Getting too old?

Activation Reports
1

I’d been looking forward to the OARC SOTA activity day on the 8th July. I’m on holiday at Glenmore Campsite and the path to Meall a’Bhuacaill starts just across the road. My previous activations had been two 1pt and one 2pt. I was about to find that GM/ES-027 at 4 points was a whole new game for me.

I’d guessed 2 hours for the ascent but, as the stops to admire the scenery got more and more frequent… Well it took 2:45. At the top it was blowing a hooligan and there seemed to be no escape from it. I quickly decided I wouldn’t risk my 7m telescopic mast so 2M FM it would have to be.

I’m really sorry not to complete a first contact with a 2M0 station. I was juggling a Handheld, with a hand Mike. As I. As I held the radio high, my notepad blew away, by the time I got all back in place the station had gone.

At this point I had a sit, and thought what I could do. I saw a big boulder not far off and got some shelter behind it.

Still using the handheld and whip antenna I worked GM0GTU, Stuart in Nairn and shortly after GM4KJQ. All then went quiet.

I decided to try the Slim G on the bottom 4 sections of the mast. Once again I was juggling. Mast in one hand and Mike in the other with a fluffy wind cover. Hoping I wouldn’t have to QSY I put out a call, and there was Fraser, MM0EFI/P on GM/ES-018. I recognised his voice before getting his call sign. He said to QSY… A bit of juggling later and we managed to complete the QSO. I was getting a QRM carrier on all channels above 145.500 with the Slim G. I put out a few more calls, but nothing. Just one more to activate.

I took down the mast and the Slim G, and back to the whip. It finally dawned on me that the contacts were to the North or East, and there was lump of hill to my north. So I skirted round to the North. There was no shelter, so I just crouched down in the blaeberries and made contact with GM1TGY in Aberlour, and the heard “summit to summit” it was MM7SHX/P on GM/CS-109.

At this point I decided it was time to go back down. I’d made 5 contacts, 2 summit to summits with OARC members.

And that is when I felt every bit of 67 years of wear an tear. The descent was, frankly, quite scary. My legs were giving up. With hindsight I think it was low blood sugar, but I was getting quite anxious about falling. It took much longer than I expected to get back to the motor home, but I made it in one piece.
Oh and the “Getting too old”, that was the excuse i was ready to give the guy yomping up the hill while I was enjoying my penultimate scenic break. As he got closer I realised he was a good 10 years older than me. So no excuses, but I think my next activations will be 1 or 2 pt hills till I get a bit fitter.

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2

Mike, Thanks for the S2S. Well done on the activation and getting more contacts on 2m FM than I did from that spot. I had one.

I don’t usually bother with a QSY on 2m, as traffic is quiet, but given you and I were calling CQ over the top of one another, I thought it wise on this occasion.

Thanks for the Complete!

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Well done persevering under trying conditions. I’ve been doing SOTA for less than a year but have also found the “step up” from 1 & 2 pointers to be a bit steep at times, especially if the weather is not benign.
Andy
MM7MOX

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Well you made it Mike so don’t write off other similar peaks. And you wisely took your time. Maybe a snack bar and a water bottle should be in your kit.

What are your plans to get fitter? I can tell you that I’ve never been able to get fitter by either thinking I should or by sticking with the same exercise routine.

Age has now overtaken my modest exercise routine and it was clarified last month when my legs turned to jelly on an ascent. As I was only halfway up and the climb did not get any less steep I reluctantly headed down. Gingerly. With a tinge of regret knowing this was a hill too high and I am down to the bottom of the barrell, drive ups.

If I were a mere 67 I might have trotted up but I’m not and I couldn’t. That’s now the official retirement age here so the Public Service considers you battle ready until that birthday.

We need to choose our grandparents carefully. A friend who is now 87 steams around a shopping centre at 7 am, including up and down stairs, for an hour as part of his every second day outing.

Good luck with the next challenge Mike.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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I’m glad that you had a successful activation and overcame the windy conditions.

It’s a pity that some fluke of propagation didn’t connect you to many stations on the hills in GW land.

I am 57, until tomorrow, and still consider myself young, or at least not really old. Yesterday brought an amusing anecdote when someone remarked how they were surprised that a well known activator was much older than they looked; they’re really old, he’s probably nearly your age. A well deserved complement for the other activator and a chuckle for me as they desperately tried to back track. No names have been mentioned in order to protect the innocent.

