Athletic Brewing Company supports path repair in Eryri (Snowdonia)

Mynediad Newyddion
13 Hyd
2 min read

The BMC's Access & Conservation Trust is thrilled to confirm a hugely generous £30,000 donation to our Eryri Apprentice Ranger fund from Athletic Brewing Company's Two for the Trails grant programme.

This generous £30,000 grant from the Athletic Brewing Company now brings the total to £44,000, pushing us ever closer to our target of £66,000 to fund a two-year Apprentice Ranger role for the National Trust Cymru Footpath Repair Team in Eryri (Snowdonia). This fundraiser is part of the BMC Access & Conservation Trust's Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2025. National Trust Cymru have confirmed that the role will go ahead, (please apply here or share with interested friends), while the BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust secure the remaining £22k in funding. Please get in touch if you know of any brands or businesses that would like to support this project.

An additional £14,000 was raised during our Big Give Green Match Fund this April, thanks so much for all your generous donations. Included in this was a £1,000 pledge from the AMI (Association of Mountaineering Instructors) towards the apprentice's outdoor skill training and several tremendously generous donations from previous Mend Our Mountains supporters. The BMC's Access & Conservation Trust and National Trust Cymru are very grateful for your support in helping us fix the most heavily eroded footpaths in Eryri.

Where will the funds go?

These funds will go towards creating a new, two-year Apprentice Ranger role within the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri, as part of the BMC Access & Conservation Trust's Mend Our Mountains campaign.

This is a first for the National Trust Cymru Footpath Team in Eryri and a fantastic opportunity for them to pass on essential skills, including heritage footpath repair, construction and maintenance, landscaping, tree planting and nursery management, boundary work, drystone walling, fencing, community engagement and sustainable tourism. The apprentice ranger will also lead BMC volunteers on Get Stuck In footpath repair events throughout the year.

Find out more about the role here. Apply here.

BMC Head of Access & Environment, Dr. Cath Flitcroft, says, “We’re delighted that Athletic Brewing Company have come on board to support the Eryri Apprentice Ranger role with their Two for the Trails programme. This has given our fundraising pot a fantastically generous boost and it comes at a crucial time for National Trust Cymru as they navigate sustained cost pressures. We are thrilled to be able help to ensure that footpath repair and maintenance remains central to their strategy.”

National Trust Cymru Countryside Manager for Eryri, Simon Rogers, says, “Maintaining our upland footpaths is a highly skilled job and there is a significant shortage of those skills in Eryri, so we are very excited about this opportunity to take on an apprentice to learn the craft. We are extremely grateful to the Athletic Brewing Company for their contribution, to the BMC for their support and to all those who’ve donated to the fundraiser - diolch yn fawr / thank you!”

Eryri footpaths fixed!

Eryri footpaths fixed!
Laying stepping stones through the bog - one of the path repair skills the new apprentice ranger will learn
The apprentice ranger will lead BMC volunteers in Get Stuck In events, making sustainable paths in Eryri

Who are the Athletic Brewing Company?

The Athletic Brewing Company craft delicious, non-alcoholic beer using their own brewers and unique brewing methods so that it tastes just as good as the real deal. Their award-winning creations make it easy to sidestep the usual side effects of alcohol that we could all do without; like dulled senses, saying things you regret and climb-cancelling, hike-postponing hangovers.

As keen outdoors people, co-founder Bill and his family used to take two beers on the trail to celebrate getting to a summit. This led to Two for the Trails, an annual grant programme that gives back up to £2million every year for trail repairs throughout the USA, and now the UK.

A big thank you to the Athletic Brewing Company for this incredible donation to our Apprentice Ranger fund and we look forward to welcoming their UK staff on a future Get Stuck In event in Eryri to find out what work their rangers carry out first hand. All Athletic Brewing Company staff are given one volunteer day per month, and the UK staff are very keen to contribute personally to footpath repair in the mountains.

Why does the BMC support footpath repair in Eryri?

With 10.5 million visitor nights spent in Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park in 2023/24, and over 600,000 people climbing Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) every year, the 1,497 miles of footpaths within this 823 square mile park are seeing more footfall than ever before. This is compounded by an increase in extreme weather due to the climate crisis and quickly leads to the following horrors for hill walkers, climbers, mountaineers and outdoor-lovers alike:

  • Footpath erosion
  • Muddy and slippery trails
  • Deep, ankle-turning gullies
  • Navigational difficulties
  • Trampled vegetation
  • Loss of habitat for wildlife
  • Decreasing biodiversity
  • Soil-wash into waterways
  • Increased flood risk
  • Nutrient imbalances downstream

More rangers = more BMC volunteer events

BMC Hill Walking rep and founder of the BMC Get Stuck In volunteer footpath repair events, Steve Charles, says, "I've been going into the mountains all my life and it's great to be able to give back and to feel that you're helping to preserve this precious environment. We need to make our mountain footpaths more resilient to increased rainfall and increased use. Our mountains need to be nurtured, because if we don't do anything, the uplands will be in a much poorer state when we hand them over to future generations.

"During 2023 and 2024, BMC Get Stuck In volunteers clocked up almost 500 man-hours of work in Eryri. They repaired over 520m of footpath, laid 187 stepping stones across marshy ground, reprofiled 80m of bare, eroded peat hags and cleared five helicopter bags full of plastic tree guards. What's more, there are four more Eryri footpath repair events planned for 2025, starting this spring. That will have a huge impact in the mountain environment, and we would welcome another ranger in Eryri to help run even more Get Stuck In events going forward."

NEW Eryri Apprentice Ranger

Give generously if you love hiking, climbing and mountaineering in Eryri and appreciate this National Park's unique beauty and incredible wildlife

Get Stuck In footpath repair events

Get Stuck In events are 1-3 day opportunities for BMC volunteers to give some love back to the landscapes we love to walk and climb in. There are a range of activities decided on nearer the time of the event according to the National Trust rangers who will be teaching you new skills, explaining more about their footpath repair and conservation activities and working alongside you.

Watch the video here

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