Isn't that essentially what the Cornish have done to Lands End?
No some rich **** who went bankrupt bought it back in the 80s he was from Essex. Ironically the company that owns it now, also owns JOG & the Snowdon Mountain Railway.
You can tell their only interest is making cold hard cash as they haven't rebranded to Yr Wyddfa, to keep up with the name update.
like this bloke who didn’t think he had any reason to ask those up there.
Because there wasn't any reason to? Its just a bunch of people standing around who happen to think there should be a queue?
I was up there last bank holiday with my boys ( not the best timing but all we could fit in with exams etc). Bus up from llanberis, we went up via Crib Goch and returned by the Rangers and telegraph valley. Crib Goch was relatively quiet a couple of couples and one large group doing the Welsh 3000s. On the descent we barely saw a sole, no-one on Telegraph valley, The summit and the llanberis path on the other hand was mobbed there was a 100 yard queue for the summit which was in thick cloud. We obviously didn't bother bit we did have to use the cafe as I'd forgot to pack the snacks.
It's clearly a big achievement for some folk so I can understand why they'd want a photo, I often don'f bother going to the summits. I certainly wouldn't queue.
On the descent we barely saw a sole
That's a bit fishy.
It does call to mind what Wordworth had to say about the view from Snowdon (as he called Yr Wydffa) describing an inversion by moonlight [from http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/2659/snowdon.html ]
A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved
All over this still ocean; and beyond,
Far, far beyond, the solid vapors stretched,
In headlands, tongues, and promontory shapes,
Into the main Atlantic, that appeared
To dwindle, and give up his majesty,
Usurped upon far as the sight could reach.
Not so the ethereal vault; encroachment none
Was there, nor loss; only the inferior stars
Had disappeared, or shed a fainter light
In the clear presence of the full-orbed moon,
Who, from her sovereign elevation, gazed
Upon the billowy ocean, as it lay
All meek and silent, save that through a rift—
Not distant from the shore whereon we stood,
A fixed, abysmal, gloomy, breathing-place—
Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams
Innumerable, roaring with one voice!
Get a move on mate, we've been queuing here for hours!
Isn't that essentially what the Cornish have done to Lands End?
Well, not "the Cornish"; but yes, the privatisation of public spaces because the public can't be trusted not to be aggressively stupid and public funding doesn't exist and even if it did exist would end up in someone's pocket.
What's Cornish for "Land's End"?
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.
That pic's AI'd, but no you couldn't. There's a plateau bit above the station building, then the summit is on a rocky crag about 8ft up in the middle of it.
The three paths from the north all come up the last few hundred meters along side the railway which is where the big queue tends to form if it's really busy right back to the Pyg and Miners tracks..
The Watkins and Rhyd Ddy paths come up around the other side of the station and merge with the same steps but even if you tried to enforce some sort of 'merge in turn' queueing you'd still be ~50m from the trig point. You can (I think) cut the corner on the Rhyd Ddy path and come straight up the rocks which would bring you up onto the plateau avoiding the steps.
So even if you walked past absolutely everyone in the queue, you'd still have to physically elbow the last 8-10 people out of the way to get to the trig point as the steps upto it aren't that wide.
c8.alamy.com/comp/MR6KGW/snowdon-summit-north-wales-tourist-hotspot-MR6KGW.jpg
What's Cornish for "Land's End"?
Penn an Wlas or Pedn an Wlas
Our holiday to Italy a couple of years ago crystallised my long suspected view that anything you have to queue for isn't worth queueing for - there's probably something just as good just around the corner, all on its own. *
I bet the most expensive painting that nobody ever looks at is Paolo Veronese, Les Noces de Cana (The Wedding Feast at Cana). It's in the same room as the Mona Lisa.
In Rome, hot and fed up with crowds everywhere and with nowhere to sit without spending £20 on a coffee we stumbled across a deserted Piazza Manfredo Fanti, a beautiful little park with ruins, a garden and somebody rehearsing the flute on the Church steps. Marvellous!
We stopped there for 45 delicious minutes. I gave the flautist a couple of euros on the basis that she wouldn't play Wonderwall or Streets of London.
*Similar to Homer Simpson's assertion "If a job's worth doing - it isn't worth doing".
Not that this actually affects me as I won't be climbing that particular mountain, but I've got little tolerance for ****s who expect everyone to clear out "the background" for their selfie shot. If you want solitude, go very early/very late/mid week in November.
I'll give someone a few seconds to take a quick snap but I'll be buggered if I'm hanging around out-out-shot whilst they faff around organizing their families or cocking up the technology or taking multiple shots cos Joe blinked at the wrong time.
