An Amended Ticklist

As I approached completing my rounds of Wainwrights and Outlying Fells, my thoughts were turning to what my next walking objectives should be.  I had been logging my ascents of Nuttall and TRAIL 100 summits so it was obvious that these two lists were to form the backbone of my future time on the hills.

After my completions I registered with the Long Distance Walkers Association to mark the achievements – the certificates they issued appealed to my vanity!  I noticed that the LDWA also registered completions of the England and Wales 2000-foot summits and completing the Nuttalls is within the criteria that allow an addition to the register.  At the time I looked at the completer's register and although most of those listed had completed the Nuttalls, there was a significant number of people who had completed other lists at the same time.  The most prominent of those lists were those compiled by Bridge and Buxton & Lewis.

These three lists (Nuttall, Bridge, Buxton & Lewis) became the bulk of my post-Wainwright ticklist.  The Simpsons had already been included because they were first published in a Wayfarers’ Club journal and I was a Wayfarer.  But after a couple of years I started to wonder whether the completion of all of the LDWA's qualifying lists was a possibility.  Browsing the register of completers, there was only one person who had completed all of the England & Wales 2000-foot lists and I thought it would be a good idea to do the same.  So after quite a few hours of research and spreadsheet manipulation, I had an expanded my ticklist that included lists compiled by Dawson, Dewey, Moss and Wright.

Dawson's list is a subset of the Nuttalls so it was, by default, already included in my list.  After checking the summits of Dewey's list I discovered that these were also included in my original list.  The lists compiled by Moss, Wright and Simpson resulted in the addition of 181 summits to my list.  So now, with the administrative exercise done, was the time to start ticking.

Looking at the list, it was obvious that the summits classified by Moss, Wright and Simpson that were not also in any of the more popular lists had small prominence values.  But they were on my list so they were targets to be ticked.

Although, on the ground, some of them had some merit it quickly became apparent that many more of them were either insignificant or non-existent.  Probably the first of them was Gragareth North Top but at the time it didn't set any alarm bells ringing.  Manod Mawr Subsidary Top was impossible to find as there was no (even slightly) prominent ground in the area.  Y Lliwedd West Top was similarly elusive!  It is completely possible that their inclusion was due to a review of inaccurate (old!) maps rather than any active fieldwork which resulted in various spot heights being added.

It was my walks on Ingleborough and the Howgills that finally prompted me to change my approach.  I wasn't enjoying chasing these minor tops and they were distracting me from the relaxation that I sought when walking.  Which meant more time on the spreadsheets to remove the Moss, Wright and Simpson summits.  My ticklist decreased by 146.

I did some analysis of the LDWA's completion register and now there were only 2 who had ticked all of the qualifying lists – it's not a popular pastime!  There were 262 named completers who between them had registered the completion of 360 qualifying lists (not including Dawson's as it is a subset of the Nuttall list and not including Dewey's list as it quite doesn't have many summits that aren't included in other lists).  By far the most popular list to complete is the Nuttalls.  Next, with about half the number of Nuttall completions was the Bridge list and then came Buxton & Lewis with about half the amount of Bridge completions.  The number of Moss, Wright and Simpson completions totalled less than the number of Buxton & Lewis completions.

It was clear that the Nuttall, Bridge and Buxton & Lewis lists were those that completers targeted, to a greater or lesser degree.  And it was glaring that the Moss, Wright and Simpson lists didn't really capture the imagination of many.  I felt satisfied that the numbers backed up my feeling that these summits aren't really that worthwhile.

So now I have a ticklist that I'm happy with.  There are few lesser lists that contribute to it and they are there to satisfy my urge to visit different parts of the country but it is the Nuttall and TRAIL 100 summits that are my major goals for the future.

What is a Mountain?

And therein lies the sixty-four thousand dollar question!

I’m sure that many words have been written about the physical characteristics of mountains, such as location, elevation, prominence or shape.  Perhaps the answer is as philosophical as much as it is physical and just to add confusion, what is the difference between a hill and a mountain?

To keep things simple, I’m going to restrict myself to the “mountains” of England and Wales.

The website of the Long Distance Walkers Association maintains a register of those who have completed the “the 2000ft Mountains of England & Wales”.  The LDWA gives details of a number of hill lists that contain “mountains” and you can be included on the register if you have completed just one of those lists (within certain restrictions).  Quite a few have completed more than one of the lists but out of all who have completed at least one, over 70% have completed the Nuttalls.

