(CNN) — Hikers looking to summit Scotland’s greatest mountain and other peaks in the area are being sent up “most likely deadly” routes by Google Maps, the region’s mountaineering organizations have warned.
Ben Nevis, a well-known vacationer destination, is the highest mountain in the British Isles, standing at 1,345 meters (4,413 toes). While thousands summit it on a yearly basis, climbing the peak is not with out challenges and deaths have been recorded on the mountain as not long ago as this yr.
“The difficulty is that Google Maps directs some visitors to the Upper Falls auto park, presumably due to the fact it is the closest automobile park to the summit,” John Muir Trust’s Nevis Conservation Officer Nathan Berrie said in a statement.
Mountaineering Scotland have warned of “harmful” routes up Ben Nevis.
Google/Mountaineering Scotland
A “unsafe” route indicated for An Teallach, as explained by Mountaineering Scotland.
Google/Mountaineering Scotland
“But this is NOT the proper route and we generally occur across teams of inexperienced walkers heading in direction of Steall Falls or up the south slopes of Ben Nevis believing it is the route to the summit,” Berrie included.
Mountaineering Scotland also warned that a route suggested by Google Maps was “possibly fatal.”
“For those people new to hill going for walks, it would feel properly reasonable to test out Google Maps for details on how to get to your chosen mountain,” Heather Morning, Mountaineering Scotland’s mountain safety adviser stated in a assertion.
“But when you input Ben Nevis and click on the ‘car’ icon, up pops a map of your route, using you to the car park at the head of Glen Nevis, adopted by a dotted line appearing to present a route to the summit.”
Morning reported that “even the most professional mountaineer would have issues next this route. The line goes through quite steep, rocky, and pathless terrain exactly where even in excellent visibility it would be difficult to discover a harmless line. Insert in small cloud and rain and the recommended Google line is possibly fatal.”
Around a cliff
She also added that Google Maps advised other routes which would immediate end users toward “lifetime threatening terrain” when they sought to navigate the country’s other high peaks, such as the 1,062-meter An Teallach.
“For An Teallach in the northwest, a ‘walking’ route was enter into the look for engine and the line supplied would consider people today above a cliff,” she warned.
“It is really all much too effortless these days to suppose that facts on the world-wide-web is all superior stuff, appropriate, up to day and safe and sound. Regrettably, practical experience shows this is not the case and there have been a variety of incidents lately in which subsequent routes downloaded off the web have resulted in damage or worse,” she mentioned.
The corporations want to consult with with Google to remove any “life threatening” routes, Mountaineering Scotland mentioned, incorporating that appeals from John Muir to Google had absent unanswered.
A spokesperson for Google instructed CNN the enterprise was looking into the problems.
“We constructed Google Maps with protection and reliability in thoughts, and are functioning speedily to look into the routing concern on Ben Nevis and bordering regions,” the spokesperson explained in an e-mail.
“In addition to using authoritative information and superior definition imagery to update the map, we really encourage regional companies to provide geographic facts about roads and routes as a result of our Geo Data Add instrument.”
