1 the Miles of Aran Fawddwy

1 The Miles of Aran Fawddwy John Morgan 2015 Location (summit): 52º47'16.8" N, 3º41'17.3" W Poem: http://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/visual/istheland/aran-climb.html#footofthehill This document: http://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/visual/istheland/aranfawddwy.pdf Aran Fawddwy is the highest mountain in the Aran group in south-east Snowdonia, Wales. Standing at 907 metres/2975 feet, it is the highest mountain short of 3000 feet in Wales. In keeping with the Rhinog Mountains, neighbouring range to the Arans— and visible along the ridge from Glasgwm to the summit of Aran Fawddwy, measurements of distance can be psychologically and physiologically misleading. ‘Rhinog miles’ are said to be treacherous things full of wet, springy swampland, sharp rocks hidden beneath brushwood, brackens and tufted grasses and sudden disorienting cloud cover that renders navigation by all but a compass quite difficult. While walking along the ridge from Glasgwm it is easy to be taunted by the deception of the Rhinog miles, only here they are conceived as ‘Aran miles’. ‘The Miles of Aran Fawddwy’ follows a 7.2 mile misshapen parallelogram route from the valley of Cym Cywarch just outside Dinas Mawddwy, upwards to the north-west beneath the ridge of Glasgwm, north-east to the summit, south-east along the ridge of Drws Bach, beneath the summit of Drwsgol and south-west down the valley of Hengwm back to the starting point. The directions are significant to the alternative layouts of the poem, with the portrait version representing the climb itself and the landscape version representing a flattened version of the parallelogram ridge described above. The landscape poem when printed, can be folded three times between verses 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7 and then stood on its horizontal base with text facing inwards in a diamond pattern (see Fig. 1 below). If positioned in a closed diamond configuration with what are now the left hand and right hand margins pointing to south, it forms a crude three dimensional model of the parallelogram route along the ridge (see Fig. 2 below). 2 Fig. 1: Print and fold version of the poem Fig. 2: Strava GPS image of route 3 The fonts chosen for the poem include Palatino for the main text, my main conceptual travelling font, and Lucida Fax for the word ‘Miles’. Lucida Fax demi- bold italic at 36 point, has a clipped, square, serif impression. In the landscape version of the poem it represents a long trudging walk, bent forwards under the load of the steep climbs and long distances. It has a labouring, footsore quality about it that captures the ridge of the route between the walkers and the rocky outcroppings at the edge of the vertiginous escarpments. The sheer drops are depicted in the sideways-reading vertical lines descending from the feet of the ‘miles’. These lines depict the gulleys, streams and shadowy contours that a walker is encircled by on the return route down the valley of Hengwm. On top of the ridge, the opening lines of each verse represent the different altitudes of the moorland, starting with the word ‘ascending’ on the left and finishing with ‘abbreviated’ on the right. The mile titles themselves are capitalized and set in italics. Capitalisation represents the formalizing of proper noun titles, which evoke their own (rural) urban legend value as coinage of the idea of ‘Aran miles’ to contrast in a tongue-in-cheek manner with the established reputation of ‘Rhinog miles’. Italics are again used to show the strenuous activity it has taken to cover and conceive of these miles. The landscape and portrait versions are identical except for the position of the title, but it should be noted that this positioning is also a distinctive part of the aesthetic value of the poem. In the landscape version, the title represents the river, Afon Yr Hengwm, that flows north-east to south-east along the bottom of the Hengwm valley, and flows into the the River Dyfi at Tan-y-foel just outside Dinas Mawddwy. The source of the River Dyfi is above the lake of Creiglyn Dyfi just beneath the summit of the mountain, which is also featured in the line ‘source of the Dyfi and source of betrayal’. This line is key to the theme of the poem as it represents the moment of realization in the hard won miles of ascending the summit, that we did not actually reach the summit due to thick cloud cover. Only on descending were two summits visible on the plateau of the mountain top, the main summit still 4 standing resolute, now almost mockingly, above the