Just as hard times seem to draw people together, so too do difficult challenges, and walking up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) would be classed by many as a difficult challenge.
There’s not a day goes past when I’m on the mountain and I don’t see people helping others. It might be relatively trivial, such as simply giving advice; I see that a lot, especially with regard to paths, directions and distances. Equally it might be something more important such as giving first aid to someone with an injury. Or it might be something like loaning an item of clothing or offering to carry a heavy pack. It might be taking a picture or something less obvious, such as simply going at a slower pace so that the slowest person in the group isn’t left behind, or maybe just giving words of encouragement. I’ve also seen people helping to look for lost items, offering a lift or taking a message to someone else in the group who’s much further ahead or behind. I’ve seen all these things, and many more.
These people are the unsung, and largely unnoticed, heroes.
One of the things we do when we patrol the paths is collect litter, and many has been the occasion when people have offered to take our litter bags off us so that they can carry them down the mountain for us. This kind of deed is much appreciated, being as it is of some inconvenience to them. Even last week, we picked up a small abandoned tent, and a passing walker offered to carry it down so that we wouldn’t have to. The tent was awkward, and that guy was a hero. However, as it happens, we were just 45 minutes from the summit (where we could leave it with the summit staff to go down by train) and he was still a couple of hours from the bottom, so we thanked him but insisted on taking it ourselves.
From 2022 the National Park Authority has pursued its idea of making Yr Wyddfa the first plastic-free mountain in the world, and this has also developed into a litter-conscious theme. Posters at both the bottom of the mountain and the top declare that “Legends leave no trace”, while the Welsh version declares that “The hero of the mountain is the plastic-free mountain walker”.
The message is clear enough, but it sets the bar very low. It would seem that to be a hero you don’t have to do anything! Is taking your litter home, recycling your rubbish and leaving no trace – i.e. doing what you should be doing anyway – really enough to warrant being called a hero? It’s a bit like me saying “I didn’t scrawl graffiti on that stone; aren’t I a hero?” or “I didn’t mug you and take your phone and wallet; aren’t I a hero?”
The other day I was listening to the radio and there was chat about children being awarded badges for achieving things. However, one caller said that at her children’s school the children got badges – bronze, silver and gold – if they had not misbehaved for a certain consecutive number of days. Surely, not misbehaving should be the expected norm, not rewarded as being special, or am I out of touch these days?
If I’m going to call someone a hero, I’d rather do so when they’ve gone out of their way, as in some of the examples I’ve given earlier.
Another new initiative is the idea that walkers can collect a litter bag from Pen y Pass, then when they bring it down full they will be rewarded with a re-useable metal flask. Now that’s a more proactive approach where people are doing something more positive, namely picking up other people’s litter.
Time will tell what kind of uptake there is, but given that the paths from Pen y Pass are patrolled three times a week by volunteer wardens, who also pick up litter, I can’t actually see that they’ll be handing out many free flasks.
No matter. Heroes one and all, you carry on doing what you do.