Well I finally got the motivation to go for a hike with a backpack and radio.
40 years since I did something like this, and after the obligatory 2 rests I took as my heart was attempting to beat its way out of my chest, and dodging all the golf balls (must remember to take a helmet next time) I finally reached the summit…its quite frustrating walking up as kept getting overtaken by electric golf buggies, and not one of them offered me a lift…the joy of reaching the summit and dropping to my knees into a pile of sheep droppings…awesome…took ten minutes to have some recovery time, a golden virginia roll up and a swig of water…just sat ther taking in the views…good lord I see the pleasure you people get from this, and I had not even set the radio equipment up…well you all know the next part of the process…got my four contacts to activate the summit…then chilled out for 15 minutes taking in the wildlife…lay down on my back just listening to people talking from all around the country…absolutely brilliant…went back on s20 calling out cq sota…and then encountered my first mini pile up…an absolutely fabulous day even though I didnt grab a s2s…better than any medicine prescribed by the doctor…took a few photographs including the trig point and the started the journey down…found a few golf balls on the descent…golfers I met on the way down all friendly…club manager gave me permission to leave my car there…all in all an absolutely mind blowing experience…LOVED IT.
73s
Russ
M6RGF
In reply to M6RGF:
Great to work you Russ can you give me a piggy back mate so i can have some of your medicine i don’t weight a lot only a mear twenty three halve stone catch you on the phone later in the week mate.
Dave M3XIE
Excellent stuff, you are in for the long haul though, it’s quite addictive. Just give me a shout when you fancy Stac Lee, I’ve got the climbing gear if you’ve got the boat (-:
Love the sound of this one and yes I will have the bottle to do it when I have some more experience…the deal is though, if I do that with you, you have to accept my offer to parachute down to a summit one day.
In reply to -M3XIE:
Your welcome to come up any time Dave…lets make it easy for you…lets do the Schiltorn mountain…you can get the cable cars up and even have a beer in the 007 revolving restaurant…give that summit a coat of looking at and when I see you next I will fetch my photographs taken from the summit 10 years ago…the views are breathtaking…you also get a good view of the Eiger from there.
Catch you soon mate.
Looks like the anaesthetic has worn off…thats if you had any…my Father had to have his deep brain surgery whilst he was awake…anyway hope your feeling ok and not having to operate the keyboard like Stephen Hawkins.
Y Golfa is only 4 minutes away from our static caravan so able to kill 2 birds with one stone…think I came down a stone lighter.
Anyway hope you are progressing well and look forward to seeing you soon…was thinking of doing the cloud next as she must be getting lonely, she sends her regards to you and is missing you immensely, its rumoured she even shed a tear on Saturday evening…sure you will soon be re-united.
It was described as inaccessible a long time ago by a Victorian chap, a couple of climbers made it up though in 1880, probably wearing hob nail boots and puffing away on a pipe.
These days it’s a trade route for guides taking up and lowering off munro baggers. The queues can be modest to long , but you can jump the queue sometimes if you say you are soloing it (no ropes). I first went up one summer evening at about 8pm after the queues had died down, it was a very special experience looking across glen brittle to the outlying islands. There wasn’t a breath of wind and the only noise was my slighly dehydrated head buzzing.
It wasn’t so special being slowly consumed by the malevolent winged assassins of Skye though, the midge.
Whenever you’re ready to activate that one, give me a shout, I’ve not activated it myself.
Oh, by the way, in terms of scrambling, it’s right up there. Probably best to describe it as a moderate rock climb, mod is the lowest climbing grade.
Oh, by the way, in terms of scrambling, it’s right up there. Probably
best to describe it as a moderate rock climb, mod is the lowest
climbing grade.
That would be by the east ridge, little more than a very exposed and a little loose scramble, the trade route used to be the west ridge, a grade harder and with highly polished holds! There are much harder routes for the real climber, my vintage 1969 guidebook lists seven in all, there’s probably more now.
At a busy time I don’t think those queueing to climb the In Pin would take too kindly to the rather small summit being hogged for an activation, it would probably be politic to take a stance lower down. It might be fun to try out an inverted EFHW antenna on 20m!
In reply to MM0GYX:
Thanks for the response Ian…well you certainly wouldnt get me up there without ropes…leave that to the experienced craggies…its certainly out of my league without ropes…unfortunately I still have that part of my brain intact…some of these dedicated climbers I associate to the likes of Carl Fogarty…Guy Martin…John Mcguiness…and the old Giacomo Agostini…very brave men who push themselves to the limit to excel in their disciplines…what drives them to do what they do God only knows.
That would be by the east ridge, little more than a very exposed and a
little loose scramble, the trade route used to be the west ridge, a
grade harder and with highly polished holds! There are much harder
routes for the real climber, my vintage 1969 guidebook lists seven in
all, there’s probably more now.
At a busy time I don’t think those queueing to climb the In Pin would
take too kindly to the rather small summit being hogged for an
activation, it would probably be politic to take a stance lower down.
It might be fun to try out an inverted EFHW antenna on 20m!
73
Brian G8ADD
Brian,
When I’ve visited folk tend to take the east ridge and ab off the west. Folk being munro baggers, it makes sense for guides to do it this way as it stops the thing being choked with nervous seconds. I agree with your description of the scramble, straightforward, but not for a novice. There’s no shame in using a rope with politely spaced protection.
Clearly it would be wise to arrive early in the morning or late on to activate. It’s been done in any case.
Well, those polished holds have pushed west ridge to vdiff now. A nice climb still but with a constant stream of abseiling bodies, you’ve got to time it well.
I agree, I don’t particularly want to fall off a high place either and don’t tend to do much scrambling for the sake of it. Having said that, I did a little of it on Friday over by Applecross after climbing a Scottish classic first climbed by an outstanding Scotsman called Tom Patey & some English guy called Bonnington. Patey died abseiling from a sea stack due to an error of judgement, he was one of the country’s finest mountaineers. He didn’t tend to have much time for ropes and other paraphenalia.
Never did go West and view Applecross…used to spend weeks at a time in the Muir of Ord many years ago…but thats another story.
I have never heard of Tom Patey before…however that will now give me some fascinating bedtime reading…tragic that such a fine mountaineer died abseiling.
Time for me to climb the wooden hills now as I think teddy bear is getting lonely.
73
Russ