AIBU to skip the queue at the Snowdon summit?

I think it’s part of a bigger problem. Our National Parks are really struggling with the numbers of visitors who now travel into them especially at weekends in summer. When you live in these areas it’s very difficult at times to go about your daily business due to clogged roads and bad parking. It is so much busier since COVID. I don’t know what the answer is because there is an economic need for the visitors due to the dependence on tourism.
In other countries access to certain places is limited by permit. I really think there needs to be some consideration of this for environmental protection.

Just seen a video of a queue jumper the entire queue is chanting “join the queue”. Then a bloke at the top stands in front of him and tries to block the way and when the queue jumper tries to dodge past him grabs him and tries to physically manhandle him. I’d have called the police at that point and had him arrested!

Exactly, in the past people didn't try and monopolise the view - you just accepted that there would be other people in the pictures at the top as well as you. Now there is a weird sense of entitlement that because they are there everyone should wait so that the world can think that only they are there.

There is an easy answer - go on a cloudy day then the instagram wankers tend to stay at home.

Exactly. That's why there are queues. Because other people are viewed as undesirable. So one at a time, they take a picture of themselves alone. And in the process tell others where to stand, turning free land into a designated queuing area. It's obnoxious and actually quite chilling and anti-human.

Yeah theres no way I would be queuing to touch the top of a mountain.

The same happens at Lands End if you've ever been. The classic Lands End sign is behind a barrier that you have to pay to stand next to, but stand 10ft to one side and you can still get it in your photo.

How much longer before the tops of mountains are barriered off and they start charging for access ;)

I had a barny with someone at a famous photo spot in the lake district once. This person rocked up to the literal photo point and unrolled a towel to sunbath despite everyone around clearly trying to take 'that' picture. THAT I did have a problem with. You could sunbath anywhere but chose to do so in a manner that would inconvenience EVERYONE else. OFC they acted all offended and innocent, yet they knew the location, they walked passed everyone waiting patiently to get 'the' shot and starting setting up their zen spot in front of a people holding cameras...

People insist the UK isn't overpopulated and yet we have shit like this going on. Makes me laugh, honestly.

I'd walk past the the queue and would be very likely to give a mouthful to anyone who challenged me.

What is all this strange queuing malarky? I get it when in a post office, shop, theme park (and I am quite strict with mine in these instances you very much wait your turn without complaint) but these 'new' queues are weird. A pub put out an announcement the other day to ask people not to firm orderly queues - just go to the bar. My DD had an odd one last weekend, heading to a festival had to cross a road at a crossing, a queue had formed - single file! (She didn't).

At least elitism keeps the crowds down.

Do you really think Benny Rothman wanted the hills to be filled with bluetooth speakers, Instagram selfie hunters, disposable bbq's, Stag and Hen do's, inconsiderate parking, unleashed dogs, human excrement etc etc etc

The mountains ARE NOT for everyone.

The mountains are only for those who can follow the Countryside Code.

Mind you... I think the old adage "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints" may be a little outdated!

Yanbu at all, I would not queue. Since when is the expectation of a solo photo a thing? When ive done this in the past, if you take a photo you accept other people are in it, no one has a god given right to commend the space for their perfect insta shots - get an effing life! If people are stupid enough to queue let them get on with it

This is funny as fuck. What have we become?!!

I think it's the artifice of wanting a photo that implies they're the only person/group there that's so silly. If the Instagrammers would just accept that life isn't an edit, there'd be very little need for queueing.

I grew up in a house halfway up a mountain, and was familiar with Mountain Rescue operations being centralised from our house since I was a toddler.

All I can say is that just as many "mountain leaders" caused issues as first timers. I was regularly out on the fells in cheap gear that was appropriate for the weather, outraging the "mountain leaders".

I also agree.

I feel sorry for anyone who ends up with them as their guide. What a bellend.

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You would really have been "damn disapppointed" to not touch a trig point as a child? You sound like a....unique child. When i climbed stuff with my parents as a child we were happy when we reached the top, kids only know there's a magic special spot you have to touch if the adults make it a big deal.

As a pp has pointed out, the trig point on yr wyddfa isnt even natural - the concrete cairn and marker have been added very recently (1960s and 2000s). For 99.9% of the mountain's history the summit WAS the trig point.

Yet now the park staff have added a gold plate you "have" to touch it or the whole walk is ruined. You cant hear how ridiculous that sounds yet you have the temerity to mock others?

Instagram has ruined so many beautiful places.

If you’ve climbed a mountain you touch the trig point - you just do! The only reasons there are queues on this mountain is because of those getting the train up. I’ve climbed loads of mountains and it isn’t a thing that people move out of the way so others can have a posed photo. It would be rude to ask. I intend on climbing Snowdon in a couple of weeks and there is no way I’m standing in a queue when I get to the top.

Because some of us have been hiking up and down mountains since before the Insta crowd were born and we've had decades of touching the trig points and even taking quick photos without any significant queuing or expectations about clearing space for other people's selfie.

Then they come along thinking that they invented hiking and causing the queues by endless faffing around for photos. Like everywhere else they do this. If they could enjoy the day out without making it into such a performance it would be fine.

This. Couldn't agree more.

The snobbishness and elitism as illustrated by that mountain guide post can take a running jump (and they can take their rubbish with them as well). I have come across these types who brag about their achievements trying to outdo each other like it is a pissing contest. Pathetic.

LOL.... That was brilliant!

but you did forget to give Thanks and praise to the indigenous peoples of Eyri, (the Ordovices and the Deceangli), whose tribes peacefully roamed and managed the land before it was "discovered" by Imperalist Climbers from Runcorn in the 1950's. To this day these First Nation tribes remain a marginalised group and when intersected with "people who identify" as Slate Miner's (Peace be upon them) you can see that consistent access to decent Climbing Pro is still a problem for these poor people (Shhhuuusssh! These poor unfortunate souls don't even know what a Number 4 Wall Nut looks like!)

I'm planning a protest next Saturday outside the old Pete's Eat's. It's never been the same since they got ride of The Big Jim and dropped the 10% discount for locals who could trace their blood line back to the Ordovices or at least to Sid James - I believe he fathered a fair few kids when he was filming "Up the Khyber" in 1968.

Surely not all those taking photos are using them for social media?

There's always one... 🙄

Absolutely awful, elitist, snobbish post. The outdoors is for everyone, and as a person who lives at the foot of Yr Wyddfa, I hope people on a budget- which is who you're referring to, according to your B&M, Lonsdale, Sports Direct comments- feel that the countryside is for them, as well as for the well off. And whilst I agree with you on the horrors of the rubbish and human excrement left on the mountains by tourists, the well off do this too, and have done for many many years.
There is a real problem with access to the outdoors and nature in areas where there is a hugh percentage of poverty. So many social structures telling poor people that nature doesn't belong to them. Stop reinforcing stereotypes about people, it's very harmful.

I would walk past the wannabe influencers without a moment's hesitation, and laugh at any remarks.