UKH

I first found one of these almost exactly a year ago, and today I found a second! Some chap called Krysztof is doing a round of the Munros. I'm going out on a limb and guessing that he is Polish (or that he is a ships pilot, but that is less likely).

As you can see, he did his 60th Munro in March '23, and his 101st in March '24, so he's getting through them at a good rate.

Does anyone else have a burgeoning collection of 'Krysztof's? 

Also, if you know him, _please_ ask him to stop leaving his (admittedly very well) painted stones on mountain tops. If he'd like #60 and #101 back I'd be happy to oblige. 

I don't think this is objectionable is it? They are quite cute and tell a story. Presumably small too and the paint would wear off soon enough anyway.

Thin end of a wedge I think...... 🤫🫢🫣

I beg to differ.

imagine if all baggers did this sort oof nonsence. Remove and bin like any other litter.

Painted stones are starting to increase their numbers all over the North York Moors and in our village!!!!  I pick them up, break them up, or simply throw them away.

Take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints. It’s quite simple.

It's the hill equivalent of a painted bedsheet with 'Happy 40th birthday Shazza' draped on a roadside railing.

Egotistical littering.

Yes I have one......

I picked up a few labelled Dokki with a mix of Polish and UK flags painted on them in same style - maybe his mate?

Other recent finds include a couple of plaques for deceased people, a Luke Skywalker toy figure and a giant trophy awarded to bank of India best UK branch, on a remote col in Knoydart.

I don't remember thinking how cute, there must be a really interesting story behind these - was more akin to discovering a turd. Admittedly I wrestled with my conscience over the plaques and did not remove them, but if people do have to leave such things I wish they could do it more discreetly/sensitively than the top of a cairn.

I'm going to hold on to mine in the hope that they appreciate in value, I advise you to do the same. 

I have found the guy on Facebook if you’d like to contact him to discuss his pebbles?

Yeah thats game over, you win 🙂

I don't have facebook; if you want to point him towards this thread that'd likely do the job. The offer to return his pebbles (my collection, anyway) stands. 

Not seen those before but I came across this last year in a water worn pool in granite on the summit of the fairly remote Corbett Creag Mhor over the back of Bynack Mor. I liked it but left it in situ.

Davie

Would Mr Dukowski think it unjust if his stone ended up buried in the nearest peat bog?

At least a turd would decompose. 

A lot of this nonsense up Beinn Damh yesterday. Yet another’impose my mark on the environment’ trend.

This is how I feel about bolts.  

is it not the result of a wish to make the tangible world of the mountain a form of social media content?

A kind of solid Twitter?

X marks the spot ?

T’litter

If anyone sees this type of shite can they please either carry it to the nearest bin or lob it somewhere that it will never be seen again please.

Don't care about the sentiment behind it - tat like this, along with those daft wee pointy cairns, needs removing.

Absolutely! before we know it.. there'll be a stacked mound of stones on summits!

We need to hunt down this fellow and mete out severe punishment: locked in a room for 24 hours with Piers Morgan. Not only will he be a broken man, it'll serve as a stark warning to others.

Well, if Krystof is going on a personal journey of discovery, learning about himself/this/that/the other, one of the more valuable discoveries might be that the local mountain culture would prefer him to change his ways. 

perhaps our reactions and the removal and taking home of the souvenirs is part of the art of his "installation"

These stones are nowhere near as intrusive as having RPVs flying around in a mountain environment.

I think there is a market for a countermeasures pod

The same goes for manpack BoomBoxes

clearly intended to be taken- you fell for it

This really has served as a dog whistle for the UKC massive 😊.

Has the irony not been lost on anybody that this little stone was found next to a cairn?

There was a trend a few years ago in the Forest of Dean to leave little painted stones hidden around the place. My kids used to look for them and either leave them, keep them or put them somewhere new, we still have a few. I declare them to be public art and will eat your dislikes for breakfast.

Ultimately the mighty mountain gatekeepers can pick up the bloody things and lob them down the hillside where they will probably never be seen by another human ever again.

If I painted a big cock and balls, or graffited 'Baz woz ere' on the cairn would this be mountain art? Leaving these stones isn't much different. It's bassically an ego trip for the stone leaver marking their territory, much like cairn building. Its littering and I wish people wouldn't do it.

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. One persons artless tag could be another one's Banksy. 

In time your big cock and balls will be scrubbed clean.

And no I'm not advocating cocks and balls to be painted on mountains, but there is nuance about what signs of human activity left in the environment might mean to different people.

They're only pebbles.

What about this: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68547161

Art or litter?

