AIBU to skip the queue at the Snowdon summit?

Find to skip the queue if you dont want a photo and just want to touch the trig.

Anyone who wants a photo should join the queue.

Simple

The queue would be ok if it was just a quick happy snap each at the trig point.

It's the same as other tourist places where people spend ages taking about 27 different poses and then have review them all before they move on.

I walked up on a cloudy day in March - no views whatsoever, but free reign to get a picture of the trig 😂

It’s too small to accommodate that.

My 88 yr old dad used to climb Snowden about 4 times a year he liked to go each season.
He stopped in his 70s and he finds the idea of queues at the top just bizarre.

I find it a bit twisted that we (as a species) swarm natural beauty spots to the extent that we queue for them. Lord knows how much damage is being done to that mountain.

I'd stop the whole thing for a few years and give it a proper rest.

Husband and son did it a few weeks ago, they walked up at 7am and beat the first train. They queued with some lovely people and everyone took photos for each other.

think there should be a separate trig for train goers and photo ops.

husband had planned to walk round people but felt waiting was a reasonable thing to do and mood was good.

They need a photo point amd the climbers point (with no photos allowed)

We went in summer 2024 and there was no queue.

People were lovely and respectful.

This is why I set off at 1am. Got to the top just before sunrise, and there were only a handful of people there. We sat and had our breakfast in silence, watching the sunrise, and it was magical.

Who started the queuing?

I have climbed mountains in lots of countries. Sometimes the summit is busier than others but if you want a pic you do the best you can and accept there will be others in the background. I've bever experienced a queue or any kind of taking turns!

If the mountain it that busy, why not choose another? It doesn't sound any fun at all, you must be walking up in a traffic jam too.

It would really rile me if I wasn’t able to touch the top due to insufferable morons.

Cairngorm has a train that takes you to the cafe that’s spitting distance to the top. They don’t let those who git the train up out onto the hill from there, on the basis that they will probably get lost and need rescuing.

Walkers can use the cafe but have to sign in at the door otherwise they won’t be let out again.

Snowdon surely needs to do similar. I do lots of hills, and like to touch the trig point. I’m damned if I’m queueing for gormless idiots to get their insta pic. You do you but I’ll walk straight past thanks.

This - I understand people wanting a photo by the trig at least the first time you get to the top, and for official races sometimes the trig must be touched.
But for all other occasions just reaching “the top” is sufficient surely?

The queuing has only been a thing for the last
few years anyway, before that people just went straight to the top and understood that there may be other people in your photo!

Don't give them ideas! 😆

Ye Gods, sometimes the whole queuing malarkey can really be taken way too far. Yes for queuing for the bus, or for a coffee. No to queuing when you reach the top of Snowdon and want to tap the trig point and head back down. People who need to queue like a ewe so they can have their photo taken without the horror of another human visible in the background should be thrown down the mountain. Insufferable idiots.

I don't really get why 'I want to have a solo picture at the top' is vacuous, sheep-like, and selfish while 'I NEED to touch the magic special designated marker at the top of a cairn of stones otherwise my 3 hour trek up the rest of the mountain doesn't count, because that's what you're supposed to do' is apparently a sane, individual, and sensible rationale!

Would I queue for a photo myself, probably not, I'd just take one somewhere else, but the mockery of people who do want one doesn't sit well with me. Most people aren't going to go straight up and back down - they'll take some time to rest, admire the view, chat to friends, have a drink, etc. all of which can be done as easily while standing in a queue, with the bonus they also get a nice photo as well. On the 'stupid things people queue for' scale it's quite low down imho.

Everyone is as silly as each other in my opinion - once you've climbed the mountain you've climbed the mountain, you don't need to touch a special stone or take a specific photo to prove it.

Do they not do 'Fast Passes' yet at Snowdon?

Or if they want a photo, stay at home with a jumbo box of After Eights and get ChatGTP to do it. ( I think Chris Bonnington may have done something similar...)

North Wales has lots of mountains, I'd choose a quieter one. But I had enough of trekking up the mountains of North Wales with my parents on holiday as a child to last me a lifetime.

We go up most years in either spring or autumn, we live not too far away so it's a good camping and hiking spot. I've never been to the summit as for us the pleasure is In the walk,go round the back, up the rangers path and down the llanberis path missing the summit entirely. Much nicer. Or do a quieter mountain. Enjoy the walk not the reaching the summit.

Also - my disabled 6 year old has been up it, so it's hardly K2.

Also, it’s Snowden. You can there by train. Kids and small dogs climb it. And you can take a photo at the top without going up the cairn.

If I climb a mountain I’m not queuing to touch a rock if people want to queue to take the perfect pic fine carry on but that’s not what I’m there for so I won’t queue lol

This is madness. Those daft people queuing for a photo. It’s as if “if you don’t post it on social media” it never happened.

Do it. Or climb one of the countless peaks nearby which aren’t beset by crowds of tourists and Instagram attention seekers.