It had been a fair few weeks since my last SOTA activation, one that hadn’t ended particularly well. It had also been just a day short of a year since my very first ever SOTA activation. Whatever else it might have been, the important thing was that I had a Monday off work, no other engagements, and an absolutely fantastic looking weather forecast on my side.
The small problem I had however, was that my driving licence had recently expired, so until I could get a new one in the post from the DVLA, I was stuck with whatever I could activate from the train. Thankfully, the West Highland Line passes quite a few nice summits between Glasgow and Oban/Mallaig, so my choice was mainly based on what I could squeeze in with the timetables and rapidly decreasing daylight availability. I opted for the easiest possible option, and picked GM/SS-016, Beinn Narnain, with the option of adding GM/SS-006 Beinn Ime if time allowed.
These two hills had also been the first Munros I did as an adult (I’d done a couple at school etc.) back in 2012, and that time, I’d done the slightly foolish thing of taking the main path up the glen towards Beinn Ime, then on the return leg branching off towards Beinn Narnain, then dropping down the steep front face of Beinn Narnain back down towards Arrochar. This time, the plan was to ascend the steep scrambly bits on the way up to Beinn Narnain, then either drop back down to the bealach and home via the main path, or scoot out and back to Beinn Ime from there.
The train got me into Arrochar & Tarbet just before 10:00, and I then followed the path up the hill out of the station and round the shoulder of GM/SS-218 Cruach Tairbeirt, before dropping down into Arrochar and heading round the top of Loch Long to the start of the hill paths. The car parks at the head of the Loch had clearly taken a bit of a battering from the previous weekend’s storms, with the local council workers having to use a mini digger to clear mountains of flotsam and jetsam off the paths and roadways.
Once I got up onto the hills, the weather conditions were absolutely perfect. I’d expected a bit of a fresh one from a crisp sunny day in November, but the lack of wind meant that I was soon making my way up Beinn Narnain with just a t-shirt on top. With a bit of height gained, there were soon views through the pass at Tarbet to Loch Lomond, with a nicely lit GM/SS-011 Ben Lomond behind.
Another welcome bonus on the way up Beinn Narnain was the view down Loch Long to the Firth of Clyde, with GM/SS-246 Ailsa Craig just about visible on the horizon, and the various other islands, including the dramatic skyline of Arran making an appearance too.
The climb up to Beinn Narnain is a pretty relentless one, it seems to stay pretty steep most of the way, and probably reaches its hardest point at the rocky pinnacles which I think were named as the Spearhead on the map, with a wee bit of light scrambling required up a rocky gully. It did look like there were alternative options available to the right hand side, but with the rock being nice and dry, the route straight up the middle seemed appealing.
After the last wee bit of climbing, the summit itself is a fairly spacious plateau, and I set up my Slim G on the 4m fibreglass pole on a small rise just to the east of the summit marker. For a Monday, the hill was reasonably busy, but there was plenty of room for everyone. I even got to practice a wee bit of my ropey Spanish while taking a couple of summit photos for some overseas visitors.
I managed to rack up 11 QSOs on 2 metres in about a 25 minute period. It was one of those days where I’d have gladly hung around and chatted all afternoon, but I started weighing up the possibility of being able to get another activation over on Beinn Ime and still making it down in time for a sensible train home. One highlight was getting to hear that Archie @GM4KNU had been given the all-clear to get back out on the hills after some injury troubles, but I also owe Peter @GM7STP an apology for getting his name wrong, sorry! 
You can maybe see in this photo why I didn’t want to leave. You can probably also see the remnants of my last SOTA activation visible on the bridge of my nose!
Anyway, I started to pick my way through the rocks back down to the Bealach a’ Mhaim, and very quickly started back into hauling myself straight back uphill towards Beinn Ime. As I was approaching the summit, I could hear @MM7DGC making his first ever simplex QSO with the familiar voice of @MM9PDY from Blairskaith Muir on the edge of Glasgow - they would be my first two contacts on what would need to be a very swift activation on GM/SS-006 Beinn Ime.
While I normally like to have a wee short chat on my activations, this time it was all business, managing to get 10 QSOs in about 11 minutes before deciding that was enough. On this summit, I didn’t even bother sticking the Slim G in the air, opting to give my recently-replaced RH-770 its first proper hill outing, and it performed admirably on the FT-270.
Thankfully, the minimal rig meant minimal packup time, and I was trying to get back down the hill as rapidly as possible to make sure I didn’t miss my intended train - I would’ve had about two and a half hours to wait for the next one. A special mention needs to go to @MM9CRT who saw my spot and cycled up his local hill to try and chase me - I was able to make a QSO, but only by the time I was about 100 vertical metres below the activation zone height.
As I was descending, the light was just getting better and better, with the sun lowering in the sky and casting long shadows to greater emphasise the shape of the land. A particular favourite view was the one across Loch Lomond towards Loch Arklet and Loch Katrine with GM/SS-023 Ben Ledi behind.
Despite the longer-than-I-remembered drop down the main path past the Narnain Boulders down towards Arrochar, the brevity on Beinn Ime paid off, and I was able to make it back to Arrochar & Tarbet station with about ten minutes to spare, although I’m not sure if I saved or cost myself time by opting to take the longer but flatter route round the road from the village to the station rather than the Cowal Way path.
Oh, and I didn’t end up in hospital this time, so that was a bonus!
I’m sorry there is no need to apologise for that ! 