Indeed; while I hate seeing 'litter' in the hills it pales into insignificance compared to the atrocities committed by estates up and down the country. 

Your right, there is a fair bit of nuance (which often gets lost on Internet forums), I agree it's not as simple as all human influence in the hills can be chucked in a bin of either beautiful examples of human expression vs cock and balls.  There are plenty examples in the right location, done well, when sympathetic to the local environment are great. However badly painted flags and some random guys signature at the top of every Munro ain't one.

Your "public art" without public consent is just litter.

"public consent" hmm..

Are these just litter and vandalism?

Public consent is a slippery thing to define. I think that objectionable things get removed or destroyed (I do it myself with mere innocuous cairns), things of value can endure for a while. Consent is a process.

Don't know without context.

Some people can't tell their arts from their elbow

Salvage to take to the scrappy…

In a thousand years, maybe....

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2277255-cerne-abbas-giant-may-have-bee...

The cup and ring marks are on some stones in Langdale which also provide some fantastic bouldering.

Prehistoric and not noticed until relatively recently. Also just someone chipping patterns into a natural rock.

Apparently so.

Left unchecked this will proliferate and become an epidemic of mythical proportions. Before you know it there at least 2 or 3 people leaving stones!

Is this seriously annoying people? I used to think I was quite intolerant, then I set up an account on UKC. 

Really you would have to ask those prehistoric people then whether there was public consent.

The cairn's stones are not painted and inscribed and has different motivation. Separate argument.

Those cup and ring markings (plus other enigmatic markings) aren't 'just someone chipping patterns'. They're but one example of many to be found all over Britain. They must have had a meaning that was understood across a wide area that we can only guess at as yet. As such they are of immense importance and interest as a voice speaking from the distant past to us. There is little of interest or importance in painting pebbles and leaving them on hills.

You might be projecting a little to much into the minds of the ancient chippers, or maybe not. We don't know.

How about this one. More recent, I would guess very little in the way of public consent was solicited for this inscription. 

Was it vandalism? Can it still be called vandalism now? What value does it have? Was it important then? Is it important now?

I can't answer any of those questions.

Last night's fortune cookie said the same thing

Banksie leaves some expensive "litter"

Here's another example:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2016/may/17/seven-magic-mountain...

Plus those painted in the desert near Tafroute, Morocco

It's an interesting point though. I mean small painted stones don't bother me but imagine trying to carve out statues in the mountains these days (Geronimo and Presidents at mount Rushmore)

Not really. Many people add stones to a cairn just because it's there and they have made it to the top of a hill. I've done it myself in the past and I'm not sure you know what my motivation was? Pick up a small stone and add it to a large pile of small stones. Paint a little stone and leave it at the top of a hill. 

My argument is that it's such a minor 'infringement' of our self made outdoor code of what's right and wrong that I cannot get annoyed about such a trivial thing. How is it any less vandalism than sticking metal bolts in a crag, widening a path just by walking on it, crampon scratches on popular scrambles?

I think this is kind of the point, it may be minor but its still an infringement. Its on the bottom end of the littering scale, but it's still littering. The reason people get worked up on UKC is that somehow its seen as acceptable. Clearly wedging a disposable BBQ in a crack is way worse, but no one feels the need to try to justify it. Also if you go to the top of popular peaks the accumulation of this sort of crap is getting out of hand. On a recent trip up Ben Nevis I couldn't belive the amount of inscribed bits of rock that had been dumped at the summit. 

With bolts in a crag there's an element of doing it for the benefit of other climbers (leaving aside the ego of the first ascensionist). I very much doubt that anyone goes out with the intention to deliberately widen the path or leave scratches on the rock. They are unfortunate but not deliberate. On the other hand, the stone painter has made a deliberate decision to leave his mark and let anyone else who follows know it. There's nothing wrong with a bit of ego but there are ways of letting others know of your achievements without physically intrusive signposts in the landscape.

Maybe someone should point Krzysztof and his like-minded colleagues in the direction of Saas Grund. The town council there put in an application to the Valais building commission in 1988 to be allowed to do something with reinforced concrete to the summit of the Fletschhorn (3995m), in order to bring it into line with the neighbouring 4000ers (Weissmies, Lagginhorn).  The application was turned down, but maybe Krzysztof and the Council could come up with a deal to the satisfaction of all concerned?

Where's the Taliban when you need them?

As per the recent off-belay thread, I love urban art of all flavours, including the "mindless tagging" that most people look at with distain - but it belongs in the urban environment, not on the side of hills in (what remains of) the natural world.