Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Stiperstones

23.01.18  Hazler Hill (SO 464 928), Ragleth Hill (SO 454 921) and Ragleth Hill (SO 451 917)

Ragleth Hill (SO 454 921)

Having seen the forecast I did wonder if it was wise going out as it seemed almost guaranteed that we were going to get wet, and however much our beautiful green land relies upon the wet stuff it is the one type of weather that I make a concerted effort to avoid.

I was out with Mark today and we headed east in to Shropshire and the hills around Church Stretton, with a route taking in Hazler Hill and Ragleth Hill planned, Mark had visited the latter but was good enough to repeat his ascent, by visiting these hills we also hoped to be in the rain shadow of the higher hills above Church Stretton to our west, as it turned out we picked our hills wisely and got away with only a few spots of rain mid-afternoon, although it was a bit blowy to say the least.

We parked close to the centre of the town and crossed the busy A49 road and picked up the public footpath that leads southward toward the col between Hazler Hill and Ragleth Hill.  With the mast atop the former an ever present indicator of the steepness of these hills.

The mast atop Hazler Hill

The early morning’s rain had swept east, with another front predicted for the afternoon, and therefore the going under foot was soggy as we made progress near to Plocks Coppice through gentle deciduous woodland.

The upper part of the footpath leading to the minor lane

The footpath led to a minor lane where the view toward the east opened up, dark skies predominated with an occasional flash of sunlight highlighting the land.  We followed the lane north-eastward to the access track to the high mast and used this to reach the summit area.

Dark skies to the east

Further north the shapely profiles of Caer Caradoc and Hope Bowdler Hill looked inviting, both have been Trimbled as have the bulk of P30s over 400m in these parts.

Caer Caradoc

Hope Bowdler Hill

As we crested the area of the summit the wind blew from the south, it was unusually mind for this time of year but the wind would remain with us on the tops for the rest of the walk.  The trig pillar atop Hazler Hill is not positioned at the high point; this is further south-west beside the fenced-off area that houses the mast.

Hazler Hill with the trig pillar and high mast with the summit to the left of the fenced-off area

It took the Trimble an inordinate amount of time to achieve the 0.1m accuracy level before data should be logged, I’d propped it on top of my rucksack which was positioned flat on the ground, and wedged it in position with two rocks, otherwise it may have been blown off.  Once data were gathered and stored we retraced out route back on the access track and followed the lane south-west toward the public footpath gaining the north-eastern slopes of Ragleth Hill.

Gathering data at the summit of Hazler Hill

These hills are distinctive and give a sense of being separate, with each affording good views of the other.  The route up Ragleth Hill proved steep, we made good progress and as the higher ridge was reached the wind blew directly in to our faces, from here a path leads all the way to the summit, which is comprised of grass about 5 metres from a small embedded rock.

Hazler Hill from the ascent of Ragleth Hill

Caer Caradoc from the ascent of Ragleth Hill

As I set the Trimble up Mark continued on the ridge to the relative shelter of the connecting col to a potential 390m Double Sub-Four which I planned on surveying.  The wind was blowy on top of Ragleth Hill and once the measurement offset had been taken I wedged the equipment in place with the two small rocks which I’d brought from the summit of Hazler Hill.

Gathering data at the summit area of Ragleth Hill

Mark heading to the relative shelter of the connecting col to the potential 390m Double Sub-Four

This was the high point of the day’s walk and a summit that had previously been surveyed by Alan Dawson using his Leica RX1250, so it’ll be interesting to compare the results.  Once the Trimble was packed away I joined Mark at the col and as I set the Trimble up to gather another five minute data set he headed for the summit of the potential sub to assess the lay of land.

Gathering data at the col of the potential 390m Double Sub-Four

By the time the Trimble had collected five minutes of data the rain had arrived, it blew in quickly from the south, where the sky was now slate grey, the land to the west and east looked particularly murky and I thought we were going to get a good drenching, however the few spots that fell were quickly swept away leaving us intermittent light drizzle when down in the valley, otherwise it remained dry on the tops, we were indeed fortunate.

As I joined Mark on top of the potential sub the wind howled across its summit, Mark quickly pointed to the highest rock and shot down the continuation of the ridge seeking a semblance of shelter leaving me to somehow balance the Trimble atop the high point without it moving for the five minutes of data collection I usually allocate.  This proved a difficult task as the wind increased in intensity and kept howling for the duration I was on the summit. 

It took three attempts for me to gather data, I eventually wedged the rocks either side of the Trimble whose internal antenna was aligned with the high point of the highest rock, and then proceeded to crouch below it whilst holding one rock in place and also the end part of the equipment. 

Gathering data at the summit of the potential 390m Double Sub-Four

During this process I counted each second, occasionally timing my count with the beeps emanating from the Trimble indicating each data point that was gathered, these are collected per second, and with five minutes of data allocated I needed to reach the magical 300 before switching the equipment off, unfortunately the wind was so fierce I only occasionally heard the beeps from the Trimble and therefore spent my time hunkered under it counting silently before it was time to close it down and store the data.  I quickly took a few photos before the Trimble was blown in to Herefordshire and then walked down the steep southerly ridge to join Mark.

