Mend Our Mountains: Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
The £46,000 needed to repair the heavily damaged Bruntscar path on the steep flanks of Whernside was successfully raised after members of the public, businesses and charities responded brilliantly to the Mend Our Mountains appeal and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s ‘Pitch in for Whernside’ campaign, which ran in tandem with Mend Our Mountains.
After a year of fundraising, was the first project of 13 across the UK supported by Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million to hit its target, a landmark which was followed rapidly by the start of practical work.
The BMC encourages outdoor enthusiasts and people who value Britain’s hills and mountains to help other projects hit their target by donating through the Mend Our Mountains website.
Helicopter airlift gets path repair started on Whernside
Making a difference
Since its launch in March 2019, the Mend Our Mountains (MOM): Make One Million appeal has raised around £620,000 over the course of a year packed with spectacular events, magnificent individual efforts and big pledges of support. Read more about the highlights of 2018.
The work on Whernside is a demonstration of how this money will be spent. Around 130 tonnes of high quality Greywacke gritstone donated by Ingleton Quarry owner Hanson is in the process of being airlifted on to Whernside and will be used by expert contractors to rebuild the stone pitching on the 200 metre section of heavily eroded path over the next three to four weeks. The previous stone pitching, which had become loose and haphazard, has been removed.
The resulting path will provide a more secure route for around 60,000 walkers a year, many of whom will be completing the 24 mile Three Peaks, one of the UK’s most popular walking challenges. It will also help to heal the aesthetically and ecologically damaging scarring which has grown around the route as the current path has deteriorated.
Work goes on
Carey Davies, the BMC’s hill walking officer and lead for the Mend Our Mountains campaign, said: “It is great to see that the pounds people generously gave to Whernside are now turning into paths. This was always the end goal of the appeal – making a tangible difference by supporting work on the ground.
“People can help us make the same thing happen for other places by donating through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal website to other projects such as Scafell Pike, Cadair Idris and Dartmoor’s Nun’s Cross Path.
“Every project that this appeal helps sends a loud and clear message to decision makers that as outdoors enthusiasts we are prepared to support the hills and mountains, and we expect them to do the same.”
Kate Hilditch, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Area Manager, said: “We are really grateful to all those who have made donations, large or small, to ensure we can repair the Bruntscar path on Whernside. We hope the work will improve the experience of all the walkers tackling Whernside and the Three Peaks whilst protecting the immediate environment too.
“Once the Bruntscar path is completed, the work to maintain the Three Peaks footpath network will go on, of course, so if you would like to help support that work, please go to www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/donate3peaks.”
- Three impassable paths fixed in the Cotswolds - walk them now!
- The BMC's Best Bits Of 2024
- Have Your Say: 2025 to 2030 BMC Strategy Consultation
- British Mountaineering Council to receive Olympic and Paralympic Investment from UK Sport for LA 2028 Cycle
- BMC Peak Area Hill Walk | Friday 28 March
- Long-awaited bridge opens at Cressbrook Mill, funded by Mend Our Mountains
- Members Open Forum: December Update
- GB Skimo Squad announced for 2024/25 season
- March BMC Open Forum
- Sphagnum moss planting | 6th March
- Sphagnum moss planting | 20th February
- 3 easy ways to help us create a more sustainable future on International Mountain Day (and beyond!)
- BMC Peak Area Hill Walk | Monday 13 January
- Tree planting North York Moors | 21 January
- BMC Midlands Area Meeting
- IFSC UPDATE: Understanding the Age Category Changes for 2025
- BMC South West Area Meeting
- Adam Forrest
- Gustavo Martinez
- Low-Impact Christmas Gifts For Walkers and Climbers
- Top 11 tips to improve your winter hiking & mountaineering for International Mountain Day
- BMC North East Area Meeting
- Julie Smith
- Five of the best beginner ski tours in Chamonix
- Everything you need to know about the ongoing Roseberry Topping footpaths repairs, North Yorkshire
- Top 10 snacks for winter walking and mountaineering
- Iggy Rinaldi shortlisted in top 10 for SportsAid One-to-Watch Award
- The secret to a crowd-free ski tour in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland
- Rock climbing in the remote Bektau mountains of Kazakhstan
- Tabitha O'Caroll
- Nina Henderson
- Mia Coia
- Kasha Ogilvie
- Emma Bush
- Scott Dearie
- Sam Pigden
- Martin Cusack
- Ken Pallister
- Clark Noone
- Youth Climbing Series Grand Final
- Did you know? You can donate free of charge to the BMC this Christmas
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Thursday 10th April
- Climbing Equipment Safety
- The British Mountaineering Council Launches Ambitious Climate and Sustainability Action Plan
- Everything you need to know about the proposed new National Park in North Wales
- Our 6 favourite sunrise & sunset routes for National Hiking Day
- Top 6 accessible routes for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and prams
- The British Mountaineering Council welcomes the British Boulder and Lead Championships to Manchester
- Five reasons to go trekking in Europe
- Julie Smith appointed as Head of Finance at the British Mountaineering Council
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Three impassable paths in the Cotswolds National Landscape have been fixed thanks to funding from the BMC Access & Conservation Trust's Mend Our Mountains campaign. Here are three great walking routes using these new paths.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
26,000 plastic bottles have been rescued from landfill to create a new bridge for walkers and climbers at Cressbrook Mill, partly funded by the Mend Our Mountains campaign from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This year's International Mountain Day, Wed 11 Dec, the theme is: “Mountain solutions for a sustainable future – innovation, adaptation and youth”. Here at the BMC we are brimming with nature-based solutions in the mountains that contribute to a more sustainable future, so here are 3 easy ways you can help us right now.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Work to improve the first route at Roseberry Topping from Newton Woods to the summit is now complete, but there are 9 more sections of path repair to go over the next two years. Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing repairs, where to walk, when and why.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Hill Walking News
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Access & Conservation
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Access Articles
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Watkin Path up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and the peat hags on neighbouring mountain Glyder Fach have benefitted from BMC volunteer improvement work on the latest Get Stuck In event, 15-16 April 2024. This was organised by Hill Walking Rep Steve Charles and Access & Conservation Officer (Wales) Tom Carrick as part of the Mend Our Mountains project, funded by the BMC Access & Conservation Trust.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.