Mountain of rubbish

ENERGY DRINKS, CRISP PACKS AND COWBOY HATS AMONG YR WYDDFA'S 'WATERFALLS' OF DEBRIS

- By OWEN HUGHES Chief Reporter

AS one of the world's most popular mountains Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) attracts up to 750,000 walkers a year.

While that can bring some economic benefits it also brings the downsides of overcrowded roads, under-pressure mountain rescue teams, and hour long queues to touch the 1,085m high summit.

The other curse is the litter left strewn - either deliberately or accidentally - on the mountainside. Much will be then blown around by mountain winds - often left in inaccessible areas and causing havoc to local wildlife.

Last year "waterfalls" of rubbish were found down gullies when the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) - supported by other organisations - took to the mountain in the first Big Clean Up weekend. Some of it was historic and left in situ for decades while much was freshly dropped.

This year the teams that included professional mountaineers - returned to reach areas any usual litter picker could not reach and once again found a frightening amount of litter.

First, mountaineers abseiled down the dangerous, loose rock cliff face of Clogwyn y Garnedd (Trinity Gullies), taking care not to damage rare, endemic plants and invertebrates.

Two days later, BMC volunteers hiked along the PYG Track and then off-path, into the upper Glaslyn bowl area beneath these cliffs, to retrieve and survey trash that has been blowing into this fragile, Arctic-alpine environment for over a century.

In total they removed 4,282 items (last year it was 2,765) of plastic pollution from Yr Wyddfa. Lucozade bottles, Red Bull cans and Walkers crisp packets were the most prevalent brands found.

Almost 30% of the rubbish consisted of confectionary wrappers, with plastic water bottles and clothes and footwear the next largest categories. Around 70% of items removed were single-use products and 5% was outdoor gear and clearly not meant to be dropped, like caps, rucksack raincovers, jackets and an OS Map of the area.