Once out of the gale we followed the path down to the A49 road where the old bridge led us in to Little Stretton, passing on the way a memorial to Crag Bullock entitled Country Blood, and which has been transcribed by Mark and appears below.

Country Blood

I am of the countryside

Carved out of the oaktree bark

And I am of the wild free wind

That bears the soaring lark.

Part of the upturned earth am I,

One with the cornfield sea,

And I exist in the quiet green hill

And it exists in me.

Here all the dainty weeds are mine

That blows along the way,

And all the little resting things

Whose heart beat for a day.

My peace is where the velvet dew

Sleeps under hanging mists;

Where the cavernous forest deeps and dims

My secret soul exists.

Poem, by anon, inscribed on the grave of Craig Bullock, carpenter

‘tragically killed’, aged 30, on 4^th October 2002

Below Ragleth Hill, Shropshire, at grid ref. SO 44577 91487

The memorial to Craig Bullock

It wasn’t far to the car from the delightful narrow lanes of Little Stretton, although my old body suffered and just wanted to sit down.  This I did after changing in to clean clothes back at the car, as we walked in to town for an assortment of goodies at a very good café; yummy!

LIDAR image of Hazler Hill (SO 464 928)

Postscript:

Since the survey of these hills LIDAR has become available.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height and positional data that is now freely available for England and Wales.  Consequently the numerical details for these hills have been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR height and position for some of these hills being prioritised.

Survey Result:

Hazler Hill

Summit Height:  346.7m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 46469 92873 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Col Height:  307.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 46226 92445 (LIDAR)

Drop:  38.9m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)

Dominance:  11.22% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)

Ragleth Hill

Summit Height:  397.3m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)  397.5m (Leica RX 1250)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 45403 92098 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)  SO 45406 92101 (Leica RX1250)

Col Height:  256.2m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 46809 93242 (LIDAR)

Drop:  141.3m (Leica RX1250 summit and LIDAR col)

Dominance:  35.55% (Leica RX1250 summit and LIDAR col)

Ragleth Hill

Summit Height:  391.1m (converted to OSGM15)

Summit Grid Reference:  SO 45103 91746

Col Height:  372.1m (converted to OSGM15)

Col Grid Reference:  SO 45262 91867

Drop:  19.0m

Dominance:  4.85%

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Arenig Fach

23.12.17  Graig Wen (SH 739 394, only bwlch surveyed)

The bwlch of Graig Wen

I’m not averse to standing in a bog, they do have unusual pleasures that are mainly ones centred on either remoteness or peacefulness, and solitude is also a quality associated with a good bog. 

Bogs are seldom purposely visited by a hill walker, little detail is needed to explain this as they are usually wet, occasionally impenetrable and sometimes oozing with methane, all of these are seldom sought by a hill walker; usually the summit and the view is priority, but a good bog can also give fulfillment.

Today’s bog looked forlorn when I pulled my car up, it looked particularly wet, mist hugged the adjoining hillsides and a slight drizzle was slowly sweeping up the westerly valley. 

I had little option as far as parking was concerned and pulled by car to the side of the B road that makes its way from Llyn Celyn to Ffestiniog and hoped that it would not obstruct any traffic.

Thankfully during my hour’s immersion in said bog few vehicles passed, and all that did so, easily avoided the seemingly abandoned car pulled up on the side of the road, and for any inquisitive driver catching site of me in the bog I suspect I must have looked an unusual site as I spent the majority of the time waiting patiently for data to be gathered as the Trimble sat on top of my rucksack as I stood a number of metres away scribbling all necessary detail in my notebook whilst taking another photograph of the damp and misty land.

The bog in question is the critical bwlch for Graig Wen (SH 739 394) whose summit was surveyed earlier in the year and whose height came to 555.585m (converted to OSGM15).  This bwlch is given a 417m spot height on Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps, if accurate this would give the hill 138.6m of drop.  However, the bwlch contouring on OS Maps (the recent replacement for OS Get-a-map) is between 410m – 415m, if this contouring is correct it would give Graig Wen over 140m of drop which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Submarilyn.  Not news to excite every hill walker, let alone every hill bagger, but new Submarilyn’s do not appear every day of the week.

As I left my car I donned wellies and quickly made my way down beside reed grass and a vehicle track to the point of the bwlch.  Thankfully the bwlch was only a short distance from the B road and although the majority of time I was immersed in its delights proved misty, my car was always in view.

I spent a few minutes assessing the lay of land and followed a water course westward to where the ground visibly descended, and then retraced my steps to where I had initially thought the critical bwlch to lie.  It was here that I took the first of what proved to be four data sets.  The second being where I had walked to, both positions were wet and beside the oozingly green water course.