lake and the source of the River Dyfi. In the portrait version, the URL includes a named anchor, which will always load the text at the bottom of the page, as long as the page is accessed internally to the web-site. If the URL is typed in independently, without the hashtag/anchor name (#footofthehill), the page will be accessed as expected from the top. This serves to automatically focus the reader's attention on the title at the bottom of the page and the opening line 'On ascending Mile of Conflicting Appetites'. The reading sequence is subsequently upwards on the page, following the climb. In the portrait version, the title represents the car park at the base of the climb and the final slate sign at the end of our own steep ascending and shallow descending route (or the start of a shallower ascent and steeper descent). In essence the portrait version is a depiction of the climb itself, reading from bottom to top of the page, again starting with the word ‘ascending’, but now with the weight of the miles to be covered bearing down on the walker. In each reading the landmarks and incidents along the route are identical. A different perspective is given by page orientation and position of title. Colours for the line openings and italic mile titles were sampled from photographs in the landscape from each of the sequential miles. 1. Verse 1 On ascending Mile of Conflicting Appetites: RGB 199, 154, 113 The colour was sampled from a yellow painted arrow on the rock showing the route of track ascending to the ridge. A reminder of the realities of nature was offered by the scattered feathers of a dead pigeon, most likely eaten by a fox. 5 2. Verse 2 On catch-breath Mile of Replenishing Shallows: RGB 79, 28, 28 The colour was sampled from shots of a type of swamp plant that resembled the Thai vegetable pak bung (swamp cabbage). On top of the ridge the landscape is quite flat and planks have been laid along the fences to prevent walkers from sinking in shallow marshland and peat. 3. Verse 3 On disorienting Mile of Invisible Summits: RGB 124, 71, 39 The colour was sampled from the vertical stone erected on a mound of stones at what appeared to be the summit of Aran Fawddwy, amid strong winds and thick cloud. It resembles a stone finger with its other fingers clenched in the wider part of the base of the rock. It points to the sky, but the only blue sky is beneath us. 4. Verse 4 On realising Mile of False Accomplishment: RGB 92, 115, 109 The colour was sampled from the rocky escarpment that stretches down in an almost sheer drop from the real summit, a few hundred metres further along the track. The further elevation of the summit is negligible, but the sense of betrayal by the clouds on an otherwise bright, clear day is accentuated by the fact that I had already created the ironic mile title for ‘the mile of false accomplishment’. It was created to reflect the sense of achievement felt on reaching a summit only to realize the downward walk can be even more demanding. 6 5. Verse 5 Footsore Mile of Boggy Traversals: RGB 112, 115, 120 The colour was sampled from the ridge of Pen Main, a flat topped mountain invisible on the ascending route, but very striking from the opposite side of Hengwm valley. The land is very soft and wet at this point and does not support aching feet very well. At the foot of the valley and close to the point where the river Afon Yr Hengwm flows from the hills, a large compass has been laid out on the ground in white stones and it is clearly visible from the top of the valley. 6. Verse 6 On starkest Mile of Slate Reflections: RGB 120, 116, 69 The colour was sampled from the skull of a dead sheep. The landscape was covered with loose slate in all shapes, covered in patterns and colours that glint in the open sunlight, but when inspected closely no longer appear to display the asemic language patterns originally perceived on first glance. The hills are also littered with the remains of a number of different lambs that appear to have been killed by foxes. This is also featured in the previous verse with the line ‘Approaching the head of the ram of Hengwm’. 7. Verse 7 On surprising Mile of Inventive Shearing: RGB 160, 65, 59 The colour was sampled from an electric power cable connecting sheep shearing clippers to a car battery that was hanging beneath the bonnet of a pickup truck blocking the path at the end of the track. Shearing was underway at the farm and it was a brief respite from the actual landscape themes, though tufts of fleece had been visible for the past few miles.

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