After thinking about this for a few weeks I have decided to post. I know this has been dicussed before, but here we go!
At 1am on my recent ACW round my pacers and I were shocked to find a series of luminous canes marking the path from below Hare Crag up to the fence line below Skiddaw.
We resisted the temptation to knock them over, but all agreed that such route marking was not in the spirit of the BGR. Myself and my pacers were relying on our years of orienteering experience, the numerous recces we had done and our mountain craft, and did not need such artificial help.
On reaching the summit of Skiddaw we met the BGR contender and his group of pacers who had put out the markers. After suggesting that they learnt to read a map rather than mark the route with canes I jogged dwon to Keswick.
Should such blatant use of route marking be allowed? Where will it stop? Flags all the way round?
Yes, I know cairns keep appearing on trods and routes, but these are a natural (if man-made) feature of the hills. I tended not to follow these cairned routes anyway as I found that they often go the wrong way!
What would Bob Graham have made of it all?