Yr Aran, Snowdon & Y Lliwedd 30/12/10 Report

Sorry for the late report but the day after I got back I picked up man flu which floored me for a few days.

It has been a while since I have activated the three summits in one day and since my fitness levels aren’t up to scratch at the moment I decided to just take VHF instead of HF to get round quicker and lighter.

After two and a half hours sleep that night due to my daughter coughing through the night I arrived at the large lay-by at the start of the Watkin path. To my surprise, there is now a charge of £4.00 for the day (less for a shorter duration which I cannot remember). Although considerably less than Pen y Pass car park I also noticed that the small lay-bys near Pen-y-Gwryd have got individual parking meters!

I continued another hundred yards or so (towards Beddgelert) to a large lay-by with no parking fees or “patron only parking” signs on the right hand side of the road.
First summit Yr Aran. I ascended the Watkin path until the top of the waterfalls and took a left up towards the summit. Nice clear views (all day in fact) with occasional patches of snow and ice. Four quick contacts in the log, I had brought a spare battery pack with me after the battery very quickly quit on me due to the very cold weather last week up Moel Siabod. But this was not needed today. It was surprisingly warm, In fact I didn’t wear gloves until reaching the summit of Snowdon.

The ice was a little slippery along Bwlch Main so care was needed but otherwise it was an easy enough ascent.
A few walkers on the summit of Snowdon, not as many as I thought they’d be. A quick scan on VHF and I came across MW6BWA/P on GW/NW-022 just across the valley. Along with Viki, I also worked Richard GW0VMW/P who was on GW/NW-044 for S2S number two.

Y Lliwedd had quite a bit of snow on its summit. Again, there was no wind and ideal, clear conditions prevailed. Plenty of takers on 2m FM. Nice to have two more S2S, this time with Eleri MW3NYR/P on GW/NW-045 and Karen on GW/NW-022.

My Kenwood TH-F7E and a home made Slim Jim antenna was all I took. I used the Ham Tracker app for the IPhone 4 by G7LEU

http://www.kramstuff.com/

which was very easy to set up and use. It worked very well. On the lower slopes of the Watkin Path it did lose its signal as expected. This has always been the case (Vodafone) until half way up the Watkin Path.

A very enjoyable day out and thanks to all those I spoke to. I will post a short video of the trip soon.
73
Roger MW0IDX

In reply to MW0IDX:
Video can now be seen here

73
Roger MW0IDX

In reply to MW0IDX:

Great stuff Roger. Nice to see what it all looks like - we didn’t get to see any of it when we did that trio, the clag was never more than a few metres away all day - and it rained!

I will have to repeat the walk again on a nice day sometime in the future.

73,

Tom M1EYP

In reply to MW0IDX:
GM Roger,
Super winter walk, and one that I aspire to. Thank you for the description and video, which was most informative.
73, Frank