Introduction:
One of the interesting
aspects of having a blog is that on occasional I am contacted by someone who
expresses interest in what I do. This
usually relates to surveying, but does also take in hill listing and place-name
research. Usually when a person contacts
me their motives for doing so are self-explanatory, however on occasion it can also
be interesting for me to try and find middle ground where my and their
motivations meet, and when Janet Ruth Davies contacted me a number of weeks ago
I wondered how my interests and hers could be met.
Janet is a research
photographer currently specialising in the erratics of Snowdonia. She found Mapping Mountains whilst trawling
through the Internet and wondered if her inspiration for these rocks could be
enhanced by my enthusiasm for surveying and numerical data.
After she contacted me we
talked on the telephone, and we both knew that our worlds although concentrating
on the outdoors, were extremely different, with one based on eclectic thought
and the other firmly placed in practicality.
I wondered how these two worlds could find middle ground where both
Janet and I could benefit. But always up
for a challenge I was intrigued by the world that Janet works in and we
arranged to meet.
Photographic Shoot:
Prior to meeting Jan I described
the line of least resistance followed by a hill walker when on a hill to hill
or valley to valley traverse, and described where these lines meet is the
critical col of a hill. Jan was
intrigued, and wanted to visit such a point.
There are many critical
cols that are beautiful places to visit, they are varied in nature and one of
their appeals is that many are seldom visited.
As Jan lives in Llanberis I wanted to find a critical col that was close
to her home and ideally had not been surveyed with the Trimble GeoXH 6000 and
was also relatively easy to reach. A col
that met all these stipulations is the bwlch of Carnedd Llywelyn; the third
highest mountain in Wales.
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| Janet Ruth Davies |
We met outside the Moel
Siabod café in Capel Curig with Jan having travelled north from her work
commitments for the day in Dolgellau, whilst I had earlier visited and surveyed
Foel Lwyd and Tal y Fan in the northern Carneddau. It was good to finally meet and over drinks
and a giant buttered scone we sat in the late afternoon sunshine as
conversation flowed.
The bwlch of Carnedd
Llywelyn is placed just to the south of the A5 road and to the east of Llyn
Ogwen. Its position had been identified
from LIDAR analysis conducted by Aled Williams and although the construction of
the road has altered the near landscape, its critical and natural point still
exists close to its tarmacked surface, but firmly planted on what turned out to
be relatively dry ground beside a bog.
We left the café and
headed west taking two cars toward the farm of Gwern Gof Uchaf where the
adjoined small car park would give us easy access to the bwlch. Approaching the farm a haze of black smoke
rose above the road and oncoming cars flashed their headlights, suddenly the
cars in front slowed and on the left hand side of the road was a car ablaze
with fire engulfing its engine and sides, it looked as if at any minute it
would explode, I quickly sped past it and waited for Jan in the farm’s parking
area. Once Jan arrived we wondered how
close the car was to where we wanted to visit.
By now a fire engine and
a number of police cars were at the scene and their presence and that of the
burnt out husk of the car added a surreal element to proceedings.
 |
| The proximity of the burnt out car, fire crew and police brought a surreal element to proceedings |
Leaving the confines of
the small parking area we walked past the farm house and joined the old road as
it headed east toward Capel Curig, Jan had cycled this track in the past and we
chatted about our experiences of the outdoors.
It’s always of interest meeting people who have an enjoyment of the
outdoors, as the environs taking in the uplands can give so much, and this can
be enjoyed in so many different ways. For
me this has evolved in to surveying, hill list compilation and place-name
enquiries, for Jan it took her to the Alps where she became a shepherdess, and
then on to Iceland where she lived for five years, and now back to her north
Wales home and through her photography an interest in the Snowdonia erratics.
As the cars were halted
on the A5 and the burnt out husk of the car inspected by the fire crew and
police, we walked the short distance to where the critical bwlch of Carnedd
Llywelyn is placed. The ten figure grid
reference produced from Aled’s LIDAR analysis led us to the critical point and
as Jan set her tripod up I explained how the lines of least resistance met from
opposing valley directions heading up the Afon Llugwy from Capel Curig and the
Nant Ffrancon from Bethesda, and how the opposing hill to hill lines came down
from Carnedd Llywelyn and Yr Wyddfa, with the latter passing over the Glyderau
and all met at this singular point.
By now the light was
turning a succulent hue, giving that magical late half hour when hillsides become
ablaze with colour. The darkened
silhouette of Tryfan gave an impressive backdrop to proceedings as the Trimble
was set up and beeped away gathering its longest ever data set of just over one
hour.
 |
| Jan at work with the ever present profile of Tryfan as backdrop |
During this Jan set
about her photographic duties whilst explaining the intricacies of striated and
smooth space, and how these can be developed in landscape photography. For me, this was a complete re-thinking of
how and what photography means, to meet someone with seemingly such abstract
thought concerning a process that I have
enjoyed since teenage years was a revelation, and one that I confess I did not
fully understand, but it was also one that opened my mind to other thought,
which I greatly appreciated.
As the last light
disappeared in to the west I closed the Trimble down, and we made our way back
to the cars watching the sky delicately changing as bands of cloud highlighted
the intensity of deep blue radiating out of the evening sky.
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| Sunset beyond the Glyderau |
Postscript:
I enjoyed Jan’s company
and her thought and view; she tested my accepted thought in a gentle way, and
this I appreciated.
The Trimble data will be
processed and the numerical figure obtained for the critical bwlch of Carnedd
Llywelyn will no doubt match that obtained by LIDAR analysis to an acceptable
degree. This will put a figure that man
has devised to subconsciously lay foundation to an otherwise natural scene. This need of man to make sense of landscape
by creating semblance of height imposes a foreign element upon an otherwise
natural scene. And there is similarity between
this and an erratic; a geological rock, that has found itself imposed upon an
otherwise foreign landscape, transported by a glacier many a millennia ago, and
it is this that Jan highlighted during our time together. And it is this form of contrasting similarity
that I also question; where my appreciation of a landscape that has given me so
much over so many years, has evolved in to one that concentrates on numeracy
and its documenting, one seems at odds with the other, and yet they also sit
neatly together and enhance my enthusiasm for the uplands that still give me so
much.
Myrddyn Phillips (November
2018)
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