Mapping Mountains – 2018 Retrospective

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 2^nd 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 500^th 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 Significant Height Revisions post that appeared yesterday completed a grand sweep for the year, as a separate post has been uploaded to Mapping Mountains on each and every day throughout 2018.


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 (1^st January 2019)