When less is more

Today was the 4th annual Real3Peaks Challenge - a coordinated litter collection and 'deep clean' event on the highest points in England, Scotland & Wales, I've been the Lakes coordinator since its inception.
The weather was wonderfully kind to us - even on top the forecast wind was missing and the air quality was fabulous - the Isle of Man, Wales and Scotland all visible. This late spell of good weather meant that I had a slightly lower turnout than last year as many instructors are still working - but I was super pleased to encounter two commercial groups with leaders who not only knew about R3P but we're getting their groups to hunt out litter on the way down - education and awareness has always been a central pillar of the event - so to see it starting to trickle down into the system caused a warm glow....
.....as did the relatively small (compared to previous years) amount of litter. Scafell Pike is a logistical horror with so many ways up, but I managed 3 teams (two of which split for some sections) tackling the hill from Borrowdale, Langdale and Wasdale - one brave soul also came alone from Eskdale.  My team from Seathwaite are all 'veterans' now, some having done all 4 years - so we had plenty of banter, but also plenty of knowledge. We think we've taken a lot of the 'old' rubbish off the hill, and most of what we found seemed newer. We had a fair few laughs trying to put together the stories behind some of the odder items - the half burnt map, the spectacles rammed into a plastic bottle etc - but we did also notice far fewer memorials, less BBQs and no glow sticks!
Early indications are that we'll be somewhere in the region of 90kg - if you think of the weight of an empty plastic bottle, or a banana skin - its still a lot of volume - but much much less than last year's 250kg, and I'm taking that as a win!

* oh & today's view- well this is why we do it.