Mountain rescue team blames Instagram tourists taking beauty spot selfies for record callouts

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“Instagram tourists” searching for to get the right snap at UK beauty spots are being blamed for a spike in rescue missions on among the nation’s tallest peaks.

Mountain rescue groups working within the Lake District, Snowdon and Ben Nevis have all seen demand spike over the previous 12 months.

Phil Kirby, chairman of Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue within the Lake District, claimed the rise was due to “Instagram tourism”.

Mr Kirby informed The Times the time period was picked up from his colleagues in Norway “a few years ago” and entails “people seeing pictures of places on the internet and saying: ‘I’ve got to go and see that’.”

Twelve mountain rescue groups working within the Lake District had been projected to have dealt with a record 714 emergency calls final 12 months.

For comparability, the typical for the earlier seven years was 602 and has by no means surpassed 681.

The Llanberis mountain rescue team, which responds to emergencies on Snowdon, Wales’s tallest mountain, had recorded 305 incident by mid-December final 12 months.

That determine was a record for any single mountain rescue team in Britain. Before 2008 the team had by no means been referred to as to greater than 100 incidents in a 12 months.

Meanwhile, Lochaber, the team that operates on Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest peak, reached 158 rescues in mid-December, which was larger than the 154 recorded for the entire of 2022.

Instagram is stuffed with footage of individuals at beauty spots throughout the UK, with many attempting to duplicate photos they’ve seen others posting on the social media app.

“Instagram has expanded people’s awareness of places they can go,” Mr Kirby defined. “They pick it up and think ‘I’ll go there’ but without the necessary preparation.

“It’s just the way we are now. We have access to so many things we didn’t have.”

And the pattern isn’t just confined to the UK, with folks posing in in style beauty spots throughout Europe and the remainder of the world to create content material for their Instagram accounts.

A pure platform referred to as the Pulpit Rock, providing spectacular views over a fjord in Norway, has attracted large quantities of unprepared Instagram tourists.

“People trek up to this thing and the weather changes,” Mr Kirby added. “They’ve had up to 30 people they’ve had to get off.”

In December final 12 months, a bunch of tourists who had been warned in opposition to taking selfies in a Venice gondola capsized the boat within the water.

The gondolier was trying a troublesome transfer underneath a bridge close to St. Mark’s Square earlier than he additionally fell into the murky canal.

Local media reported that the group was transferring round and standing up within the gondola to take footage when the incident occurred, ignoring the requests of the gondolier to stay seated.

Footage posted to social media confirmed the tourists clinging to the aspect of the boat.

Mountain rescuers within the UK have turn out to be so involved concerning the pattern that they’ve arrange an internet site geared toward informing inexperienced climbers of the fundamental necessities earlier than heading to a mountain.

It supplies recommendation on the proper clothes and footwear folks ought to put on in the event that they go climbing or go to a excessive peak and warns of how climate circumstances can rapidly change.

Dr Richard Griffiths, chairman of Llanberis Mountain Rescue, mentioned that volunteers had been discovering it exhausting to steadiness their dedication to assist others with their private lives amid the rise in name outs.

He warned that volunteers could not be capable to “respond to those in need quickly” because the service will get busier and busier.