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THIS Snowdonia mountain is in “desperate” need of repair to protect walkers from injury or death.

Two of the main routes up Cader Idris have fallen badly into disrepair and £140,000 is needed to fix the damage.

A fundraising campaign has been launched to raise the money to carry out the work on a mountain used by 70,000 people every year.

The Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million is a year-long appeal to raise £1m for a range of repair projects within the UK’s 15 national parks, including Snowdonia.

The two paths, Mynydd Moel and Minffordd Path, both need significant work, with routes on Cader Idris not having been reviewed since the 1990s.

The Mend Our Mountains appeal said: “On Mynydd Moel, a large patch of unstable scree has opened up with serious consequences for safety and navigation. And the Minffordd Path needs to have steps fixed or replaced.

“The sites are ecologically sensitive as well, and access for repair is challenging. All of this combines to make the work expensive and time-consuming.” Cash will be used to build highquality, stone-flagged

sections of path in the most damaged areas of the two routes – it will cost £40,000 just to airlift the stone on to the mountain.

Mend Our Mountains claim Cader Idris has become neglected due to the huge cost of maintaining Snowdon.

The website said: “This is in part because resources have been funnelled into protecting Snowdon, Britain’s most popular mountain for walkers. It’s a real issue in Snowdonia – there is an enormous quantity of brilliant, rugged and vulnerable upland that needs care but is often neglected because of the huge toll on Snowdon.”