There's lots of apps out there that can clean up the background if needed
Yes, I'm a curmudgeon...
You can tell their only interest is making cold hard cash as they haven't rebranded to Yr Wyddfa, to keep up with the name update.
Name re-establishment; it’s always been Yr Wyddfa to those born there and whose language the landscape is named in. Same as Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland and, possibly the Isle of Man.
We no longer live in an age where children are physically punished for speaking their native language.
Thankfully.
There's lots of apps out there that can clean up the background if needed
I've got a great pic of Giant's Causeway which looks like I was there alone.
Realised immediately I'd never get anything without people all over it but the camera AI stuff solved most of it in seconds leaving me to fix a couple of tiny blurred patches where the auto erasing hadn't been quite perfect.
I thought this thread was going to be about Everest (or whatever I'm supposed to call it these days) having seen photos of people queueing for hours for the summit.
I was led to believe that Brits were very good at queueing and enjoyed the experience taking every opportunity to queue:
Wait for petrol shortage to fill up the car.
Wait for a store to announce 10 cheap items in the sales and then join a queue of hundreds and sprint to fail to get one.
Queue overnight for tickets to a concert taking enough food and pee pee bottles for a week. In the rain obviously.
All leave to go on holiday at exactly the same time on the same day.
ANd now people can't even queue for a mountain top.
You can tell their only interest is making cold hard cash as they haven't rebranded to Yr Wyddfa, to keep up with the name update.
That’s because it’s still called snowdon in English. Like many places round the world there are different names and spellings for the same place depending on the language. For example there are Italian and German names for many places along the Austrian border. Same with French and Flemish in Belgium. This is just another example
Everest (or whatever I'm supposed to call it these days)
or even pronounced
Realised immediately I'd never get anything without people all over it but the camera AI stuff solved most of it in seconds leaving me to fix a couple of tiny blurred patches where the auto erasing hadn't been quite perfect.
I went to the Giants Causeway and there wasn't a soul there - took a selfie but it made me look like a lonely loser so I used AI to fix that and fill the background with various celebs so that I could look like one of life's winners who hangs around with all the cool and successful people. Then I got AI to delete the Giant's Causeway and replace it with a private island in the Seychelles. Ahhh memories.
We did it a few years ago. Went up and down Rangers with the dog before this sort of thing became too much for him.
Looked at the queue to the summit, looked at the endless posing and Insta shot composing going on at the top, wandered off, ate sandwiches, walked down.
Still had a good walk, still had lovely views, didn't feel like I'd really missed anything of importance by not touching a trig point. I get there's a bit of an event tick box but really I go up a mountain for two things, a physical challenge and a view. I didn't need to be 20feet higher to appreciate this.
Following year we focussed on a different mountain in the area for our main family walk of the trip. It was lovely without all the human traffic. Shame the mist rolled in on the top and the view was obscured.
uh? They bypassed the queue feeling entitled to do so. That's the story. And anyone who jumps a queue is a twit.
Frankly, anyone going to the top of any given bit of geography in order to queue and touch a trig point, presumably to gain kudos (see what I did there?) and the adoration of their peers on the socials, is a ****! And to get all bent out of shape when some people run past who are raising money for charity are even worse! I honestly think their entitlement is bloody pathetic.
There are a couple of places I visit with trig points, and the only thing I do is put my phone on it to make sure it’s level when I take a bunch of photos. If anyone else is already there, I’m more than happy to admire the view, look at distant places with binoculars, and wait while they take their photos of their kids or SO’s sitting on the top! I’ve never, ever been to a trig point where people are queuing!
If they were, I’d sigh heavily, roll my eyes and find a spot to sit and admire the view.
Frankly, anyone going to the top of any given bit of geography in order to queue and touch a trig point, presumably to gain kudos (see what I did there?) and the adoration of their peers on the socials, is a ****!
Or maybe they arent particularly outdoorish and it is an actual challenge for them and a one off.
I will admit I do like to touching the trig point on principle but I have done it often enough I can decide not to (harder if I havent been there before). So the last time up Snowdon I did look bemused at the queue and decided nah. That isnt to take away through from someone who had gone there once and wanted photo evidence maybe to back up a charity sponsorship claim.
Last time I was in the area was doing a course at Plas y Brenin. Having cake at about four there was a bunch of women who came in looking absolutely ****ed wearing matching tops.
Saw them at dinner, in the bar and then the next morning at breakfast which considering they were doing shots when I headed to bed was a good effort.
Anyway I have no doubt they all queued and took photos to show they had gone to the top of Snowdon and if I saw a photo of them pop up I would consider lobbing them a couple of quid assuming I vaguely agreed with the charity since they clearly had put effort into it.