Gathering the first data set

Gathering the second data set

Wellies were proving essential as I squelched around the bwlch for the next 50 minutes or so, this way and that, balancing from one wet tuft of moorland grass to another.

The third data set was taken from where the 417m spot height is positioned on the ground, visibly this was higher than the position of the first two data sets, but the ground also seemed to ever so slightly rise and then dip again, and it was the water course that led me to thinking where my preferred critical bwlch position to be.

Gathering the third data set

I had a prior appointment with Aled in Porthmadog at 11.00am, so quickly set the Trimble up for the fourth data set on the eastern side of the fence that crosses the area of the bwlch and positioned it beside the continuation of the water course and where the land visually then descended.

Gathering the fourth and last data set

Once the fourth data set was stored and happy with my hour’s activity I abandoned the delights of the bog and walked back up to my car and the onward journey to Porthmadog.      

Survey Result:

Graig Wen

Summit Height:  555.6m (converted to OSGM15, from previous Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey)

Summit Grid Reference:  SH 73910 39474 (from previous Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey)

Bwlch Height:  414.6m (converted to OSGM15)  

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SH 76301 40330

Drop:  141.0m (Submarilyn addition)

Dominance:  25.38%

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet

For details on the summit survey post of Graig Wen 

Mapping Mountains – Trimble Surveys – Carnedd Wen

12.10.17  Moel Bentyrch (SJ 055 095)

Moel Bentyrch (SJ 055 095)

It was just after 8.00am and I was standing rather self-consciously in a field close to a main road and below buildings that looked suspiciously like a farm with a distant beep, beep, beep of the Trimble echoing around an otherwise quiet land.  I stood away from the Trimble and unsuccessfully tried to blend in to a hedge which at least gave protection from any inquisitive passing motorist, once 300 beeps were beeped I silently marched toward my surveying equipment and quickly closed it down and packed it away before walking toward a gate that gave access on to a narrow lane.

Gathering data at the bwlch of Moel Bentyrch

The early morning’s clandestine visit to a field was to determine the prominence of a hill listed as a Submarilyn with c 142m of drop.  The hill in question is Moel Bentyrch and when heading west from Welshpool it is the first hill of note to be encountered, I’d only visited once before in 2012 and had ascended via a narrow steep path across the hill’s upper eastern face, today I wanted to visit the hill from the west, but before doing so I wanted to pretend that I was a part of a hedge in a field whilst an unusual black and yellow piece of equipment was left atop a blue rucksack that for all wants and purposes looked as if it had been abandoned in said field.  Sometimes surveying can lead you to some beautiful, and also unusual places, but surveying for bwlch height has an eclectic enjoyment all its own.

Moel Bentyrch from the west

Looking down on the bwlch of Moel Bentyrch which is just beyond where the sheep are gathered and across the fence

Following a narrow lane on the opposite side of the main road I grabbed my chance between a large bungalow and what looked like another one of those suspicious looking farms and quietly made my way in to a field and slowly walked beside mature trees gaining height toward a fence.

As I gained height the sun appeared over the upper lip of the hill, casting low light as it did so, this heightened the colour and set against a delicate blue and grey sky it made a wonderful hour on the hill.

To my south-west Disgwylfa was bronzed and green set above its conifered lower slopes, with a foreground of dulled bracken almost illuminated by the sun.  My only companions were sheep, scampering this way and that, a white mass of small animal adding perspective to the scene.

Disgwylfa (SJ 033 074)

The summit area of Moel Bentyrch is crowned by an ancient enclosure with the customary banks and ditches on show, it is a marvellous viewpoint and somewhat dwarfs the Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar which sits forlornly to the south-east, however as the hill’s eastern side plunges down steeply, views from the vicinity of the trig pillar open the land to the east, which this morning was bathed in silvery light with patchworked fields emerald like split only by hedge and narrow lane.

The trig pillar overlooking the eastern wild lands of border country

Patchwork fields only split by hedge and lane

As the Trimble gathered summit data I soaked in the scene, a visible overload of joy, being on a hill either in the early morning or late evening brings a very different feeling to the land, one that is hard to quantify, but I find it uplifting and partly addictive, as I want the feeling it gives time and again, this is only enhanced by operating the Trimble as this gives reason to stand and savour the scene, something that whilst on a normal hill walk is not always taken.

Gathering data at the summit of Moel Bentyrch

I turned my back on the hill after packing the Trimble away and quietly sauntered down the upper eastern part of the hill, back to the road and civilisation.  Just a brief encounter was all that was needed this morning to re-invigorate the day and leave me content. 

Survey Result:

Moel Bentyrch 

Summit Height:  337.5m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000) 

 

Summit Grid Reference:  SJ 05547 09518 (Trimble GeoXH 6000)

Bwlch Height:  197.0m (LIDAR)

  

Bwlch Grid Reference:  SJ 04561 09379 (LIDAR)

Drop:  140.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

Dominance:  41.63% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR bwlch)

 

For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet