Big Mountain Clean

Nevis Range Big Spring Clean.

Planning a big mountain cleanup in your community?  No doubt you’ll be inspired by the Ski Club Of Great Britain and its Big Spring Clean.

This year, some 80 volunteer skiers, walkers and environmentalists picked up 44 bags of rubbish at the Scottish resorts of CairnGorm Mountain, Nevis Range and Glenshee.

Some of the more interesting litter found was a pair of boxer shorts at CairnGorm, a mattress and a ‘message in a balloon’ at Nevis Range.

Cigarette butts was one of the most common items found in the the Big Spring Clean’s litter.

To combat cigarette butt rubbish on mountains, the Ski Club of Great Britain has designed a new, eco-friendly pocket ashtray.

Made from recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials, the pocket ashtray is designed to reduce the number of cigarettes dropped by skiers and snowboarders.

“The (Big Spring Clean) operation continues to raise awareness about the damaging effects of dropping litter in a mountain environment,” says Caroline Stuart-Taylor, Chief Executive of the Ski Club. “We hope to make a clean sweep of all five Scottish ski areas in the future.”

The Ski Club of Great Britain is a not-for-profit snowsports club with 33,000 members in the UK.

The club’s Spring Clean is part of the Respect the Mountain campaign which aims to:

• “Raise awareness with regards to environmental and safety issues connected to snowsports”;
• “Fund environmental projects connected to snowsports” and
• “Offer educational information to skiers, snowboarders and the snowsports industry.”

For more info, visit Respect the Mountain campaign.

Image courtesy of the Ski Club of Great Britain.