Mapping Mountains – 2022 Retrospective

For me the past year has been dominated by LIDAR, so much so that my Trimbling has been neglected.  However, hills have been visited, surveyed and scrutinised and in one instance resulting in the discovery of a new 2,000ft Welsh mountain top.  LIDAR and the continuation of its extended coverage has given opportunity for a number of lists to be updated with accurate numerical data and this has formed a large part of the last year, but to examine this and more let us take a look at the Mapping Mountains year of 2022 in review: 

 

 

January: 

The 1^st January saw the first group of hills published on Mapping Mountains for the comprehensive updating of the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales list.  This list originated many years ago with publication on the RHB file database and Geoff Crowder’s v-g.me website and since activating the Mapping Mountains site in December 2013 it was a list I wanted to give due attention to and update.  The various Trimble surveys conducted over the intervening years and LIDAR has now enabled me to do this. 

 

 

January: 

On the 2^nd January an article detailing the Topographical Regions, Sub-Regions and Groups that comprise Wales and its extended topographical land area was published on Mapping Mountains.  This article is co-authored with Aled Williams and it sets out a robust way of how to split Wales in to its component parts based on topography.  The resulting groups now form the basis of those that Aled and I use for our co-authored lists and these will also now be used in my own listings. 

 

 

April: 

One of the more interesting surveys of the year was conducted with Charles Everett on Abberley Hill (SO 751 672).  This hill was originally listed in the TACit Tables booklet as a Marilyn with an estimated c 157m of drop based on a 285m summit height and an estimated c 128m col height.  Its inclusion as a Marilyn was dependent upon a disused railway cutting, the hill having been promoted to this status in April 1997 after Charles visited the col on the 12^th March 1997 and conducted an on-site plumb line survey, resulting in an 18m depth from the road surface to the disused rail cutting.  The hill was subsequently reclassified to Submarilyn status due to the railway cutting being filled in under the road.  We hoped to gather data at the summit and investigate the col and deduce if the high point of the cutting on the valley to valley traverse was still intact and if so whether data could be gathered from it.  The resulting surveys and subsequent LIDAR analysis proved that the col in the cutting is intact and not positioned under the landfill now immediately under the road.  This conclusion means that if the height of the intact col at the cutting was taken as a part of the drop value of this hill it would give it over 150m of drop. 

 

 

April: 

Probably the most important result during the year was the conclusion that Chwarel Graig Ddu (SH 725 455) is a new 2,000ft mountain top.  This hill has been formed from quarrying activities and is positioned above Blaenau Ffestiniog.  It was concluded that its summit height is approximately 613m and its drop 21m.  The news of Wales’ latest and possible last 2,000ft mountain top was reported by UKHillwlaking, Grough, BBC Wales News, BBC Cymru Fyw and a number of national newspapers including The Guardian.  During the publicity that followed this announcement the BBC contacted me wanting to arrange a live broadcast from the summit of this hill for BBC Breakfast.  However, as the mountain top is a part of a working quarry it was thought that visiting it would only encourage others to do so and therefore the broadcast was put on hold. 

 

 

May: 

One of the delights of operating Mapping Mountains are the enquiries from people who either find the site online or those that know about my hill activities, with the site being a focus for these.  During May I was invited to be guest speaker at the annual Relative Hills of Britain Society (RHSoc) meeting which this year was held in Shifnal in Shropshire.  My talk concentrated on Welsh place-names and the intricacies at work when listing Welsh hills.  With details given why invented names that some list compilers use are inappropriate, and how historical and local research can benefit the information in hill lists and the use of appropriate names therein. 

 

 

July: 

Prompted by the continued availability of extended LIDAR coverage in England, I started looking at a number of hills in the listing of The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  This was prompted by Ronnie Bowron who had scrutinised the latest workings detailed in the spreadsheet produced from of Joe Nuttall’s summit analysis programme. 

 

 

September: 

The LIDAR analysis started in July, prompted Aled and I to create a transitional listing of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England using P15 for our subs, instead of the standard P20 and dispensing with the 390m category of hills.  We had discussed this numerous times over recent years and the transition was overdue.  For those still purposely bagging the P20 400m Sub-Fours, their totals will not be affected; however the overall total of Sub-Fours will dramatically increase when publication of the transitional list is complete. 

 

 

September: 

During September my association with those Dull Men of Great Britain took centre stage as I met Elliott Windmill for a day of recollection during a visit to Maesgwastad in Welshpool.  Elliot operates his own website concentrating on travel, adventure and people.  He had come across the Dull Mem of Great Britain book when it was published and this intrigued him, resulting in him arranging to meet some of the people in the book and interviewing them about their motivations.  Coincidentally, meeting Elliot was closely followed by an extremely dull afternoon with other like-minded dull people for lunch in the company of Milk Bottle collections, Yarn Bombers, Telegraph Pole enthusiasts, Crazy Golf course collectors and a Folly enthusiast, all presided over by the Chief of Dullness; Mr Leland Carlson.  An extremely good time was had by all, except of course it was as expected; very dull. 

 

 

December: 

The year was rounded off on location with S4C who had contacted Aled Williams wanting to concentrate their Cynefin programme on Porthmadog and its Cob.  A few years ago Aled had written an article about the Traeth Mawr area; this is the flatlands to the immediate east of the Cob that prior to its building would have become an inland sea at high tide.  Sprinkled above these flatlands are a number of wooded islands, many are rough underfoot, but all are well worth investigating.  It was this area and the history behind the Cob that S4C wanted to film.  The article Aled wrote was published on Mapping Mountains and it was this that formed the enquiry from S4C.  As a part of the film they wanted to demonstrate how these islands have recently been surveyed and therefore Aled and the Trimble took centre stage. 

 

December: 

The year ended on a sad note with the announcement of Michael Dewey’s death.  I had worked closely with Michael for many years and always enjoyed our correspondence and communication.  His wife; Gillian has made provision for his the The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales hill list to carry on and for me to do this and become co-author.  I accepted this offer and Michael will always be the originator and compiler and hopefully the list will also carry on being known as the Deweys, which is an ideal way to remember Michael.  All that now happens is that Michael now has a co-author, and I’ll do my utmost to respect this list and its future. 

 

 

Year’s End: 

During 2022 another grand sweep for the year was achieved, as a separate post has been uploaded to Mapping Mountains on each and every day of the year.  The publication of so many articles can feel unrelenting, but unless I enjoyed it I would not do it. 

 

 

The Year Ahead: 

And what is in store for Mapping Mountains during 2023; an update article to the The Welsh Highlands list is due to be published and the continued publication of hills groups in the Y Trichant – The 300m Hills of Wales and the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England will continue, with two groups per hill list appearing each month.  However, probably the most important news for numerical boffins is the greatly anticipated full coverage of Wales by LIDAR.  This is due during 2023 and will no doubt result in a plethora of additions, deletions, reclassifications and summit relocations to a number of hills.    

 

Lastly, I thank those who visit Mapping Mountains for their continued support and I hope the year ahead brings lots of happiness and fun-filled days on the hill.

 

Myrddyn Phillips (1^st January 2023)