It’s been another year
of consolidation for Mapping Mountains, which is now celebrating its fifth
birthday. The Page Headings on the site
are those I envisaged when Mapping Mountains was made public in November 2013, these
occupy the majority of posts on the site.
However, there are still many articles and lists that I have written and
compiled that are not yet on Mapping Mountains.
It would be easy for me to say that these will appear over the next
year, but a dose of realism is required on occasion, so if time permits I hope one
or two of the articles may start appearing during the forthcoming year.
Mapping Mountains is
still led by numerical and place-name data, when combined these form intrinsic
elements within list compilation, and it is the latter that drives the site,
with the majority of posts related to accuracy within listings that I’m
associated with.
January:
Since the foundation of
the site these listings have appeared on a regular basis with the Welsh P30 Twmpau listed down to 500m in height
which bookends the original Welsh P30 lists published on Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me
website. The Y Pellennig - The Remotest Hills of Wales is also available, as are
the Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of
Wales, but in January of this year the master list for the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales was
completed and is available in Google Doc format.
March:
The driving need for
accuracy was enhanced when I started analysing LIDAR in March; this was overdue
and would have happened sooner if not for the continued commitment toward the
site which is ever time consuming. My
LIDAR analyses have resulted in many reclassifications, both to lists I author
and co-author, but also to the greater family of hill lists compiled by other
people. The analysis of LIDAR requires
time to produce an accurate result, and ideally a lifetime should be dedicated
toward it as its potential for reclassifications and summit relocations is
almost limitless. The analysis of LIDAR is
also capable of producing beautiful and greatly varied images, with its
contouring built up in a variety of colours and shapes.
March:
Also in March the
concept of the Britfours was
announced via the Mapping Mountains site and the RHSoc annual magazine. These are the 400m British P30s which combine
the listings of the Y Pedwarau, The Fours and the Scottish 400m Tumps, this all
British list is a joint concept along with Aled Williams.
April:
The listing element came
to the fore again in April with the 2nd edition of The Fours being published by Mapping
Mountains Publications and the Haroldstreet website, this is a co-authored list
with Aled Williams and we spent many months updating the list checking many
hills against LIDAR and the 5m contouring on OSMaps. This resulted in many reclassifications
including a number of new P30s.
June:
The long hot summer of
2018 saw the 500th P30 surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000. For me (and the Trimble) this is a milestone
as when I purchased the equipment in December 2013 I hoped to eventually survey
1000 P30s with it and thought this would take me ten years to do so, I am well
on the way to achieving this.
June & August:
During the summer months
I visited Fan y Big and surveyed its summit and bwlch. This survey was prompted by a number of
people; John Kirk who for many years had petitioned for an accurate survey of
this hill, Aled Williams who had analysed the hill via LIDAR, and Tony Jenkins
who queried its remaining status as I had already reclassified it to a Sub-Twmpau. LIDAR had established that the hill did not
have the required 30m of drop for continued Hewitt
and Simm status, and the survey with
the Trimble confirmed this. The
resulting press coverage reached the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the
Washington Post as well as reputable outlets this side of the pond, including
filming on its summit with Channel 5 News.
August & November:
In August the qualifying
summit of the Marilyn, Hump, Pellennig, Simm, Hewitt, Uchaf, Nuttall and Twmpau was relocated from Cyrniau Nod
(SH 988 279) to another heather clad hill in the Y Berwyn named Foel Cedig (SH
981 283), the relocation was accepted by Alan Dawson and announced to the RHB
community. These two summits and their
heather clad neighbours were surveyed on the 16.08.18 and the summit relocation
of the qualifying hill has required many a re-visit to this part of the Berwyn
and re-completions of a number of lists are ongoing with a large group of
people visiting the summit of Foel Cedig on the 24.11.18 during the hill meet
organised by Alex Cameron at the Y Dolydd, the old Workhouse on the outskirts
of Llanfyllin, when Carole Engel completed the Welsh Humps and Richard McLellan re-completed the Marilyns.
August:
During the summer I was
approached by Janet Ruth Davies; a research photographer who is currently detailing
the erratic’s of Snowdonia. Janet was
interested in Mapping Mountains and wanted to meet and explore whether her
passion for photography could be meshed with mine for hill related data. The meeting resulted in a late afternoon
photographic session at the base of Tryfan with the critical bwlch of Carnedd
Llywelyn forming the main backdrop.
October:
I spent the month of
October at my brother’s house in Nantlle as he had fallen and broken his
hip. My daily visits to see my brother
in Ysbyty Gwynedd also enabled me to survey many P30s that I had often
considered visiting, but until now had never done so. The 40 P30s visited during this time resulted
in a plethora of summit relocations, significant name changes, hill
reclassifications and significant height revisions.
November:
As the heat of the
summer eventually gave way to the cooler autumn months The Munro Society
published their book; Scaling the Heights – Surveying the Scottish Mountains. This book details the Heightings programme
when many of the marginal hills for Munro status were surveyed by CMCR Ltd, and
at a later date with the bulk of these hills then surveyed by John, Graham and
myself; G&J Surveys. I was invited
to submit a chapter for the book and am proud to be associated with the
Heightings which are still one of the best things I have been involved in
amongst the hills of these beautiful isles, and my thanks for the opportunity
to be a part of this are given to Iain Robertson and The Munro Society.
November and December:
During November Foel
Penolau was surveyed over two days, with the first survey conducted with Aled
Williams. This hill is situated in the
wild tract of land that makes up the northern Rhinogydd and as a result of
these surveys its listed drop increased from 26m to 31.9m and with a 614.4m
summit height it was reclassified to Hewitt
and Simm status. The resulting press coverage included
national newspapers, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 4, with TV coverage taking
in S4C via Newyddion, BBC Wales and ITV Wales.
The hill becomes mountain scenario was dispensed with for the Grough and
UKHillwalking articles that concentrated on its reclassification to both Hewitt and Simm status.
Year’s End:
The year ahead:
And what is in store for
Mapping Mountains during 2019; The listing of Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales are due to be completed,
and more hills will be surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 and more will be
analysed via LIDAR, with both methods producing increased accuracy and no doubt
many reclassifications.
For me, Mapping
Mountains is a labour of love; and it gives me a platform for my writing,
photographs, Trimble surveys, LIDAR results and place-name enquiries. The site takes many hours to maintain and has
evolved in to a full time unpaid job, but I would not do this unless I enjoyed
it, and it is the continued support of the people who visit and use the site that
gives me encouragement, and I thank you for this, and hope that you have many
good fun-filled hill walking and bagging days during 2019.
Myrddyn Phillips (1st
January 2019)
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