The 4 point(less) list
Mike @2M0WNA made a good point at our lunch last Friday. “Geallaig Hill has to be the easiest 4 point summit around here”. He’d just activated it that morning. I hadn’t thought of it like that, however it is a hill that has easy access, a reasonably high starting point, a vehicle track to the top and 360° of shelter, thanks to a substantial circle of rocks. A great hill for SOTA, no matter the weather.
Thursday 13th February 2025
Fast forward almost a week. We’d had a bit more snow, and the weather had been pretty cool and cloudy. I was going into work at 1300 for my (last ever) late shift and fancied knocking off a morning summit. GM/ES-036 would do nicely.
I left home at 0830. 25 minutes later I was at the foot of the hill track, 360m ASL, with 383m to climb over 3km. The track was snowed up from the off, but no ice, so I made steady progress and reached the top after around 45 minutes. It was cold. A slight but icy breeze. Snow inside and outside of the cairn. A helpful trig point with the cap missing and no rubbish in the hole. LoRa announced my presence.
back to the parking and the minor road that runs from Crathie to Gairnshiel Bridge
I popped the carbon 6 in the hole, hoisted the Slim-G and connected my freshly charged Yaesu ft-60. It was freshly charged because I’d finally found the charger. I spotted just before 1000. Calls on 2m brought Alex @GM5ALX and Chris @2M0RVZ. Disappointingly, that was all for VHF.
as good a shelter as there is around these hills
Given the handily located mast and relative shelter of my position, I was reluctant to move the pole. Instead of rigging the 41’ random as an inverted-V, I went for a vertical with sloping end. A small carabiner fitted into the top section and the wire easily slid through. The remainder was chucked out into the snow. My winder alone is usually enough to hold it down in light winds. Same for the counterpoise - lobbed over the cairn wall.
40m SSB was the band of choice and it worked rather well. A good spread of stations across GM/G/GW/EI as well as some further afield that I haven’t heard on 40m for a long time. One station said I was splattering a bit. Never heard that before with my KX2 & 10w. Maybe the novel antenna arrangement? Anyway, by 1030 the pile up had subsided and I’d added 25 chasers to my log.
on HF
I started to pack up and then I remembered! Andy @MM7MOX had PM’d me last night. He was going to be on GM/SS-104 at 1100 this morning and was keen for a summit-to-summit. I text’d him. “15 mins out” was the reply. With time to kill, I packed everything away bar the mast, slim-G and ft-60. Then I started to realise how cold it was. Helicopter arms helped the hands, but my snow covered boots contained frigit feet that wouldn’t warm up. 3 season boots today and I was missing the thick insulating leather of my Scarpa Mantas.
Thankfully Andy got a move on and was up a bit early. We had a nice 2m S2S, with good reports each way. I immediately packed the remaining kit up and set off down the hill. It was now after 1100 and I had to get down (40 mins) home (25 mins), showered (10 mins), fed (10 mins) and drive to work (40 mins). That is 2 hours and 5 minutes.
a frozen S2S with @MM7MOX
And that is why I was 5 minutes late for work today. Thankfully I’m the boss 
A very subjective list
GM/ES has more than its fair share of 4 point heathery lumps. Twenty eight to be precise. Here they are listed in order of difficulty. This is my own criteria, based on length of hike, path or no path, and possibly how I actually felt on the day I did it! Where two naturally combine into one outing, they may have been elevated in difficulty and may be easier if tackled seperately. Told you it was subjective!
the top three entries are pairs of hills. Land Rover for scale
Alex @GM5ALX would probably have his computer figure this out, which is exactly why I went for a fully analogue method.
73,
Fraser MM0EFI
🏴
