KRO said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:by those who do not really appreciate mountains as
places of beauty, serenity and solitude.
Those would be the "tourists" or "casual walkers" that I
mentioned.
I'm afraid the pair of you are sounding like snobs.
Here we go again. I was simply stating a fact. Some people
go out walking every weekend come rain or shine, they have
all the gear and they climb everything from the smallest
hills to the highest peaks. These are the "serious" walkers,
for want of a better term.
Then you get people who rarely ever go out walking.
Occasionally, typically on a sunny summer's weekend, the
weather may inspire them to go out for a walk. Where shall
they go? What about Snowdon? Since they don't get out much
they naturally head for the most well known location. They
probably don't know about any other mountains, couldn't
read a map even if they had one, and certainly wouldn't
want to risk getting lost. And besides, why would they want
to go anywhere else anyway, surely Snowdon is the only one
worth climbing?
These people have no proper walking gear, they don't go
walking regularly, they wouldn't go out in bad weather or in
the winter. They are *casual* walkers, or tourists, or
whatever you want to call them. The names are irrelevant,
they are what they are.
They don't climb Snowdon for serenity, they want a bit of
excitement. They don't climb Snowdon for solitude, they'd
rather follow a bunch of other people who apparently know
where they're going because they don't want to get lost. As
for appreciating the beauty of Snowdon, well there may be
some appreciation there, but they're not climbing it because
it's the most beatiful mountain (even it it was), they're
climbing it because it's the highest mountain and that's
where everybody goes.
If Waun Fach was the highest mountain in Wales there'd be a
train to the top and all the casual walkers would walk up
that instead. They don't climb it *because* it's beautiful,
even if some of them do appreciate the beauty when they get
there. And judging by the amount of litter left behind, one
must conclude that many visitors don't appreciate beauty, or
at least have a very warped idea of what constitutes beauty.
How can anyone appreciate a beautiful view when surrounded
by banana peels, crisp packets and coke cans?
Anyway, drifting off the point a bit. The point is this.
Some walkers are casual, some are not, whatever you choose
to call them. The casual walkers only visit the honeypots,
the serious walkers spread themselves around. Casual walkers
are not there for the same reasons as the serious walkers.
If they were, then they'd become serious walkers themselves.
But there's nothing snobbish about this. I'm not putting
casual walkers down, just explaining the differences.
There's nothing wrong with a casual walker climbing Snowdon,
nor is there anything wrong with being a casual walker. I'm
not slagging off casual walkers.
But it is annoying when there's a lot of them around... ;-)
Paul
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