I might be heading over to Bala at the weekend and was looking to see which hill I might be able to activate in the short period I am there for.
GW/NW-048, Mynydd Nodol seems an option.
Looking at Catterblog: At last we can travel to Wales for SOTA...
Seems that there might be an option to park off road without causing hassle to other people/motorist/farmers
From google maps
this track looks to be the one the one mentioned in G4OBK write up ?
About right or way off the mark?
Cheers
john
Thanks Robert. Sometimes these narrow roads are hard to park on without causing obstruction, which you don’t want to do!
Hi @M0VAZ John,
Do you use SOTLAS? It gives you every route for all of Wales and England on there that fellow activators have done in the past. They also give a brief description of there parking and route taken. Link below for NW-048:
https://sotl.as/summits/GW/NW-048
Two routes on here for Mynydd Nodol. As Robert states above, park just passed the cattle grid in the layby and walk from there, short but steep.
73, Ben
GW4BML
Hi Ben
I do use SOTLAS. I was looking for the offroad path that OBK parked on to make sure I was well away from cars. I will be using the layby as mentioned by Robert if I get as far as Bala on Saturday.
cheers
John
It’s a nice summit @M0VAZ John with lovely views - I hope the wx is on your side!
73, Ben
GW4BML
Cheers I hope wx is on my side as well.
Hi John. I parked in that exact spot last week (wednesday). No problem at all and i could get my 4x4 completly off the road with no probs. If you come at it from the A4212 from the west (as i did) you might see some “road closed” signs. Not sure what the purpose of these were - maybe it was closed closer to the Bala end & i had no problem with access. Beware the bracken - it’s quite high at the moment for much of the climb & its a bit of a thrash to the top (and down again!). There also a fence to clamber over at the top. But it’s a short but tough little climb, but a nice summit with a collection of stones to shelter behind! Colin GW1KGW/P
Let’s hope your might becomes a will. Nice little summit, easily qualified with a handheld and whip on 2m if you are travelling light.
Good Luck
G4OBK
If the WX is good then its a will. Normally 857 and 2m & HF linked dipole are the plans. Plus a HH as well.
Fingers crossed.
cheers
john
First time I went I parked on the grass at the cattle grid leaving space for anyone to get through the gate if needed and not blocking the passing place.
Other times I’ve parked in the quarry, well off the road, short walk west along the tarmac to get to the track: https://goo.gl/maps/M95M3VqdjTMmjtZB9
There’s another ‘route’ straight up from near the quarry but requires scrambling through heather and probably takes more time than the ‘longer’ route 
GW/NW-039 is a doddle if you come from the north and the parking area isn’t wet/muddy.
GW/NW-032 is a 13km walk but it’s a decent track all the way, just watch out for the ford after wet weather. The first two times the water was higher than my boots so I took them off and paddled through.
Good parking place but pretty hard going straight up - easy navigation as there is a wall (or fence, I forget which) to follow if you find “straight up” confusing. I have done it twice - good training for some of the nastier Scottish hills. 
I lack Phil’s, G4OBK, confidence that 2m on a HH will be good. I failed on 2m ssb (one contact) in the days when 2m ssb was in common SOTA use. (I must have tried 2m FM as well but no record of any contact.)
Good luck,
73,
Rod
I park in the small quarry car park, go through the small gate and follow the track up keeping the fence on the left to a 12 foot gate, then just head up the hill side, towards the top , it’s a bit of a push through the bracken this time of year ,cheers Mark MW7DBF
I am at Pen-y-bont Campsite tonight, just outside the main village of Bala. I arrived yesterday and I activated GW/NW-035 and GW/NW-040 today. Both are straight forward 4 point summits. GW/NW-035 was about 30 minutes away, with GW/NW-040 about another 40 minutes further on. It took an hour to get back to the campsite from GW/NW-040. I could park easily at both summits. The quarry at GW/NW-035 had a large paved area, and there was room for about 3 or 4 cars at GW/NW-040, parking on the verge. There was only one car there today, when I arrived. It turned out that car belonged to another HAM, who I passed on the way up to the summit (he was descending). Neither of us realized the other was a SOTA activator, until much later in the day when the other chap e-mailed me!
I’ll pop a longer activation report up later on.
Good luck with your activation tomorrow!
73s
Dave G7SAT.
Activation gave me 11 contacts and one S2S. Almost made it 3. On the way up I heard
Mw0wml/p & Gw6pjz/p on GW/NW-06 but I was too far away to claim it as S2S.
I parked in the quarry area and walked along the road, I then took the grass Land Rover track on the right and this cut the corner off and saved a walk through ferns.
But more ferns on the hill to the summit!
I will do a report with pics probably tomorrow/Monday.
Cheers
