Mend Snowdonia (Cader Idris)

Aim

Following the success of our Cader Idris path repair crowdfunder, we are now accepting ongoing donations of support.

During our original crowdfunding campaign, we successfully raised £11,598 with 256 wonderful supporters. We are now continuing to accept donations to keep repairs going. Find out more about our original plans below.

Welcome to the Mend Our Mountains Cader Idris appeal. 

We're trying to raise £16,000 for Cader Idris in Snowdonia. Shrouded in myth and legend, Cader Idris is one of the most spectacular – and popular – mountains in Wales. But it is vulnerable. We need your help to raise £16,000 to help protect its future.

By the numbers

• Cader Idris is used by 70,000 people every year – less than Snowdon but still enough to take a big toll on the mountain.
• £40,000 – the cost of airlifting the stone (done by helicopter). This doesn’t include any costs like raw material or labour.
• £12,000 – how much the last Mend Our Mountains campaign raised toward repairs on Snowdon – this time round we’re hoping to raise 10 times as much to make a wholesale difference to Cader Idris.

The project

Two main routes onto Cader Idris have fallen badly into disrepair and desperately need repair. This is in part because resources have been funnelled into protecting Snowdon, Britain’s most popular mountain for walkers. It’s a real issue in Snowdonia – there is an enormous quantity of brilliant, rugged and vulnerable upland that needs care but is often neglected because of the huge toll on Snowdon.

The two paths, Mynydd Moel and Minffordd Path, both need significant work. On Mynydd Moel, a large patch of unstable scree has opened up with serious consequences for safety and navigation. And the Minffordd Path needs to have the steps around Cwm Cau fixed or replaced.

Erosion damage on the Mynydd Moel path. Photo: Snowdonia National Park Authority

The sites are ecologically sensitive as well, and access for repair is challenging. All of this combines to make the work in Snowdonia expensive and time-consuming.

The solution

We need your support to build high-quality, stone-flagged sections of path in the most damaged areas of these routes. The work being done by Snowdonia’s National Park Authority will stabilise rough ground, and create clear routes through difficult terrain. You can donate now and help us push on with this work to improve all of Snowdonia, for everyone.

Before + after shots from work on Snowdon in the last Mend Our Mountains campaign. Photos: Snowdonia NPA

Incredible rewards

To help us reach this total (and those in our other Mend Our Mountains projects) we're working with a huge number of partners, many of whom have made incredibly kind donations - you can see some of them below.

It means we can offer an amazing range of rewards - from t-shirts and mugs to unique experiences. You can see all of these, many of which are exclusive to Snowdonia, on the right. We think there's something for everyone, on any kind of budget, and we've worked hard to make sure our partners are offering you something really great in return for your valuable pledge.

And it's not just about Snowdonia. As you've probably guessed, Mend Our Mountains is a huge campaign, spanning the entire family of 15 UK National Parks. We've got 13 primary projects in 11 parks, and every park will benefit in some way. Crowdfunding is just part of what we're doing - we want to raise £1,000,000 in total, the most ambitious campaign of its type ever.

If you want to take a look at all the projects in the appeal, and see how close we're getting to our overall target, check out the Mend Our Mountains Crowdfunder Homepage. 

Special thanks is due to Natural Resources Wales, who facilitated the creation of the fantastic footage available in our promotional films. 

Pledge today and protect Cader Idris for the future.

Reward images

Organic cotton Mend Our Mountain tees. Sizes shown: Men’s Medium, Women’s Small.

This project successfully funded on 18th June 2019