If the AZ for Bishop Wilton Wold is so large, then you don’t have to activate right by the main road, do you?
From Marc G0AZS in the November 2008 edition of SOTA News…
TOP TEN LARGEST AZ LARGEST FIRST (KM2)
G/SE-013 Detling Hill 33.0857
G/TW-005 Normanby Top 13.4989
G/TW-004 Bishop Wilton Wold 6.6185
G/SE-015 Cheriton Hill 5.3435
G/SP-001 Kinder Scout 4.1433
G/TW-003 Gisborough Moor 2.8071
G/NP-031 Birks Fell 2.4116
G/SE-005 Botley Hill 2.2392
G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill 2.1078
G/NP-028 Rombalds Moor 2.0940
All five of the G/TW summits are very easy from my own recollections.
Urra Moor was the longest walk, but only about 45 minutes at a gentle
pace IIRC, and no steep ascents, just a “walk in”.
Hi Tom,
You must have activated a different Urra Moor to both Richard G3CWI…
I thought that was nice, simple stroll-n-bag summit. Not too hard to the top, somewhere to hide from the wind and easy to qualify on 2m FM with a handy and an HB9CV.
Ah!, When I was last that way I did both of them with Jeremiah Fuzzface. Hell of a windy day ISTR, wasn’t nice in a screaming gale and mist on the top of Foel Goch. I must go back and see what it’s like on a clear day. Long way to come though
Yeah OK, I see now (from my own notes) that there is a bit of a pull-up at the start, but all things being equal, nothing that “counts”. Try the initial pull up towards High Raise G/LD-019 from Dungeon Ghyll if you want to know what “ascent” means hi! High Raise LD-019
One of the benefits of completing the association is that I can mentally dismiss the likes of the approach to Urra Moor as trivial!
One of the benefits of completing the association is that I can
mentally dismiss the likes of the approach to Urra Moor as trivial!
You must understand Tom, that my MO when working summits is quite different to yours.
You can dismiss your ascent of Urra Moor, carrying an 817 and paddle as trivial, however, I tend to take much bigger batteries, antennas and radios.
Therefore, it follows, the walk up Urra Moor or any summit for that matter, is always going to be tough for me. Then again, I like chasing DX and working long actvations and that is the price I`m prepared to pay.
I’m with you on that Mike, because I too enjoy working DX and long activations. And I cannot argue that you get good results with your set-up. But you may well have had much more joy from Gisborough Moor with a lightweight 3-el beam and use of 2m SSB.
Don’t forget about the litre flask of soup I have to carry everywhere as well! (Much easier to cope with on the descent, admittedly).
Interesting to see how a thread develops when you have to leave the SOTA coal face and go out to a meeting… and once again it’s not directly related to the thread title. I think Steve will forgive the liberties taken.
I started to look down your list Tom and realised that I hold some similar views. I won’t bore readers by listing them, but I have to conclude that some summits have no redeeming features!
As I approach 400 uniques it is difficult to assess the best of the best. From the gut-wrenching experience of looking over the edge on Y Lliwedd GW/NW-008, right through to the pure pleasure of lying operating in the grass on Hownam Law GM/SS-197, it has all been brilliant. Highlights such as perching near the edge on Trum y Ddysgl GW/NW-024 followed by the Nantile Ridge walk to Craig Cwm Silyn GW/NW-020 (yes I do suffer from vertigo), the challenge of accessing Glyder Fawr GW/NW-003 via Y Gribin, the climb up by Pillar Rock to access Pillar G/LD-006 (followed by a stay at Black Sail YH) have been balanced by enjoyable experiences of a different kind on relatively insignificant summits, be it at the behest of the sun, the views or just the thrill of being out there away from the pressures of life. All in all I ask for very little - just some solitude. Even the weather doesn’t phase me any more!
I’m with you on that Mike, because I too enjoy working DX and long
activations. And I cannot argue that you get good results with your
set-up. But you may well have had much more joy from Gisborough Moor
with a lightweight 3-el beam and use of 2m SSB.
Ah! As much as it broke my heart, I did recommend in the summit info report of Guisborough Moor, taking a lightweight beam along. Geralds experience of Guisborough Moor with a simple dipole, seems to have been a lot happier than mine with a heavy colinear but I guess thats`s radio for you.
Don’t forget about the litre flask of soup I have to carry everywhere
as well! (Much easier to cope with on the descent, admittedly).
I tend not to take too much in the way of grub on an activation, as I use this as a opportunity to shed a few callories. OTOH, I carry plenty of fluids, usually half litre of water, half a litre of orange squash and a flask of coffee. There’s alwasys plenty of bottled water kept in the car.
