A commitment free weekend gave me the chance to take advantage of the current spell of hot and sunny weather and travel to Wales for some SOTA action.
My first of an intended two days of activating, saw me tackling Waun Fach, GW/SW-002 and Waun Rydd, GW/SW-004. As expected, the heat was exceptional for early September. Both summits require long walks to get to the top, no matter which route is taken, and with the heat I found it tough going at times. Put it this way, I definitely lost a few pounds! I almost gave up on the way GW/SW-004, but thankfully found a second wind from somewhere!
The slogs were worth it though, because on both summits I was rewarded with superb views and reasonably cool conditions. The radio side of things went well too, with 22 QSOs (including 5 S2S) on GW/SW-002 and 20 QSOs (with a nice DX contact with VE1WT) on GW/SW-004. Thanks chasers for being there to work me after some very hot walking conditions.
After a very good night’s sleep, I woke up to see cloudier views. I had a look at my phone, and it seemed that there was a possibility for thunderstorms. This left me in a bit of quandary as to whether I should get back on the hills or not. As I was staying in the area I decided to drive off to Pontsticill for the start of the walk to Cefn yr Ystrad, GW/SW-008.
I still felt a bit undecided, but thought I would at least start the walk and get a feel for what the weather was doing. I got about a quarter of the way along the walk before deciding to stop and turn back. There wasn’t much rain about, but the air was humid and heavy and there were plenty of dark clouds around. Although I couldn’t hear any thunder, it did feel like the kind of weather where storms could brew up at anytime. I hadn’t alerted for this summit, and in the end thought it was better not to take the risk.
Thanks again to all the chasers worked yesterday, and I will finish now by posting some photos below.
From Waun Fach, GW/SW-002
From Waun Rydd, GW/SW-004
Until next time!
73, Matthew M(W)0JSB