‘Filthy, oxygen thieving rats’ ... fury after vandals attack
CLIMBERS have started cleaning rocks near the summit of an iconic Snowdonia peak after vandals wrote graffiti on the mountain.
Someone took up a spray can of paint to a spot near the summit of Tryfan and wrote Widzew Lodz, the name of a Polish football team, as well as ‘smoke weed’.
The vandalism is on the southern side of the 3,000ft mountain that dominates the Ogwen Valley near to a route
which climbers consider slightly easier than the riskier north ridge.
A date spray painted onto another rock suggests the vandalism was carried out on Monday, October 1.
As soon as it was spotted photographs appeared on social media and criticism of the vandalism was quick and widespread.
Michael Cotton, who is visiting Snowdonia this week, said: “What is wrong with people? Filthy, oxygen thieving rats!” Writing on Facebook Robert Burrows said: “Disgusting! Never seen that before in the mountains.” Mark Edwards, who lives near the valley, added: “Angry doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel about this act of vandalism.”
But within hours of the photographs appearing climbers had started climbing the mountain to clean off the paint.
One of the climbers, James Fitzpatrick, said the paint does come off.
“About 15 minutes a letter,” he said.
Mr Cotton said: “Well done that man! Lots of others have also said that they’ll help clean it off too. I have a feeling that the graffiti will be gone completely before the weekend.”
Tryfan is one of the most famous and recognisable peaks in Britain, having a classic pointed shape with rugged crags.
The summit is famous for the twin monoliths of Adam and Eve – Sion a Sian in Welsh – a pair of rocks some three metres high and clearly visible from the valley below.