John Ellis Roberts obituary

John Ellis Roberts, who has died aged 70 in a climbing accident, was for more than three decades head warden of the Snowdonia national park, and a prime mover in setting the mountain rescue organisation in north Wales on a more professional footing.

In 1965, he qualified as a mountain guide and was appointed to the Snowdonia post. Recreational pressure was growing on the mountains of north Wales, and he oversaw the development of a warden service that was a model of its kind. He was a pioneer in maintaining and improving footpaths on the more popular mountains work that at the time was resisted by an elitist mountaineering establishment, who argued that it made summit access too easy for the unaware masses.