In reply to Mikek:
The article feels a bit confused and rambling, grouping together all of the following:
1. Impromptu "navigation" cairns, often seen at key points on wilder hills but not to my knowledge on the Ben Nevis track where the navigation is linear and already waymarked.
2. "Burial" cairns, used as hiding-holes for everything from poo to rubbish to a piano that some charity bod couldn't be fecked taking off the hill. There was a major clear-up of these a few years ago when the new cairns were built on the plateau, have they started to reappear?
3. "Cluster" cairns at lay-bys and viewpoints like this:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tv32Vf-XMDA/UAsUipHBHtI/AAAAAAAAAys/i28JUVOdN7o/s...
I've never really understood how these initiate, but once they've started to amass every second tourist seems to build another one. I think they look naff, but others may see some aesthetic worth in them.
All very different issues and discussions I would have thought?
I certainly can't agree with the following:
Large navigational cairns are already in place on many Scottish mountains, built especially to stick above the snow and guide walkers along the right path to the summit.
No they're not. Only on Ben Nevis has a land manager thought it appropriate to build a (supposedly) snow-proof "handrail" across high ground, and it's a very moot point as to whether this has helped keep walkers safe or encouraged them into an area which can be lethal under snow-cover.
The article is far from clear about what sort of cairns the JMT is opposing, but if they are discouraging their use as navigational waypoints they should possibly also reconsider the wisdom of their own cairns?
Post edited at 09:59