Labour of love: what it takes to be a mountain path repairer
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.
Just three years ago, Ryan Hamilton was bored and working in a call centre in Glasgow. But a training course run by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland’s ‘Mountains and The People’ project took him on to a new life – repairing paths and protecting habitats in the hills and mountains.
After taking the bold step of founding his own environmental management company a year ago, Ryan Hamilton has gone on to work all over the Scottish Highlands. Now he’s about to take on the huge task of repairing the path up Ben Vane, a Munro in the Arrochar Alps, which recently hit its £40,000 fundraising target through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal, led by the BMC and Mountaineering Scotland.
As Ryan's team gets to work, we talk to him about the hard labour – and huge reward – involved in his work.
I’d always wanted to do a job in the outdoors. I was into hill walking when I was younger, we had family holidays on Skye and Torridon. But I had fallen out of that and just ended being a city boy in Glasgow for five or six years or so.
I was working in a call centre and desperately looking for something else. I appreciate that’s what a lot of people do but it was mind-numbing. Then I saw an advert for a six month trainee placement through the Mountains and People project learning about habitat management, including path construction. Doing it opened up a whole wee world.
I took a shine to go it from the word go. At first I got a lot of self-employed work with other contractors and learned the trade on the job. Then after a year of that I decided to go out on my own. It was a big leap of faith, especially as my wife was seven months pregnant at the time. But I haven’t had a day out of work since. We’ve just celebrated our first year anniversary as a team.
We’ve had a hard day before we even get to work. Our ‘commute’ can involve climbing the height of a Munro. It takes a certain type of person to walk up a mountain, do a full day of hard physical labour, go back down again, and then repeat it the next day.
We worked on the Pony Track near the top of Ben Nevis in the depths of winter. We had to gather rocks and materials when the temperature was approaching -10C. We had to walk up in the dark and walk down in the dark. And just before the end, with a bit of work still to do, we had over a foot and a half of snow – we needed crampons just to get on site.
You don’t get an awful lot of old path builders. I always say to people wanting to get in to it, “I know you like walking up hills and this seems like a good job, but you won’t find a harder good job.” It’s robust, unforgiving and it takes its toll physically.
Some days I’m like “wow this is where I get to work”. But other days there are hailstones and 60 mile an hour winds!
I became a father in the last year. I took my boy up to Ben Vane, it was his first Munro. I knew I was going to be working on it so I thought it was a nice way of tying it in with my family. This work is going to be something that will outlast me.
We’re building the path on Ben Vane all the way up from the bottom to the summit. It’s the best part of 984 metres and famously steep, it just goes straight up from the road on a 35 degree inclination. We’re building up to the sky.
Ben Vane has never had any path work done on it before, which is rare for a Munro. It’s more of a trodden sheep line than an established path.
The hill is a mess in places. You’ve got big peat hags, places where the vegetation and soil has been eroded right down to the bedrock, sections of scree with grainy sand bits over it like marbles. We’re pretty much doing a complete build, starting from scratch. There are going to be a lot of challenges.
A lot of planning and thought gone into the route the path will take. People aren’t robots. If the route isn’t the way people want to walk they will just cut corners, creating ‘desire lines’, which can make the erosion problem worse. You have to try and anticipate people’s psychology by thinking about things like where the stunning views are, so you can make the path go to them. I work very closely with Gordon White, the head planner for OATS.
There are golden eagles nesting just over a mile away from the work site. There are also SSSIs dotted about. We have to be very mindful of lots of different environmental factors.
We are a team of four, and we’re incredibly tight-knit. It’s not an industry where you get away with not pulling your weight because it’s very obvious if you’re not. But my team are great.
As a team we can spend 120 hours together a week. We work a four day week but during that time we sleep in hostels as a group, eat together, commute together, and then work closely together through the day on the paths. It sounds intense but the camaraderie is hard to describe. It helps that everyone’s there for similar reasons. We’re all pulling in same direction for the better good.
If we didn’t do path repair work in the hills, erosion would eventually just ruin it for everyone. Everyone’s seen the impact it has had in the past. If we want to keep enjoying the hills we have to do our bit to give back whether we’re walking, biking, climbing or anything. We’ve had the use of it, previous generations had the use of it, but if we don’t do something now a lot of what we’ve enjoyed won’t be there for other people.
Recently I think there has been a massive uptake in the number of young people doing hill walking. I don’t think it’s properly understood how many people are doing it now. You go anywhere in Arrochar or around the Trossachs, there’s never a hill you’ll be on your own.
The outdoor community in general is hugely supportive. People thank us and shake our hands. We have even had people try to give us money on the hill!
At the same time a lot of people seem to take it for granted. A lot of people think that the hills will always be accessible and the paths will always be there. They don’t realise the effort and cost that goes into maintaining them. It’s about trying to get to people to realise that ‘if you like mountains, you have to give something back’.
- The future of wild camping on Dartmoor: Supreme Court to decide on historic right
- BMC North West Area Hill Walk | Saturday 30th November
- 5 things you didn’t know about hill walking’s most important plant
- Sphagnum moss planting | 15th November
- BMC Peak Area Hill Walk | Monday 4th November
- Climbing in the Sun: Steve McClure's Ultimate Winter Destinations
- BMC South Wales Area Meeting
- BMC Huts Seminar 2024
- Aggarwal, Losey Sail, and Musson Medal in Arco at IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup
- 14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion
- BMC volunteers remove 2,765 items of litter from Yr Wyddfa
- British Mountaineering Council 2025 membership fee update
- Meet your 2024 BMC Volunteer Award winners
- Off the Wall: CCPG Update | June 2024
- BMC South West Area Meeting
- Rock up abroad with BMC Travel Insurance
- Toby Roberts Claims Bronze at IFSC Boulder World Cup in Prague
- The BMC welcomes the new Skiddaw rewilding project in the Lake District
- Understanding Combined Liability Insurance | Club Support Webinar
- CEO Update | September 2024
- Supporting your tendons, joints, and cartilage through the decades: a guide for hill walkers
- Zoe Spriggins
- Roger Murray to step down as BMC Chair in November 2024
- Where to break your sport grade barrier abroad
- Safeguarding Surgery | Tuesday 1st October
- First ever litter pick on hard-to-reach Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) gullies
- BMC Members Open Forum
- Top 10 Via Ferratas in France, Italy and the UK
- Climbing ban lifted in Carn Gowla, Cornwall
- Review of BMC Huts Survey 2023
- Mend Our Mountains: BMC volunteers create 50m stepping stone path in Eryri (Snowdonia)
- BMC Annual Report 2023
- Essential Nutrients for Hill Walkers: Fuel Your Adventure with These Nutritious Snacks
- Working with Student Unions | Student Club Support Webinar
- Zoe Peetermans and Sam Butterworth Crowned 2024 British Boulder Champions
- Five reasons why you need BMC Travel Insurance
- BMC joins the UN’s Sports for Nature initiative
- Mend Our Mountains: meet ranger Caroline from Fix the Fells
- Medal success in Villars at the Paraclimbing European Championships
- Watch live: British Boulder Championships 2024
- How to climb the Breithorn
- BMC announces GB Climbing Team for 2024 IFSC Youth World Championships in China
- Mend Our Mountains: BMC volunteers make repairs to 100m of Lake District footpath
- List of BMC Access Reps
- Building on a Golden Moment for British Climbing at the Paris 2024 Olympics
- Mend Our Mountains: could you organise a Get Stuck In footpath repair event?
- Mend Our Mountains: seventh project for 2024 - Haytor Rocks, Dartmoor
- Why have BMC Travel Insurance policy prices increased?
- Safeguarding Surgery | Tuesday 4th February
- Basic Safeguarding Training (Children) | Tuesday 12th November
Related Content
Access Articles
This unassuming, bright, green or red moss with lush, almost tentacle-like fronds is hiding five well-kept secrets.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Did you know that the 140,000 miles of footpaths and bridleways we have access to in England and Wales are under serious threat? The footpaths you love the walk on are disappearing fast before our eyes due to erosion from increased footfall and more extreme weather conditions. Here are 14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC volunteers have been super busy this summer, with the latest Get Stuck In project seeing 12 of them create a 50m length of stepping stone path to make a more sustainable way through the bog below Tryfan, Eryri (Snowdonia), North Wales.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
If you're a BMC member or if you have made a donation to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT), you are directly supporting our Mend Our Mountains campaign which is funding Fix the Fells again this year. Your contributions enable rangers like Caroline Mercer to consistently repair and manage the Lake District paths that we love to walk on. We caught up with Caroline on a path above Derwent Water, near Keswick, to find out about a typical day in her life - it's pretty hard work!
Hill Walking News
This August, 14 BMC volunteers spent two days on The Band in Langdale, Lake District, making repairs to a 100m stretch of footpath in the latest Get Stuck In event, funded by the Mend Our Mountains campaign from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
BMC member Roy Hammond from Congleton, Cheshire, has now volunteered seven times for Get Stuck In events, funded by the Mend Our Mountains 2024 campaign from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust (ACT). This summer he stepped it up a notch and led the Get Stuck In Eryri event this June, coordinating a dozen volunteers who stayed in the Lincoln Mountaineering Hut in Deiniolen, North Wales. The group worked for 6 hours during both days, including a hike up to 750m on Glyder Fach on day one. We asked Roy what he gets out of volunteering on the Get Stuck In events for the BMC, and what it's like to start organising them himself.
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
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.
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)
Mend Our Mountains Articles
If you're a BMC member or if you have made a donation to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT), you are directly supporting our Mend Our Mountains campaign which is funding Fix the Fells again this year. Your contributions enable rangers like Liam Prior to consistently repair and manage the Lake District paths that we love to walk on. We caught up with Liam on the very popular path up Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head to find out what a typical day in his life is like - it's quite demanding!
News
As part of Volunteers Week 3 - 9 June we have Cotswold Voluntary Warden Walk Leader Margaret Reid sharing her inspiring experience. Margaret organises and leads walks in the Cotswolds National Landscape for people from the Friendship Cafe in Gloucester. Activities like this are made possible with funding from the BMC Mend Our Mountains project from the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) charity.
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
May is National Hill Walking month, but not everyone finds it easy to access this hills, whether that’s due to physical, financial or knowledge-based barriers.
News
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
The BMC’s volunteering arm, Get Stuck In, donated £1,500 to Fix the Fells this week to buy footpath repair tools to enable our teams to quite literally get stuck in to fixing the mountain footpaths in the Lake District.
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.