The Englishmen who went up a hill but came down a mountain...
A “NONDESCRIPT bump” in the Lake District has been registered as England’s newest mountain thanks to the efforts of two adventurers.
Mountaineers John Barnard, 69, and Graham Jackson, 68, have helped Miller Moss in the Northern Fells become the 446th entry in The Mountains of England and Wales by Anne and John Nuttall.
The former colleagues have been climbing Britain’s biggest hills for more than a decade in the hope of reclassifying them as mountains.
They are now responsible for 30 alterations to the Ordnance Survey’s Land Ranger and Explorer maps.
The recognised threshold for when a hill becomes a mountain is 609.6m (2,000ft).
The men decided to check the measurements at Miller Moss after noticing it was marked on OS maps as being 609m.
After eight hours of measurements using a sophisticated GPS worth £3,700, the men discovered it actually measured 610.1m.
Oxford graduate Mr Jackson, who studied chemistry at Corpus Christi College and now lives in Chester, said: “It’s a great feeling. There is a degree of elation. It’s great – we’ve got something changed.”
“We’re always pleased,” said Mr Barnard, who worked with Mr Jackson at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) for many years.
“It’s nice to do this. A lot of the time you go up, spend hours there, come down and nothing has changed, so to get a result like this is great.”
“Having said that, it is a bit of a nondescript bump,” he added.
Mr Barnard, who lives in Mold, North Wales, has always been an avid walker but only started measuring hills with Mr Jackson in 2006.
He said: “It started off slowly, but now we’ve made it our passion.
“Our first reclassification was called Birks Fell, in North Yorkshire. We found that to be over 2,000ft, where before it was just under.
“Ordnance Survey measure hills and mountains by flying a plane over the land and taking photographs, a process called photogrammetry.
“They can then use those to make a 3D model and measure heights from that but it only gives an accuracy of plus or minus three metres, so anything classified between 606m and 612m is always of interest.”
He added: “We have done several hundred now, in England, Scotland and Wales, but we have only had around 30 reclassified. The Ordnance Survey data is very good.”
The day before the pair scaled Miller Moss, the friends climbed another Lake District fell, Illgill Head, which has steep, sweeping banks down to Wast Water below.
Unfortunately, it came up too short to be called a mountain.
“We were disappointed not to get that one. Surprised too,” said Mr Jackson.
A spokesman for the Ordnance Survey said: “We have been working with John and Graham for several years and have supported them in verifying their survey results for many summits across Great Britain.
“As the national mapping agency OS maintains the geospatial database for Great Britain and it is our role to ensure that any changes are checked and verified.
“We can confirm that we will be updating our maps to show a spot height of 610m for Miller Moss.
“This magic figure of 610m will now give Miller Moss mountain status and becomes another Great British mountain summit for outdoor enthusiasts to reach this summer.”