it as a public service, an indicator of where not to go.
Nothing like a huge case of self entitlement because they think doing a fun challenge for charity gives them priority of self importance. How arrogant were they?
I wonder if their driver drove between the peaks with a similar level of entitlement and arrogance
All very British isn't it. Queues, a baying mob, entitlement, lotta good work for charidee mate and the BBC.
If you're queueing for a summit photo and think that order is more important than a charity event, or which route you've 'done', or some dog curling one out by the cafe, or anything else.. Jeez. The views up there are wonderful, go take it in for a while and have a think.
Why is it more important because he has done it for charity? Would the charity receive less money if he touched the summit a few minutes later? Thats the only reason I can think of that would justify pushing in
Would the charity receive less money if he touched the summit a few minutes later? Thats the only reason I can think of that would justify pushing in
A lot of the charity stuff focuses on the 24hr aspect of it so in some respects if it takes longer you've technically "failed" and there might be a reason that your sponsorship gets withheld. Nah mate, took you 25hrs that one, you're not getting that tenner off me!
This is why it's such a shit "challenge" - it basically becomes a driving and logistics thing. You need to climb Ben Nevis and aim to finish back at the car by nightfall. Then drive through the night to Scafell Pike, arriving in the early hours (and waking up half the valley), setting off up there as soon after dawn as practical, back down and smash it out of the valley (thus pissing everyone off a second time as you try and get back on the motorway ASAP) before bombing it to North Wales and running up Snowdon, back down again to finish within 24hrs of starting.
The actual climbs aren't that difficult. Mostly it's just 3x4hr stretches of actual walking and the remaining 12hrs curled up in a minibus trying to eat and sleep.
So everywhere you can cut a corner, drive a bit over the speed limit, push past a queue to reach the summit, park like a **** and so on, you do it. Scafell Pike is the worst bit because of the time of day. Idiots driving down narrow country lanes at 2am.
****ing stupid challenge.
Thats the only reason I can think of that would justify pushing in
Is it pushing in? Or just a bunch of sheep who have decided to stand around in turn for photos?
Its not a queued attraction its just a bunch of wallies who think their selfie after an arduous train ride is a god given right isn't it?
And another bunch of wallies who have actually walked up the hill and probably don't want to wait before heading down.
It clearly needs a dividing line down the middle. Queuers on the right half up and downers on the left.
Why is it more important because he has done it for charity? Would the charity receive less money if he touched the summit a few minutes later? Thats the only reason I can think of that would justify pushing in
I said if someone thought that particular queue was more or less important than either a charity effort or a dog taking a dump, then I have nothing to say really. Partridge shrug. It's a mountain trig point not a supermarket checkout. Common courtesy yes, also common 'who cares?'. Certainly not who cares enough that it made it to the BBC, that's hilarious.
Many people spend time in the mountains but they're never actually there are they.
Is it pushing in? Or just a bunch of sheep who have decided to stand around in turn for photos? He could have spent 2 minutes explaining to others why he was pushing in or was he that close to the time limit to satisfy the
like this bloke who didn’t think he had any reason to ask those up there. I recon the driving is harder than the actual walking
It clearly needs a dividing line down the middle. Queuers on the right half up and downers on the left.
Maybe a ticketing system with a little beeper when your time spot comes up, so you can wander off and look at the view for a bit before taking your summit photo.
PS Mrs O and I waited in line to get a photo on Pen-Y-Fan, and on Snowdon on a busy day where someone got a great photo of us. All kinds of days in the mountains are good.
Turnstile on a timer, job done.
Couldn't give a ****. Sacrificial hill, one of many (Pen-y-fan, Helvellyn,the Pike, Bens Nevis/Lomond etc); soaks up dickheads, stops them spreading out elsewhere. Think of it as a public service, an indicator of where not to go.
💯
