I’m thinking of arranging a mass activation up here in Scotland. Due to the complexities of trying to find a date and venue that suits enough people and space for them to stay I’m thinking of targeting this for around Easter 2011. (But not the Easter weekend itself).
My ideas are floating around booking a bunkhouse or similar and hopefully a fair number of activators would stay and have a weekend of activating seldom activated summits. Some of these places are far enough of a drive for us who live the correct (i.e. North) side of the border that an overnight stay is desirable, so if we were to stay for 2 or 3 nights then it may be viable for activators to come from further afield.
My top of the list choice at present is the Ariundle Bunkhouse out at Loch Sunart/Strontian way. This is around £15/night and sleeps 26. Fully cooked breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals are avialable at the neighbouring restaurant. There are plenty of 1,2 & 4 point summits nearby with a number still unactivated. Bigger hills are relatively (by West of Scotland terms) nearby for those wanting more of a challenge. The idea is not to see who can amass the most points but to provide a festival of rarely activated summits for the chasers.
I say activators but chasers would be welcome for a meet up, chin wag and help with general consumption of ale and fine comestibles likely to occur after a hard days activation.
I’d like to try to have one of these sessions once a year as a chance for people in SOTA to meet up face to face rather than just keyboard to keyboard or voice to voice. There may be enough interest that activating weekends could be arranged in say the Lake District or Snowdonia.
So if you are interested you can email me at mm0fmf_sota AT intermoose.com (you know what to do) or we can discuss the idea further on here and slowly wander off to other subjects.
If it was (say) the weekend after Easter weekend, then Jimmy and I could well be there. We will need firm dates before we commit though. Nice idea Andy, I always enjoyed the LD YH weekends and the Snowdonia camping/BBQ weekends of years gone by.
I’ll be saddened if Robin can’t join in even if it is in his own back garden. Most of the activated hills in that area have his name on them already and I’m sure he’d be keen to reassert his ownership of them! I did think of the bunkhouse at the base of the Loch Glascarnoch dam as a place to arrange this. But that’s a 200 odd mile drive for me so it’s substantial drive for any of the Sassenachs wanting to play! Also I’m not sure I could sleep knowing there’s several thousand acre-feet of water towering above me even if the dam has stood firm for 53 years!
Anyone who has ever been out along Loch Sunart or onto the Ardnamurchan peninsula will know what a magical place it is which is why I decided it would make a good candidate. The hills out there are very seldom activated so that makes them a desirable chaser target too.
What a great idea Andy. Unfortunately my emploryers wont let me have holidays during public holiday weeks so the Easter weeks are out. A quick look at next years calendar shows that the weekend after Easter is the May Bank holiday weekend so again I probably wont get that off either. One other thing is that the May bank holiday weekend has been the International weekend for the last two years so for my mind it would be an excellent idea to conbine the two events.
The only drawback, apart from the problems of getting time off, is its 1000 mile round trip from my QTH - The birthplace of Radio.
Wow - I had no idea how late Easter was going to be next year. Please disregard my comments Andy; it would have to be the weekend BEFORE Easter weekend to give Jimmy and I a shot at making it.
Anyone who has ever been out along Loch Sunart or onto the
Ardnamurchan peninsula will know what a magical place it is which is
why I decided it would make a good candidate. The hills out there are
very seldom activated so that makes them a desirable chaser target
too.
Even the word “magical” barely does it justice - but would it be heretical to say that the road south from Strontian to the Mull ferry is the second bleakest road that I know of in Scotland?
Anyway, the thing I wished to say, if the Ariundle Bunkhouse is unavailable I am happy to go for any other bunkhouse or hut as long as it isn’t too far north.
I suggest that all of the Scottish mass activation team have 2m FM with them even if it is just a hand held and rubber duck so as rare summit to summit contacts are made.
Sounds like you have a full house already! Great idea and interested but I would miss Tinto as you know:( ! There are lots of really dedicated SOTA folk who should go first on the list but happy to be back up/drop out if you know what I mean!? Keep us posted anyway.
Thanks
Robert
GM4GUF
PS Have you seen the new Tinto car park… oh boy, space for coaches now… need a new hill… mobbed.
It’s a good few days since I first mooted this and I’ve had a number of replies by email and, of course, on here. So far there are about 15 people interested.
I’m bumping this up to the top of the reflector just in case there are a few people who would be interested but have missed this thread or mention of it in the September news.
If you are interested in this weekend and have not yet contacted me then can you do so in the next few days. I’d like to have a rough idea of numbers so I can check with the Ariundle Bunkhouse about availability. Please note that expressing an interest now does not commit you to anything now. At some point though I’d like to make a booking and at that point you’ll need to pay a deposit. But that is sometime off and is subject to availability of the bunkhouse etc.
I’d definitely be interested. There is also the possibility of one or more others coming from this end. So put me down as 1 definite + 1 possible.
It occurs to me that the skiing season in Scotland might well (if the last two years has been any guide) run on until april or even may. Might this have some impact on availability of the accommodation?
In reply to MM0FMF:
I’ll be in the Borders over Easter and ‘Royal Wedding’ weekend…so could well activate something around there…if it’s ‘on’ this Easter…
Rob (G1TPO)
Also I’m not sure I could sleep knowing there’s several thousand acre-feet of water towering above me even if the dam has stood firm for 53 years!