The thing that really surprised me, when attempting the Llafar Horseshoe several weeks ago, was the fresh grass sprouting up over the horrid scar left by the walkers.
On the Pen Llithrig Y Wrach side, it was very pronounced, and all because nature was allowed to return to normality.
Encouraging visitors to leave the paths, thus starting new erosion, is a bit senseless.
I will always remember a photograph shown me, by Chris Barber, the owner of Blorenge Books in Llanfoist, near Abergavenny.
On recollection, i think the photograph was taken in the early 1950s, by his father, and it showed the mountainside leading from below Cribyn to the summit of Pen Y Fan.
No sign of any erosion, and the entire plateau from Corn Ddu to Pen Y Fan was grass covered mountainside.
There's the inevitability of millions of feet hitting the exact same ground, year on year.
Such path erosion can only be managed, and can never revert back to as nature intended.