Sounds more like some activators look at the map of the summit and its environs and choose the right gear for the location rather than trusting chance.
When I activated GW/NW-007 Aran Fawddwy with Dave M0TUB, I jettisoned most of the heavy stuff from my rucksack and decided it to make it an HT activation with a dipole. As you probably know, this summit is a long slog with a lot of height to be gained. On reaching the trig I tipped out the rucksack onto the cairn only to find a 10Ah SLAB lurking in the bottom. Quite frankly, I was speechless! How on earth it had got in there? Carrying a 3.5 Kilo SLAB up a 905m summit for no reason whatsover, is not to be recommended…trust me, I could have wept
Of course by now, Tubby was laughing his head off… When I quizzed him as to why it was so funny, he reminded me I had to carry the Damn thing back down again ;-)))
It was then that Dave asked me to turn around. At that moment, all the pain of the walk evaporated. I’ve never seen such spectacular veiws, suddenly the slog complete with a 10Ah SLAB had all been worthwhile. I’ll certainly never forget that day…fantastic company mixed with pure magic.
It really is the most wonderful summit. We first did it many years ago when visitors were seriously discouraged. No rights of way, parking spaces etc. I do remember squeezing the car in beside a wall somewhere and loading up with kit.
We camped on a tiny patch of fairly level grass by the path up the stream above Bryn Hafod. This gave us a rather earlier start than we usually manage. I remember very little else about the day except the superb outlook.
I think we did Maesglase the same weekend. Both are on the list for this year, if possible.
73,
Rod
More recently I was carrying a VX-2 only a year after getting my licence and just thought I would give it a try. One contact on the way to Benllyn and three on the way back. 1.5W and a 20cm stick aerial. I was amazed.
It really is the most wonderful summit. We first did it many years
ago when visitors were seriously discouraged. No rights of way,
parking spaces etc. I do remember squeezing the car in beside a wall
somewhere and loading up with kit.
I first visited Cwm Cowarch in the early 70’s, there was a hut near Dinas Mawddwy (owned by the Solihull WHA club) in reach of the lovely pub and close to a good start to climb Glasgwm if we didn’t fancy the impressive but impressively vegetated crags of Cwm Cowarch - they were being opened up at that time, I hope they’re cleaner now, they made me think of the old Cumberpatch cartoon of the climber finding a roll of toilet paper installed by the crux of his climb! Parking was limited as you say, and sometimes we walked the couple of miles of tarmac to reach Aran Fawddwy, a mountain that I remember with great affection for its views despite coming very near to being blown off the summit once! Would you believe I was blown right off my feet and rolled along the ground to fetch up against a dilapidated fence guarding the cliff! So, a wind trap of a summit needing care. However, I don’t remember any active discouragement of visitors at that time - the place famous (or infamous) for hostility was the Nantlle pass, where if you dropped off the Nantlle Ridge to escape bad weather you were likely to be marched off a farm at the point of a shotgun!
But the only time anyone that I knew was actually fired upon was in Scotland…
When Dave and myself, left the farmhouse at the start of the ascent the temperature was 10c with virtually no wind. On arriving at the trig, the thermometer showed +1 to 0c with a nasty wind making bungeeing the fishing pole to the trig tricky. We were late and had to keep the activation short with just 14 contacts on 2m FM each.
The drop-off from this summit must make it a candidate for one of the best VHF sites in the country. I suspect a modest colinear would produce spectacular results.
…choose the right gear for the location rather than trusting chance.
I would like to say that I have never knowingly under-activated a summit, but of course that is not true. Circumstances have dictated a couple of rushed activations - Gummers How G/LD-050 in particular springs to mind: dark, wet and windy. Probably would have stayed longer had it been daylight. As for Gisborough, well I had intended putting up the 5 element beam, but the weather was so horrendous that all I could safely use was a dipole. Paul was going to run HF, but sense prevailed and we shared a station - for the first and only time during our 221 joint activations, as far as I can recall.
I always study the summit data, maps and make use of Google Earth prior to each and every activation. Many may know of my comprehensive itineraries which have developed over the years after an early failure to get around a group of WB’s back in 2006 - I thank Richard G4ERP for suggesting their use. I know that pre-planning is not to everyone’s taste, but when it is 1 hour and 20 minutes just to get to Paul’s QTH before we even set out for the hills, it makes good sense to have an accurate assessment of what can be achieved… and indeed, what time to get out of bed.
