I set off yesterday morning (Sat 10.08.24) for the lovely village of Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway to tackle the 4 pointer GM/SS-030 White Coomb.
Arriving at the Grey Mare’s Tail National Trust car park at 0630 I duly fed the meter with £4 (free if a Trust Member) and fired up the Jetboil for a cuppa tea and a Danish and prepared to set off.
Weather was dry and fine but more of that later.
The start is a well defined but steep stepped path up past the incredible set of Grey Mare’s Tail waterfalls. It was quiet when I set off but on my return the car park was almost full with day trippers enjoying the falls. There is a gradual walk to Loch Skeen if you manage to get to the top. (Loch Skeen below)
The wind was starting to pick up on my ascent and although path is well defined I kept to the right hand side as some drop offs are not for the faint hearted.
There is a river crossing and on my way up and I had to find a suitable crossing that diverted off the path a few hundred yards. The Tail Burn wasn’t in spate but I didn’t want wet boots all day and my diversion required some ‘heather bashing’ to refind path.
Upwards into a headwind made slow going but another decent path into a steep section gave me some welcome height a few hundred yards from the top.
One false summit later I was on the top and boy it was windy! 
A few calls on Quansheng handie at 822m got me nothing. I tried to get my fibre glass pole up but the old thing was past it’s best and finally disintegrated in 25knt gusts.
Plan B.
The Diamond 5 element Yagi was strapped to a fence stile just lower with summit in sight but even then it was still trying to break free just like my sandwiches which went for a wander in the wind.
I eventually got two calls on my Yeasu FT-7900 on 25w (yes I know it’s not QRP @MM0EFI 
) so persevered.
I was getting desperate and heard a couple of Amateurs having a chat on 325 and they kindly let me break in and I got my activation. I personally think Sundays are better for SOTA as I only have 2M so may stick with that day in the future.(thoughts welcome).
3 more stations eventually returned my CQ SOTA calls and one was @M7LEF on GM/SS-158 Black Mount. Happy with that I packed up and headed off the top.
With the wind now at my back I made a faster but careful descent enjoying the views.
Wet boots were inevitable on return (the crossing is just at the top of the waterfall path).
I was back at my van in an hour to a full car park passing many walkers in light gear attempting to get better views of the falls.
A welcome cup of Nettle Tea was in order (try it, it’s good for you). 
Until the next one. 73 and thanks for reading.
Doug.
