British Mountaineering Council (BMC) members in Wales have given the thumbs-down to the idea of placing warning signs on Crib Goch.

The proposal was discussed at the last BMC Cymru meeting and unanimously rejected. The Mountain Safe group, which includes North Wales Police, local mountain rescue team members and the Snowdonia National Park Authority, was supposedly considering signs to warn inexperienced walkers of the perils of the ridge.

There have been several instances of stranded walkers having to be rescued from Crib Goch recently.

However, more than 50 members voted against the idea at a November BMC Cymru meeting. The group’s chair chair, Mike Raine, said: “We recently heard about some proposals to place warning signs for pedestrians on the Snowdon Horseshoe. The Snowdon Horseshoe is one of Britain's great walks and is a must for every serious mountain walker in the UK. It traverses one of the most unique ridges in the land with only the Black Cuillin traverse of Skye offering a greater challenge.

“We know Snowdon is a popular walk for tourists who are not experienced mountain walkers and we know some of them stray on to Crib Goch. Most of them survive to tell the tale.

“We are very strongly opposed however, to any signage being placed on Crib Goch or Crib y Ddysgl. This proposed urbanisation of the wild mountain environment is totally unacceptable to our members. We could tolerate a clearer warning about the route dangers at the start of the Pyg track and we have learned to live with the sign post at Bwlch y Moch.

“We do not feel that signage would help the situation as it should be pretty obvious from Bwlch y Moch which is the correct way to go. People who ignore the obvious dangers presented early on in the ascent of Crib Goch will not be the sort of people to turn back at a sign post; besides, it is arguably harder to descend the east ridge of Crib Goch than it is to continue.”

In October last year, 11-year-old Liam Costello of Woolton, died in a fall from Crib y Ddysgl , the next ridge along from Crib Goch on the Snowdon horseshoe.