Careful!

As Snowdonia claimed the life of yet another young man last night, a brief walk on the Great Orme yesterday served to illustrate just how fortunate we are that there aren't many more serious accidents. 

Yesterdays cool but fine weather afforded a wonderful opportunity for walking, so we took full advantage.  Parking in Hafod y Mor, opposite the Headlands' Hotel, the walk was up the road leading to the Ski slope, across at the base of the slope then up the steps to the top. 

Despite a haze, the views from the top were good, and strolling to the cliff top immediately above the toll road meant it was possible to gaze at the pier from a God-like perspective, search for those intrusive but elusive wind turbines, consider how we would change the world with a wave of the arms and watch the antics of other walkers.

When the excited cries of a young child drew notice, it was possible to see that a mother and 4 or 5 year old had positioned themselves very close to the edge of a pretty sheer rock-wall face.  The mother was shouting at the child to behave, but the child was still perilously close to the edge. Eventually, both moved off, but from that single example it was easy to see how folk can be lulled into a sense of false security by the imperceptible merging of man-made and fenced walkways into a wild country setting.

Both the Ormes are magnificent, wild, dangerous and unpredictable, but there are a lot of city dwellers whose experience of and preparation for this sort of terrain is inadequate, given the potential for disaster.  As the season progresses, it's almost inevitable that there will be an accident on one of the Ormes, and the question that will be raised is how much should the country park or Mostyn's do to warn people that there are dangers.  The amusing sign on Conwy mountain which informs you that you're approaching a steep drop, moments before the mountain drops - almost vertically - into a caravan park about 800 feet below seems incongruous, but perhaps what we need is better education for the visitor, with pamphlets in each hotel at the season's start.

Even then, there will be some who will call for the Ormes to be fully fenced, and that would be an aesthetic disaster. We need danger in our lives and we need to learn how to manage risk;  it's part of life and growing. But perhaps we also need to warn visitors that babies don't bounce - especially from 200 feet up.