Treating natural spaces like theme parks is ruining the outdoors
It feels like only yesterday I was writing about hikers booing a man at the top of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) for breaching absurd queuing rules, and little did I know another such incident would present itself so soon.
In May this year, a TikTok video of hospitality manager Richard Thiedeman being booed for failing to queue to touch the summit marker on Yr Wyddfa went viral.
Richard had hiked to the summit of Yr Wyddfa (3,560ft) on May 24th 2026, but was booed by those in line when he didn’t respect the unwritten ‘rules’ of waiting for your turn to approach the summit marker to get a photo.
The caption on the 34-year-old’s TikTok video reads: ‘Climbed Snowdon via Y Lliwedd – Watkins Path to raise money for a friend’s funeral… and instead of being cheered, I was booed for not queuing up.’
Richard, who was raising money for a “send-off” for his friend with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), even wore a T-shirt that read “I am hiking to raise money for a funeral!”, but this did not stop crowds from booing and jeering as he reached the summit and swerved past the long queue as he didn’t want a photo.
The incident sparked much debate online, with many siding with Richard (including me) and describing queuing on mountains as “ridiculous”.
So imagine my surprise to see the queuing discourse kicking off again this week, with another hiker facing dirty looks and comments when he committed the outrageous crime of skipping the self-appointed queue for the summit of Yr Wyddfa.
A video shared by WalesOnline showed Marc Screeton being criticised by queue-abiding hikers for walking past a huge queue on the mountain to reach the top. Having just completed the five-hour trek, the 27-year-old decided he had no chance of waiting any longer to see the peak.
Despite only wanting to touch the top and head back down, Marc was slammed by a group who glared at him from the queue. In the clip, you can hear them shouting ‘there’s a queue, you know’ and ‘it’s out of order’.
One woman even shouted at someone to ‘chuck his phone off’ the mountain. What a time to be alive.
As a horrified observer, I’ve written and posted on my TikTok several times that I’ve been hiking for many years and have watched the way we hike and connect with nature shift dramatically, and it’s not always for the better.
Since the pandemic and the meteoric rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, interest in UK beauty spots has soared.
In recent years, there have been increasing reports of national parks, beaches, and popular hiking trails being overrun by crowds, litter, and queues as people descend on the great outdoors, often armed with drones and tripods, hoping for the perfect snap for social media.
Images this week show scores of hikers lined up on the slopes of Yr Wyddfa waiting for their photo at the trig point. Many wait for over an hour just to get a selfie at the peak – which sits at 3,560ft above sea level.
It’s a depressing sight, even if you love outdoor photography as I do. There’s zero chance you’ll catch me joining a queue anywhere to get a photo. I simply don’t have the patience, and I think treating natural spaces like theme parks is ruining the outdoors.
As I settle into middle age, I can’t help but feel that a mountain summit, traditionally associated with achievement, community, and endurance, has become akin to a tourist attraction, subject to queuing rules and hostile public policing.
Somewhere along the way, parts of outdoor culture seem to have lost sight of why we venture out at all. Mountains, lakes, beaches, and waterfalls, once cherished for their beauty, are now too often reduced to mere backdrops for online content.
At first glance, it seems harmless enough. If people want to queue for summit selfies or film TikTok dances at the top, isn’t that their choice?
“The problem is scale”, says Julia Hartley, founder of Guided Outdoor Adventures. “Social media has turned summits into bucket list checkboxes, and the footfall is now causing real environmental damage. The litter is the most visible sign of it.”
Julia says that their mountain leaders handle summit photos “practically” and “find the shot somewhere else.”
“There are viewpoints on almost every route that are more dramatic than a crowded summit cairn, and a good guide knows where they are.”
“A qualified mountain leader knows those quieter routes. They can take you to summits and landscapes that most people walking the famous peaks will never find, and the experience is richer for it.”
The desire for ‘bucketlist’ summit photos appears to be the main cause of the lines on mountaintops like Yr Wyddfa, where there shouldn’t be a need for queues, leading to unnecessary bottlenecks.
Mountain leader Gemma Smith points out in a TikTok video that many people may see videos of climbers queuing to reach the top of Mount Everest in Nepal and assume it is a regular occurrence, but it isn’t.
The expert mountain leader and hiking guide shared her honest thoughts on whether people should queue to reach the summit of Yr Wyddfa after seeing people booed for not queuing.
She said: “This might be controversial, but as a mountain leader I do not think you should be queuing to get to the summit of a mountain unless it is for safety reasons.
Gemma explains that on mountains like Everest, queuing is for safety; you’re following a fixed line to the summit.
“You’re one behind the other on this line, and if you are overtaking, that can be an exceptionally dangerous situation if you slip.
On Snowdon, that queue is purely there because people want to take a photo, that’s it.”
As many other outdoor leaders have told me, the summit of Yr Wyddfa is vast. Unlike narrow scrambling sections on other mountains where queues form naturally for safety reasons, the summit queue here exists almost entirely for photographs.
Nobody has appointed summit marshals on Yr Wyddfa. The queues are entirely self-imposed, not rules set by the National Park.
And increasingly, there appears to be social pressure to participate. As booed hiker Richard says, “These people believe that a queue is the right thing to do. But since when has it been okay to boo people because they don’t believe in what you believe in?”
While jeering is undoubtedly unpleasant, these summit queues can also create genuine safety concerns, says Julia Hartley.
“The queuing at Yr Wyddfa poses a specific danger that is not talked about enough. When people have waited a long time to reach a summit, they become reluctant to turn back even when conditions change.
That sunk cost thinking on a mountain is genuinely dangerous. Weather moves fast in Eryri (Snowdonia), and a queue creates pressure to stay when the right decision is to descend.”
In extremely hot weather like we’re currently experiencing in Wales, hikers standing still for long periods can also suffer sunstroke and other heat-related illnesses, prompting callouts to already overstretched Mountain Rescue Teams.
Llanberis Mountain Rescue recently posted on their Instagram account: “Over the Bank Holiday Weekend, our team responded to 14 incidents on Yr Wyddfa, with the majority believed to be linked to the exceptionally warm weather conditions.”
Elfyn Jones, Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team Volunteer and Coordinator, said: “People often underestimate how quickly warm weather can become dangerous in the mountains.”
“We’ve seen several incidents this weekend where the heat appears to have played a significant role, including serious cases of suspected sunstroke requiring helicopter evacuation.”
Even several heatwaves haven’t reminded us that mountains are wild and unpredictable, not amusement parks with photo ops and lines where the prize is a perfect hashtagged post.
The real achievement is simply reaching the summit. There’s no need to queue for a staged photo or a tap of the trig point; the climb itself is reward enough.
Frankly, these bizarre summit queue incidents have made me even more resolute that I will not join an unnecessary queue on a mountain.
I won’t wait an hour to touch a trig point, and I certainly won’t be booing strangers and calling for their heads if they swerve a line. Instead, I’ll try to find a quiet spot where I can appreciate the view away from a turf war over selfie rights.
If you want to wait in a long line, may I suggest Alton Towers instead of our wild and precious mountains and stop ruining them for the rest of us.

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