|| Still wet || Will this ever end? ||

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Next Great Problems

This will be a quick one for a number of reasons, and a departure from Pennines-related content. A whistle-stop trip to North Wales followed by a drive to Northumberland just in time for the worst forecast in living memory is exacting a knackeredness toll, and I also got distracted by watching the Gladiators final. Priorities etc - but there was good Yorkshire representation and it’s the only time competitive speed climbing has ever been interesting so I make no apologies. I am now launching a campaign to get Gladiators recognised by the IOC and replace climbing on the Olympic roster, more on this in future.

North Wales saw some fleetingly good weather on Saturday, complete with the usual parking carnage in the Pass and around Pen-y-Pass and Pen-y-Gwryd, complete with dozens and dozens of cars sporting fines taped to their windscreens. Most of this traffic is from walkers plodding up Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa, or just general tourists, but it does illustrate the struggles that busy and popular spots in the outdoors face, not least in the social media era where popularity is amplified by design. Meanwhile reports were filtering in on social media of extremely busy damp crags in Fontainebleau, parking issues at Raven Tor, and this was just the two or three that caught my eye.

It makes you wonder what the future is for climbing; the crags, mountains - and outdoor spaces in general - at popularity pinch points. Easter weekend, bank holidays, school holidays, or just that one sunny weekend in January at Burbage. Most of the time, most of the year, most days of the week, most of the crags/mountains are pretty much deserted, but then we all mobilise at the same time though either necessity or other social engineering to want to go to the same places at the same time. There’s no easy answer to this.

I’m happy to avoid busy places like the plague; it’s quite simply not what I got into climbing for. I stumbled into a busy bookshop in a very rainy Alnwick today and it was so packed I turned around and stood outside in the rain instead, so the thought of turning up to a rammed Isatis or Cuvier makes my stomach turn. In fact it was only by accident I ended up in Llanberis Pass this weekend (long story…) - thankfully to find a good climbing scene despite the constant traffic chaos. But it’s easy for me to say “just don’t go there” having already been to some of these places decades ago. If you’re new to climbing and you’ve read all the guides and the articles and seen all the videos then naturally you’re going to want to go to Sabots, to Raven Tor, or Stanage Plantation, and if Easter weekend is the only time you and your mates have got the time off work to go, after a winter of terrible weather, then that’s when you’re going to have to go.

In addition to social media algorithms pushing popular spots into fatal feedback loops, there's also a range of industries which have grown around outdoor activities, and since growth is baked hard into a lot of business models you’re not going to see anyone pushing too hard for a reduction in participation any time soon. So I think we’re in for some challenging times in years to come at key points of the year. I don’t know what the solutions are to this, and in fact I don’t even know what the problems will be. But I do know it shouldn’t just be left to the National Parks, the BMC or just local volunteers to have to pick up the pieces - footpath repair, litter picks, glueing broken holds, mending relationships with annoyed locals or other users etc etc.

You sometimes hear it said that we should just stop publicising stuff, pretend the outdoors doesn’t exist, and just hope everyone goes back to Wetherspoons and leaves us who are lucky enough to already have our foot in the door to enjoy everywhere being blissfully deserted. The problem with this, aside from the fact that it would never work, is it’s totally unfair; it means us who are already in ‘the club’ are essentially benefitting from the structural, economic and social barriers that have artificially kept people out of the countryside for decades. You can’t just say “we got here first, tough luck”. Everyone is entitled to enjoy these outdoor spaces, it’s just we can’t all enjoy the same places at the same time.