Mapping Mountains – 2019 Retrospective

Mapping Mountains originated partly as an experiment; as although I had a vision how the site should evolve, my then lack of IT skills may have hindered the process.  The site is now celebrating its sixth year and has accumulated over 280,000 page views, averaging over 120 per day.  The site has enabled my IT skills to improve and has given me a platform for hill listing, photography, surveying, writing and occasionally statement making.  Writing this retrospective gives a chance to look back over the last year, as well as to the one ahead, so let’s look at some of the major events on Mapping Mountains during 2019.

January:

The year started with the long overdue detailed compilation of the Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru list.  This takes in all Welsh hills 500m and above that have 15m minimum drop.  This compilation is ongoing and it is hoped that the draft list will be complete by the end of 2020. 

Toward the beginning of the month I met Gwyn Headley and Sarah Badham, who are co-administrators of the Harlech bid to gain Guinness World Records status for the steepest street in the world.  The street is Ffordd Pen Llech which winds its way up from the coastal lowlands to the centre of Harlech.  We met and surveyed Ffordd Pen Llech with various media outlets in attendance on the 9^th January and the ongoing debate on this street’s steepness was to form an integral part of the year ahead.

February:

One of the joys of surveying is communicating with other hill list authors relaying results produced by the Trimble GeoXH 6000.  Many of these surveys do not result in the change of status for a hill.  However, on occasion a survey will produce an unexpected result that courses status change.  Cefn Cyfarwydd in the eastern Carneddau is one such hill.  This hill was surveyed on the 17^th February and its newly acquired Dewey status announced on Mapping Mountains along with two other notable changes, with the long overdue deletion of Twyn Walter from Dewey status and the reinstatement of Beefstand Hill.

March:

In March of this year I achieved one of my life time’s ambitions; I appeared on page 3 of The Sun.  I also made page 3 of The Times, which appealed to my sense of decorum a little more.  The announcement that the border between Wales and England seemed to be misplaced and that our friendly neighbours to the east should reclaim a portion of the mother country did not go down well with some relatives and friends!  This concerned the summit of Twyn Llech and its position in relation to the border between Wales and England, and involved Ordnance Survey and the Boundary Commission for Wales.  The end result is the status quo, with the border remaining as positioned by Ordnance Survey on their Master Map, however the summit of the hill has finally been located and according to Master Map this is 12 metres on the Welsh side of the national boundary.

May:

During May I achieved a long held goal and completed the listing of Wales down to P15, with the inclusion of P14 hills as a sub category.  This list has taken over eight years to complete.  The resulting list comprises 5431 Welsh P15 hills with a further 435 P14 subs also included and an article detailing this list and its compilation appeared on Mapping Mountains and UKHillwalking. 

July:

One of the major difficulties being a hill list compiler is keeping count of how many hills are in each respective list and what hills have changed status.  A Change Register helps this process and gives detail of each and every alteration, and importantly the running totals for each classification.  A Change Register can also take in alterations in lists originated by other authors, and during 2019 the Change Registers for the Welsh Hewitts, followed by the English Hewitts were published on Mapping Mountains.  These can be complicated to detail, and especially so when many reclassifications have taken place, but the end product is worth the research.  There are other Change Registers planned for 2020.

July:

In July, Guinness World Records announced that Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech was now recognised as the steepest street in the world, usurping Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand to the accolade.  The media had followed this story for a number of months with Gwyn and Sarah leading the campaign.  The announcement was covered extensively by TV, radio and newspapers.

July:

When I bought the Trimble GeoXH 6000 in late 2013 I hoped to survey at least 1000 P30s with it.  This total would revolutionise the accuracy of numerical data in many hill listings and I hoped to survey these hills in 10 – 11 years.  In July of this year I placed the Trimble on the summit of a hill, took a five minute data set and by doing so reached the 600^th P30 that I had surveyed using this equipment.  During the year my hill walking activities were concentrated on P15 hills, and this is likely to be so for the next year or two, therefore the progression of my P30 surveying is likely to be slowed, but the total of 1000 is now on the horizon.
       

September:

Much of Mapping Mountains is led through surveying with the Trimble GeoXH 6000, with numerical data leading many of the posts on the site.  However, place-name research and hill listing also make the occasional appearance, and in September the listing of Y Trechol – The Dominant Hills of Wales was finally completed in Google Doc format.  This list originated in 2009 and its first grouping published on Mapping Mountains in December 2015, therefore it had taken over 3½ years to compile and upload every group that forms this list. 

December:

During the latter part of the year Aled Williams and I updated the Y Pedwarau – The 400m Hills of Wales list with all numerical and place-name information re-examined.  This resulted in a number of reclassifications to and from the main Pedwar list and additions and deletions to and from the accompanying sub lists.  In late December the updated list was published on the Haroldstreet website and we thank Phil Newby for hosting this.

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 2019.

The Year Ahead:

And what is in store for Mapping Mountains during 2020; the listing of the Welsh Highlands – Uchafion Cymru will continue, with two combined lists also planned for publication.  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.

A number of Change Registers are also planned, with two already complete and scheduled for March 2020 publication, whilst two others are currently being researched.

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 2020)