John and Anne Nuttall had their two volumes of “The Mountains of England and Wales” published in 1989 and their list has probably become the nearest to being definitive.  They defined a mountain as being at least 2000 feet high and having a prominence (I’ll talk about that in the next blog) of at least 50 feet.  And of course it has to be in either England or Wales and as the Isle of Man is not part of England (or Wales!), Snaefell was excluded from the list.

Whenever a mountain is surveyed and found to be higher than 2000 feet, the British press inevitably publish a headline similar to “New mountain found!”  There is no official minimum height criterion for defining a mountain but it has generally become accepted that anything under 2000 feet doesn’t make the grade.  The press, the Nuttalls and the LDWA all seem to agree.  Even the Ordnance Survey makes reference to 2000 feet as the benchmark in some of its blogs.

There is some dissention however.  Some people regard 1000 feet as the minimum limit and Emily Rodway – the current editor of “The Great Outdoors” magazine – says in the September 2017 issue that a mountain is “usually defined as a hill over 600 metres” which is of course a metric alternative.

But I was born into a world of feet and inches which means that I’m going to take the imperial view of the majority.  So 2000 feet it is!

As mentioned earlier, there are quite a few lists of “mountains” in England and Wales so which should I aim to complete?

I’ve said in previous blogs that I’m working my way through the Nuttalls which I regard as the definitive list.  But to be pedantic and for the sake of a comprehensive completion, would it be reasonable to complete ALL of the lists?  It may be taking things a bit too far as a number of the summits are mere moorland bumps, but it would be a challenge to give it a go.  According to the LDWA register there has only been one person who has completed all of the 2000 feet England and Wales lists.  By aiming for all of the summits on all of the lists, there is no doubt that extra effort would be required but I’d be compelled to visit some remote corners of the country and my navigation skills would inevitably improve!

Although the lists are different, there is a lot of overlap between them with many summits appearing on most of the lists, which means that there aren’t that many less-favoured summits that will need to be visited.

So that’s the decision made, I’m aiming for them all!

2014 Targets

Lists to tick

Entering 2014, I am doing a lot of work behind the scenes to work out walking routes to tick the remaining summits of the lists I have chosen to pursue in my now post-Wainwright days.

I have decided to aim for completion of the English and Welsh 2000-foot mountains, these being the Nuttalls.  However, there are a couple of historic lists of 2000-footers, particularly the Bridge list and Buxton & Lewis list.  As you would expect, there are a lot of common summits across all three lists, but there are a few summits on the two older lists that are not Nuttalls.  I have chosen Bridge and Buxton & Lewis as opposed to other similar lists for two reasons; these classifications are included in the DoBIH spreadsheet and many of the 2000-foot completions on the LDWA website are for these lists.

Another long-term goal is completion of the TRAIL100 summits.  Most of my remaining TRAIL100s are in Scotland but those left in England and Wales are also Nuttalls and so should be simple to tick.

The WASHIS is a Welsh-specific list of 600-metre mountains.  Most of these are also Nuttalls and the extra 5 that aren’t can be ticked with a little extra effort.

In the long term

If my sums are correct, I have 324 summits to tick to complete all of the above lists.  The summits range from the very far north of Scotland to Dartmoor and I have set myself a goal of 10 years to finish them.  It’s not very ambitious but it does allow a large contingency for whatever life events arrive in the coming years.

Of 444 Nuttalls I have 245 left to tick; of the 100 TRAIL summits, I have 54 unticked.

This year

In simple numbers, 10% of my remaining summits based on my 10-year plan seems reasonable.

Which means I’m aiming for 33 summits, amongst which should be 25 Nuttalls and 6 TRAIL100s.

Looking at a map of my unticked summits, I’d like to mop up the more isolated groups of English mountains this year.  These are :

• the Cheviots                  (6 summits)
• the Peak District           (3 summits)
• the Malverns                 (1 summit)
• Dartmoor                      (3 summits) 

In addition, one English summit that I’d like to climb is Pillar Rock.  Strictly speaking, it is beyond the reach of ordinary hillwalkers but my previous rock-climbing experience gives me the confidence that this otherwise tricky summit shouldn’t pose me too many problems.

Keep an eye on my forthcoming blog entries and I’ll let you know how I’m doing.