Or maybe they arent particularly outdoorish and it is an actual challenge for them and a one off.
Yeah, I took a friend and her partner up Snowdon one New Year's Eve a few years back.
The partner of my friend, he wasn't outdoorsy at all and got a massive kick out of summiting Snowdon, photo around the trig and everything.
It was awesome to see how genuinely proud of himself he was. He rang his daughter from the top and everything. Chatted enthusiastically about it for days.
My friend could barely walk the next day which caused much amusement.
Brilliant. 😊
They need to install a few more trig points up there. Better still a few at Llanberis too which would save folk a trip up.
I have a stag weekend coming up at the end of July, and the Groom (my Nephew) wants to climb Snowdon. I'm not really looking forward to it, because of the crowds, and I expect it to be heaving but it's something he wants to do. He's a lovely lad and the stag 'party' is relatively small and non threatening, so it should be a good day out - shouldn't it??
I'd rather stick needles through my bollocks.
Do it overnight, there'll be no one up there...
Do it overnight, there'll be no one up there...
We did just this in August 2016 (I think) evening ascent of Crib Goch then bivvied behind the cafe. There was constant coming and going all night - genuinely surprised - plus a lot of runners who came up for sunrise. I can only imagine its got a whole load busier since.
Went up Yr Wydffa in 2024 on the meat bike and the view from the top was amazing 
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.
That pic's AI'd, but no you couldn't. There's a plateau bit above the station building, then the summit is on a rocky crag about 8ft up in the middle of it.
The three paths from the north all come up the last few hundred meters along side the railway which is where the big queue tends to form if it's really busy right back to the Pyg and Miners tracks..
The Watkins and Rhyd Ddy paths come up around the other side of the station and merge with the same steps but even if you tried to enforce some sort of 'merge in turn' queueing you'd still be ~50m from the trig point. You can (I think) cut the corner on the Rhyd Ddy path and come straight up the rocks which would bring you up onto the plateau avoiding the steps.
So even if you walked past absolutely everyone in the queue, you'd still have to physically elbow the last 8-10 people out of the way to get to the trig point as the steps upto it aren't that wide.
Yes you can. I know because I did exactly that when I walked up there with my daughters last summer. I didn't stand up and take pics of myself at the top because a) that would be sad and b) I've been there before. I just walked around and sat just below the trig point.
I'm not sure why you're telling me that what I did wasn't possible but there you go, STW all over.
That article is peak Singketrackworld-bait. Top work. Very enjoyable thread.
Been up a good number times. Took my kids a few summers ago - Watkins path. Neither enjoyed the top bit, and I think my daughter would happily kill me if we tried again. There was a queue for the top, but we just walked up the other side where they walk back down no bother. Nobody gave us a look - my daughter has 3 black belts so has a certain attitude, and was mad as hell at me, so we got a wide berth.
As for queueing in general, it's a mountain and people climb it. The trig point has paths, but also, you know, rocks to climb up. The runners just ran up the front slope anyway and avoided the paths.
I think the train up gives people the impression that the place is a kind of theme park, and I can understand the mentality of: train - buy horrid food - queue for a photo - go home a bit bored. It must be frustrating to realise that people find ways up that are more rewarding or memorable. Having said that, my daughter would have much preferred the little train.
She got her own back. We followed a ridge down at her suggestion. She was happy on that, even with the drops either side. Me? Almost crying with fear.
Ben Nevis
so... what's more worth a climb than Ben Nevis in that neck of the woods, but less full of grockles?
asking for a friend... maybe...
Lots but to be blunt, if someone can't determine that for themselves then the tourist path up Ben Nevis is probably a good option. There are alternatives which even in summer are far more challenging climbs, with far fewer people to share the experience with.Ben Nevis
so... what's more worth a climb than Ben Nevis in that neck of the woods, but less full of grockles?
asking for a friend... maybe...
I've been up there lots of times, it's been like that since I was a kid, even in winter:
I think it correlates a bit with the queuing for the bar in pubs. I was in wasdale inn last week end and there was a queue for the bar that almost snaked outside and had people standing over others sat having a meal. Plus I went past scafell pike (stupid on a sunny saturday but I was doing a circular that took in Lingmell) and there looked to be queues for the summit there.
I agree the 24 hour 3 peaks is stupid. 3P Yorkshire though *double thumbs up*
After managing to walk up early one morning on a random gorgeous spring day in 2015 we had the summit to ourselves for a good 30mins, told the kids there & then not to bother ever again coz they'd never get a better day. As for queuing I wouldn't have bothered & certainly wouldn't have barged in just because I was doing the 3peaks 🫠 each to there own though & def +1 to keeping the groccles away from less popular destinations.
