UKC

Just seen on BBC the footage of Mark's fall/slide down Parsley Fern Gully, which is apparently on "Mount" Snowdon. Why is it that whenever Snowdon is mentioned in the mainstream media they insist on sticking the word Mount in front of it? It does my head in!
(Rant over)

In reply to LJ2606: I think they now do it just to piss off UKC readers..

In reply to LJ2606:

It was also, apparently, on the steepest part of Mount Snowdon! Awful reporting and I can't help thinking it's not what Mark intended when releasing the video to the BMC

In reply to LJ2606:

Even worse reporting on here...

http://www.aol.co.uk/video/watch-man-falls-down-mountain-and-survives/51769...

Unless there was an identical accident in Scotland!!!!

In reply to LJ2606:
At least they didn't call it "the highest mountain in England and Wales" as I once heard.

In reply to Andes:

at least that would be factually correct... unlike the american report, or the sticking "mount" in front of it.

In reply to Sl@te Head:

That appears to be two accidents mixed together, quality reporting- Adam Potter took a tumble back in 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/30/climber-found-standing-up-scotland

In reply to LJ2606: The footage has made it over here onto the evening 'One News' in New Zealand! Inevitably described as Mount Snowdon.

In reply to LJ2606:

Could I ask a genuine question please, (in 2 parts for the pendants).

Other than a pedantic need to be factually or nomemclaturely (?) correct, why on earth does it matter?

Is this just another way of us climbing folk separating ourselves from the great unwashed and finding yet another way of looking down our noses at them with disdain?

In reply to Rampikino:

No, and...

Yes.

In reply to LJ2606: It's like saying "the town of Llanberis"; or, the river Taff. We all know what Snowdon is, but in a general news item, I can't see the harm in making it clear to the less initiated.

In reply to Pero: Do we ever see "Mount Ben Nevis" written? Genuine question, I've no idea, just curious.

In reply to Rampikino:

I like what you did there )

In reply to Rampikino:

Also in two parts:

1. Why does being factually correct need to be sneered at as 'pedantry'? I don't accept being ignorant, wrong or careless as being acceptably 'normal'.

2. Yes, it can be. It also signifies ignorance of the local culture which is both a) rude, and b) indicative of further ignorance which may well render the report useless for any real understanding of the event.

Also, Human Rampikino, American media in particular has a grating habit of putting 'Mount' in front of Himalayan peaks such as Makalu, Manaslu, Kanchenjunga which neither have, nor need, such addition. 'Mount Dhaulagiri' would therefore translate as 'Mount White Mountain' which is ridiculous. Likewise trekkers apparently cross the Thorung La Pass, or translated, the 'Thorung Pass Pass'.

In reply to Dom Whillans:
Factually correct... well yes, but a useless piece of information nonetheless. A bit like saying Mount Everest is the highest mountain in Russia and China.... oops maybe I should not have called it "Mount" Everest!

In reply to LJ2606:

IIRC, it was referred to in literature as "Mount Snowdon" as early as the eighteenth century, and that usage may have preceeded the simpler "Snowdon" (but the latter is most likely incorrect).

In reply to Damo:


I believe that 'local culture' might deem yr wyddfa to be the actual name......

In reply to Damo:
>


There's an extremely long history of this kind of thing. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tautological_place_names

In reply to bigbobbyking:

Thanks for reminding me that, of course, Dun is a hill. Go to the back of the class, Gordon!

In reply to LJ2606: Whatever the reasoning behind it (and I'd like to know what this reasoning is), it does grate.

I'd guess that the reporters think that they need to put "Mount" in front of any mountain name, to signify that they're talking about a mountain. If they were to say (for instance) "a climber fell off Snowdon today", people would wonder why Lord Snowdon was being climbed on.
Or if they mentioned an expedition to Manaslu, it might (to the ignorant) be a Pacific island; whereas "Mount Manaslu" at least lets you know that it's some sort of hillock somewhere.

Not that I like it, but maybe it has its uses. Not least to let you know not to read any further, as it's likely to be piffle.

In reply to Andy Stephenson:

Curiously, they never seem to do it with the Lake District. I've never heard anyone ever say "Mount Helvellyn", for example.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
Mount is used in hill names in Scotland - there it is an anglicisation of Monadh (like Mynydd) and meaning moorland lump. It is not an agrandising term.

Usage with Snowdon is a good ignorance indicator.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth: I saw a tshirt with Mount Scafell Pike on it once. Shivers....

In reply to LJ2606: just to lighten things up: Bluto went to Mount Olive....so Popeye hit him!

In reply to Andes:

Point taken, even though Russia (does Russia have a border on Sagramartha?) and China are actually separate nation states, whereas England and Wales aren't (much as it pains me being an adopted son of Wales to say so!)

In reply to LJ2606:

So nobody gets confused between the highest mounatin in Wales and the prince of Wales' uncle.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

But they do use "Lake Windermere".

In reply to Rampikino:

Well said

In reply to Dom Whillans:

I'll have you know it is actually the highest mountain in England, Gabon, Bangladesh, Ireland, Tonga, Republic of the Congo, Hungary, Togo, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Mauritania, Seychelles, Ghana, Netherlands, Paraguay, Grenada, Mauritius, Federated States of Micronesia, San Marino, Burkina Faso, Belgium, Benin, Senegal, Luxembourg, Uruguay, Moldova, Antigua and Barbuda, Belarus, Barbados, Estonia, Latvia, Kuwait, Guinea-Bissau, Lithuania, Malta, Palau, Denmark, Singapore, Monaco, Bahrain, Qatar, Kiribati, Vatican City, Nauru, Bahamas, The Gambia, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Maldives and Wales.

In reply to Ridge:


<Screams!>

In reply to Ridge:


What would the alternative be, using "Windermere Town" to differentiate?

In reply to DynamoCL:

It's Windermere village.

In reply to LJ2606:

I drove past it last weekend and when the classic view from near Capel Curig came into sight I announced to the Mrs:

"That's Mount Snowdon, the highest one in the middle"

In reply to Andy Say:

Or "Snawdune", in 1095 if my memory serves me right.

In reply to roddyp:

Friggin' Norman incomers.....

In reply to SteWh:
..and I once went to Mount Lady Washington.

There's a slightly elevated neighbourhood of Boulder CO called 'Table Mesa' so presumably it should be referred to in the press as the 'Table Mesa Plateau'.

In reply to LJ2606:

Could be worse: -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21580779

In reply to Ridge:

There's a Troutbeck beck

In reply to Pero:

I have edited your post for accuracy

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

You've obviously never seen one of these t-shirts then:

http://www.summitjunkie.co.uk/helvellyn-mens-outline-t-shirt

Mt Helvellyn, I ask you.