Mountain waymarking nonsense
Yes it is the “silly season” as it’s known in journalistic circles, when parliament are off on their hols and the news is sluggish, so the media turn to the weird and wonderful to keep the papers shifting off the shelves. This time it’s that old chestnut of “making the mountains safer”, to paraphrase some apparently hillwalking hack called MacWhirter. He has nothing better to do than knock up a article on waymarking Scottish mountains, to make the “mass participation” sport of hillwalking less “elitist and nihilisitc”. To quote the hack in question. Obviously the MCofS take a different view. MacWhirter’s evidence that we, the hillwalking masses, are elitist and nihilistic is based on the vast network of paths in places such as Bavaria and the Alps, where visitors are treated to a well documented, marked and easy to follow network of walking paths in the mountains. In short, they are spoon fed their scenery. Also, these paths more often than not, link up manned mountain huts, so the distances over which walkers must traverse “wild” country is minimal compared to the Scottish highlands. Throw in the continental weather pattern of long periods of settled weather followed by well forecast storms that last a day or two and you can pretty much guarantee those paths will be empty during bad weather. Most people just don’t go out on a bad day in the Alps. (more…)