73, Kevin MW0KXN

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Thanks for the kind words Ron. The ascent took longer than I expected, but I felt OK. I did have some lightweight bar, but it had the texture and flavour of chip board. It was supposed to be Maple and Dark Chocolate.

I’m not sure about getting fitter and stronger. I’ve been working on that for about 2 years after 3 sets of treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. When I started I could barely climb a flight of stairs. So quite an improvement. I’m going to aim to do 2 lower summits a week for a while and then start trying higher ones.

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GM summits are quite tough compared with many other associations. Don’t worry about doing different summits either. You can keep repeating the same summit and see if your times improve. No, you don’t get to claim points for repeats in the same year but who cares. You get to be the DX and so you can practice your SOTA hillcraft and measure your fitness improvements. And you have all the others to do when you are fitter.

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GM summits range from “hands in pockets doddles” to “get the ropes out”, but tend to have long walk-ins on rough ground.

In Mikes shoes I would build up strength and technique by picking the easy ones, those with good paths, well spaced contour lines and a high starting point. Many of the lower ones, particularly if there are higher ones nearby, tend to have at best rudimentary paths, so sometimes the higher summits are easier! Anyway, nobody is timing you! Take as many rests - sorry, photography breaks - as you need to keep you enjoying the experience.

When I neared 80 my family got on to me to stop the foolishments of solo ascents and like a fool I listened to them. It chafed, I shall probably start again, because as a famous climber said, “you can take a man out of the mountains but you cannot take the mountains out of a man”.

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I sometimes feel the “getting too old” thing at my age of 53 minus 9 days. In reality, it is probably more the discomfort of steep descents with a touch of exposure and being a couple of stones overweight that I am feeling.

What inspires me to keep going is the sheer numbers of people my age and up to 30 years senior who are extremely active and physically capable in SOTA. It reminds me that (a) I’ve still got plenty of time left and (b) I need to lose some weight and get fitter.

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Well Done, young man! Keep going after those “easier ones”
We’re designed to move.

All Best, Ken K6HPX

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11

Hope that’s not me :slight_smile: At 66 I figure “use it or lose it” and I’m keeping going as long as I can !

Cheers & Beers

Rick

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12

YOU ARE NEVER TO OLD! At your age you are just taking a break for the next quarter of a century. We all have to do it sometime. Keep up the good work, it gets easier.
Jack

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13

Thanks for the report and the S2S! Meall a’Bhuacaill is a lovely spot, although I might be biased as I got engaged on the banks of Lochan Uaine. :slight_smile:

Well done on activating the summit on 2m!

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14

Oops :rofl::see_no_evil:

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The green lochan is a favourite walk here. Did that with daughter and son-in-law the first week we were at Glenmore Campsite. And then again with my sister-in-law and her husband last week.

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Welcome to the SOTA reflector Mike,
Very interested in your write-up - a story well told - and empathetic to what you say. ES27 doesn’t look ideal for VHF due to its surroundings so well done on your perseverance.

I know from experience that four pointers in Scotland are a lot harder than 6 or even some 8 pointers in England so you could try south of the border sometime?

Keep doing a few smaller ones and you’ll gradually get fitter. I find fitness is hard gained and soon lost. Good luck and stick with it.
73, John

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17

Indeed. You can never be too old. But you can be too dead. Live it while you can!

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Mike,
That was an even better effort when put in the context of post op recovery. I had a plan to activate a summit 3 months after a significant op and was able to achieve that. It gives a focus to regaining health. You have youth on your side, relatively speaking, and the advantage of a lot of mountaineering in the past. Go for it.

Brian,
My xyl gets nervous about my solo efforts. Sometimes she comes along to supervise any recovery operation. Sometimes I invite another Club member along, both of us telling our xyls that the other guy will sort things out if there is a problem.

Good luck with your next activation.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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19

Too old? Pah… :thinking:

At 83 when we met him the second time, he could still canoe all day, and on portages he can carry both his canoe and his personal kit in one go, without a rest. Probably around 70kg in total. Some of the portages on the river are extremely difficult, steep, and several KMs in length,

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Good for him. He is exceptional. But by 83 most SOTA activators are looking at easy peaks and chasing. We are not exceptional.

In fact half of us are no longer alive at that age.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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