My first Munro since discovering SOTA,and after about a 20 plus year break in climbing Munro’s and pleasantly suprised that I’m not feeling that tired…
We used the tourist route up Ben More which is really just a slog, but it was probably sensible rather than anything more adventurous. wx was hazy sun and about a 15 MPH wind - so really quite good for Scotland in April.
Must admit that it is nice not to have quite so many other walkers as the Lakes or Dales, although the down side is that it may be difficult to get this as a complete!
As I had my son and oldest daughter with me as well as Woody so time on the summit was limited. I decided on 40m using a linked dipole with my KX2, the combination seemed to work really well with what seemed like a huge pileup. I was also listening on 2m but I’m afraid that was a bit neglected as 40 was so busy.
So apologies to anyone I missed, and thanks to all the chasers. I may try something smaller tomorrow.
Looks like you had excellent weather. I walked off the back of Ben More in cloud once in error. Compasses don’t work on the summit due to magnetic rock!
I attend the Mull rally every October. This time we’re going for a week. We usually climb Ben More if the weather is ok, so watch out!
Back in 2001 I went on a solo road trip to Mull. I’d just turned 22 and it felt like a big adventure for me. I bought an FT817 for the trip, although in the end I think I only managed one QSO on HF from Mull.
I spent the week camping at different campsites and I tried to do as much sightseeing as I could. One of the suggested activities was to climb Ben More (GM/SI-003). I wasn’t in to hill walking then, but I had climbed the 3000ft+ (IIRC x 14) summits in Ireland a few years before, on a school trip.
I didn’t have any proper gear but I walked up Ben More with little effort, in fact I passed a guy about half way up on his way down and I caught him up again near the bottom! Those were the days, young and full of energy!
I didn’t take my FT817 up Ben More, SOTA hadn’t been launched at that time.
Ben More is on my target list to re-visit, I will make it back there one day!
Thanks for the report, it brought back some nice memories.
Decided to do a nice little one pointer on Ulva, and although it was very good it was also very hard work. The plan was to catch the ferry (no vehicles) early, do the hill and meet the rest of the family in the cafe for lunch… 5km walk and a 300m climb… well it was harder than it looked and if anything tougher than Ben More. The tracks around the island are easy to follow but on leaving the track it was really quite rough. There was probably a more sensible way up but the route we chose from Cragaig was loose and a bit of a scramble. In summer the bracken would make it very difficult. The return was to the north so we walked down the track from Gometra.
The island is interesting in that it had a population of over 600 on the past and just a handful now but there is lots of development work to make it sustainable.
40m was brilliant again for inter G and nearby Europe, but we didn’t stay and play as we were due to meet the rest of the family at the excellent Boathouse Cafe (Prawns bread and Cheese all brilliant)
So an interesting hill (this is an advert so I can get a complete….) but probably not once the bracken is waist height…. Paul, Woody and today Emily,
