UKC

A novel abseiling litter pick is planned to take place on Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) on 20th September to clear decades of debris that has built up in the Trinity Gullies, the popular winter climbing venue below the summit.

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I am fascinated to see photos of what gets discovered, especially with regards to the older historical finds. 

Would this rubbish be stuff that us climbers have left there (to our shame) or stuff that's come down from the milling hordes above ?

There's a grain of truth in this

As it says in the article:
"These gullies are natural debris traps on the lea side of the mountain, so anything left on the summit is likely to end up in them"

Both, surely. I'd hope climbers are a little more respectful of the mountain environment than average, but we're certainly not perfect. And the article makes the valid point that even people who would never litter on purpose will occasionally have rubbish unexpectedly fall out of a pocket or bag and blow away before it can be caught.

You can find some useful rubbish on lee slopes below popular ridges - I've acquired quite a few good hats in such places over the years, for example. The slope of Coniston Old Man behind Low Water is a good example, and last year I went up the eastern Ben Vorlich by a very obscure route - towards the eastern pass from Ardvorlich then straight up into the grassy corrie that sits below the 900m levelling of the north ridge. I was quite hopeful of finding good stuff in there - but while there was a lot to be found and brought back down, it was all pretty much proper rubbish - food cartons, semi-rotted gloves etc. Disappointing.

Your mention of hats reminded me of this AC Journal article from 2020 about a litter pick in Cwm Hetiau, the Cwm of Hats, by Rob Collister: https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_2020_files/AJ%202020%20V...

Ey up Dave

Good to hear you're still scavenging on yer stravaigs!

Talking of hats (as you were) - and Snowdonia (as they were) - Cwm Hetiau (another name for Cwm Glas Bach), is so named because it's below Clogwyn station on the Snowdon railway. Folk used to find lots of hats there, blown from the bonces of railway passengers.

It's said local kids used to collect them and flog them to tourists. Who presumably would wear them on a trip up Snowdon on the railway. And then get them blown off. The original Circular Economy. Nowt new under the sun really.

Ha! Posted almost simultaneously! Mr Collister will have the defintiive account.

Great stuff, thanks - didn't know about that, very interesting.

The circular economy aspect has crossed my mind before, as I'm a habitual litter-picker both on the hill and along the local stretch of country road pretty much every morning (I always need an after-breakfast legstretch and I have one of those grabber things). 

In terms of on-hill found items, I have a sort of hierarchy: anything personally identifiable I'll of course try and return directly, and with anything of significant value - specs, camera, GPS-type items etc - I'll mention it on sites such as this and Walkhighlands. Returning lost property can rather undermine one's faith in human nature, however: I can think of two occasions when I've managed to find the person, give them back their stuff and there's not been a word of thanks.

With lesser items - hats and gloves particularly - I use them or give to friends, as I'm prone to losing hats and gloves myself so it's a case of what goes around comes around. I also once failed to find the owner of a very nice and almost new set of Pacerpoles (complete with mesh bag), and asking on here and WH brought no response, so they're still being put to good use by me and my better half a dozen years later.

Incidentally, I've heard a theory that right gloves are more likely to be found than left ones, as a majority of people are right-handed so that's the one they take off to rummage in the rucksack on a windy day then watch it disappear off across the hillside. Has anyone else ever come across this idea?

PS - Hope you're keeping well Colin, long time no see.

Actually, to give a counterexample to this, around ten years ago I went out into the street one Sunday morning and found a taxi driver's ID tag, one of those laminated things. He must have dropped it while bringing a neighbour home the previous evening. It had the chap's phone number on it so I left a message, gave him our address and said to pop round next time he was in the area. The following morning he turned up at the door, a big bear-like chap, and handed over a bottle of Whyte & Mackay with effusive thanks. He didn't need to do this at all, and I said as much to him, but after he'd gone I realised that had I just binned it or - probably worse - handed it back to the council he would have had 101 hoops to jump through before getting his license back, and would probably have lost a fair bit of income in the meantime.

One of the venues for crag booty is to scour the slopes below snowholes used by the Lodge & PyB. Likewise the classic climbs on Tryfan after a busy weekend in the summer.

That was a nice read, thanks.