Well much better weather than yesterday was forecast so Fair Snape Fell activation was definately a goer for today.
Again managed to leave the home QTH in works traffic at approximately 08:40 hours (I do much prefer earlier starts), but only encountered really heavy traffic on the A6 prior to turning right towards Longridge. Anyway, soon on the road to the fell arriving at approximately 0930 hours. Quick coffee from the flask and kit on starting off from the car at 0940 hours. On looking up at Parlick, it looked bleak with a sporadic white covering of snow and the sky overhead was a very dull grey, looked to me as if it could snow at any time. A very cold wind was tearing in from the south west and bit into the side of my face, but I was relatively well protected and began the plod uphill towards the gate by the house. Decision made to traverse the side of Parlick rather than go over the top and therefore began the trudge up and around the side of Parlick but soon reaching the stile by the first fence. On crossing the stile and reaching the milestone I looked up for my first glimpse of Fair Snape briefly seeing the cairn on the summit just before it disapeared into cloud. The total path up to the summit appeared to be covered in snow as did the summit, which at distance made the dark stone intake wall appear higher and stand out prouder than normal. Another 20 minutes saw me reaching the summit where I positioned myself in one of the shelters protecting me from the strong bitter wind blowing. I would estimate the temperature maybe to be -3 to -4.
Interesting that in places the snow underfoot was several inches deep and mine were the only human footprints seen, however, I saw two sets of new prints which I believed were foxes and weird, what I though was a bicycle tyre print where the print length was only a matter of meters long and going in a strange direction in relation to the path to the summit… spooky!
Quick coffee was taken and then set-up the VX-170 and RSS and also the PFX 4m handheld. Started on 4m with my first contact at 1058 hours with Dave G6CRV,followed by Derek 2E0CSG, M3RDZ and Mike G4BLH. Tried calling Charles M0BEK but although I was receiving him 59+, he could not here me, path possibly to his QTH not being the best, maybe next time Charles. However, it was good to qualify the summit on 4m and I will continue to carry the 4m HH on future activations.
2m FM brought in a further 8 contacts and although calling CQ for a further 10 minutes after the last contact their were no further takers, so went QRT at 1150 hours having spent over an hour on the summit in extremly cold conditions…
An enjoyable activation in cold conditions but with a wonderful wintery panorama viewed. Many thanks to all Chasers worked who made the task worthwhile…
73’s
Ian 2E0EDX