Yes myself and himself, Gerald G4OIG, have a plan to do Kirriereoch together, maybe this month or October. It’s a rubbish drive for me and a long one for Gerald so the plan is to stay locally the night before. None of this camping rubbish, somewhere with beds and bacon and eggs in the morning Mullwharchar is for next April probably.
Both are based on Andrew G4VFL’s routes. Kirriereoch is about 1h30 ish from the far car park. A recce when doing Lamachan Hill the other week showed the gates were closed and locked, so no far car park That adds and extra 50mins walk. Andrew’s route for Mullwharchar is about 3hrs from Bruce’s Stone car park and has some fearsome mud on the walk through the felled forest. It’s probably doable now after the recent dry spell. There’s maybe enough light to do it in October but you need 3 hrs out and 3 hrs back ('coz we will be tired) and say 2hrs on the top. We’ll see.
Now it just happened Jack was planning Kirriereoch and he was in touch with Andrew just after me. We had a long chat about this attempt yesterday when I was on Ben Venue. (It was a trivial 2m FM contact, 59 both ways, probably LOS to Jack’s QTH). Lots was discussed about this, Jack was going to take his bike to speed up the 3km between the farm and the far car park.
The problem with trying to complete something like this is I get bored going to the same parts of the worlds again and again. Ben Venue yesterday is fundamentally different terrain and mountains to Galloway but it’s only 80miles between Ben Venue and Lamachan Hill. So I go and do some other hills and then the WX isn’t brilliant so instead of working to completion I’ll do something less involved that still gets me up a hill.
However I do plan a few more after the remaining 2 which I should be activating with my 96 year old dad later this year.
The remaining GM/SS will focus on activating ones needed for chasers. Some of GM/SS summits are so rarely activated the activation must be coordained with the chaser to make it work. A trip to Cowal last week showed me why some of these are rarely activated.
SOTLAS does not do chase maps or band specific maps so these maps are derived from the SOTA database and processed on SQL to get a .kml file to upload to google earth.
As you are probably aware I tend to be a 2m/4m/13cm operator in this area.
If there is sufficient demand I will consider QO-100 for summits that won’t kill me with all the kit and I would have to drop the high power 2m/4m operation. So it will be for summits out of coverage from the Forth Clyde valley.
I think it would make sense if between yours and Andy @MM0FMF’s SOTA activations of Kirriereoch GM/SS-287 and Mullwharchar GM/SS-073 that you activate Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272 and White Hill GM/SS-289 and Andy MM0FMF activates Craiglee GM/SS-150. This would mean that when you both activate Mullwharchar GM/SS-073, it will mean that both of you would have activated all GM/SS SOTA summits south of Glasgow and Edinburgh at the same time and you can both celebrate as well, maybe by both of you drinking a bottle of beer on the summit of Mullwharchar GM/SS-073.
I think I’d wait to get back to the car first before having a beer. Probably more sensible down the road at the pub with a meal… You need all the senses you can muster to cope with Galloway ground. I wouldn’t fancy a trip to the local A & E. Been there once this year.
Congratulations Andy on activating all the GM/SS SOTA summit south of Glasgow and Edinburgh. That is a great achievement especially as I know of quite of lot of the GM/SS SOTA summits in Galloway are very difficult.
I can see Gerald @G4OIG is activating Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272 on Saturday 4th November for the Transatlantic summit to summit event meaning that after then he will only have Mullwharchar GM/SS-073 left to activate to activate all GM/SS SOTA summits south of Glasgow and Edinburgh. I know that Gerald G4OIG is planning to activate Mullwharchar GM/SS-073 sometime next year with Andy @MM0FMF and this will then leave Andy MM0FMF left with only Craiglee GM/SS-150 to activate all GM/SS SOTA summits south of Glasgow and Edinburgh. I know that Andy MM0FMF once tried to walk to the summit of Craiglee GM/SS-150 to activate it for SOTA, but had to turn back after getting stuck in bog. Hopefully one day Andy MM0FMF will make another attempt at Craiglee GM/SS-150 to activate it for SOTA, maybe with someone who knows the route to this summit.
I have noticed as well that Jack @GM4COX still has Stob Odhar GM/SS-137, Cruach Lusach GM/SS-183, Cnoc a’Bhaile-shios GM/SS-213, Cruach nam Fearna GM/SS-247, Windy Hill GM/SS-265 and Cnoc Reamhar GM/SS-266. If Jack GM4COX did activate these mentioned GM/SS SOTA summits, he would be the first ever person to activate all GM/SS SOTA summits.
Yes Andrew those Red pushpins have been outstanding since 2019. Was intending to ‘polish’ them off in 2020, but a wee bug (Covid) decided to intervene. And what a lovely Spring it was through early 2020 (best time of year to Activate these ‘lowly’ summits).
Likewise, in 2021 we were restricted with travel movements and other amateur activities intervened (and of course our 13cms S2S’s/Activations/Chases through 2022) and family health issues.
Hopefully, I’ll be back on the case next year with SS-265 (along with possibly Anne GM4UXX - XYL) being the last of the SS’s - inc all the latterly added - all Activated (and Completed).
And just for the record, Activated all the SS’s (as was) south of Glasgow/Edinburgh to the Scottish Border (the proper south of Scotland - hi!) on the 27th December 2012 with Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272. And again, finally completed with GM/SS-287 (13cms/2m) on the 6th September this year.
And full SS SOTA Completes south of Glasgow/Edinburgh with GM/SS-211 Activated on the 16/02/08 by Andrew G(M)4VFL (Derek 2(M)EMIX) and ‘bagged’ S2S with myself on GM/SS-282 (13cms/2M) to make sure I got it for the last Complete. Had just been waiting some 15 years - hi!
Thanks Andrew with your help on both. Appreciated!!
Must be half asleep this afternoon, and read my replies more closely - hi. Should read:
“… with GM/SS-211 Activated on the 16/02/08 by myself, and by Andrew G(M)4VFL (Derek 2(M)EMIX) and ‘bagged’ S2S with myself on GM/SS-282 (13cms/2M) on 10/08/23, to make sure I got it for the last Complete …”
Congratulations to Andy @MM0FMF and Gerald @G4OIG who have now activated all GM/SS SOTA uniques south of Glasgow and Edinburgh excluding Kintyre. I believe the only people to have previously activated all GM/SS SOTA uniques south of Glasgow and Edinburgh excluding Kintyre are Jack @GM4COX and Andy @G4VFL. Jack GM4COX also has 6 remaining GM/SS SOTA uniques which I believe he plans to activate before 2024 ends and this will probably make Jack GM4COX the first ever SOTA activator to activate all GM/SS SOTA summits.
Many thanks for the congratulations Jimmy. It was a long hard day for the likes of Andy and myself, but we both enjoyed ourselves… report(s) to come in due course. Thankfully we live to activate another day. In my case I will never complete a GM region, but it’s certainly good fun racking up the Uniques up there regardless.
Cheers Jimmy. It was really made possible by having Andrew G4VFL’s track. We improved on it in a few places when one or both of us failed to notice changes in direction and kept following other paths! Only when the GPS beeps stopped did I check further.
Mullwharchar is for next April probably.
That adds and extra 50mins walk. Andrew’s route for Mullwharchar is about 3hrs from Bruce’s Stone car park and has some fearsome mud on the walk through the felled forest. It’s probably doable now after the recent dry spell. There’s maybe enough light to do it in October but you need 3 hrs out and 3 hrs back ('coz we will be tired) and say 2hrs on the top. We’ll see.
