I set out from the Forestry car park on Dumyat at 1130 last Sunday (the 22nd), in pretty fair conditions despite the forecast for rain. Never having climbed it before, I had somewhat overestimated the climb - but also my fitness, so the two more-or-less cancelled out.
The climb is gentle and easy, with a few boggy spots which I almost always managed to avoid. It had been wet in the week before, so perhaps not a surprise; I was wearing walking shoes rather than boots, and I think it was the right decision, but had it been any wetter I may have regretted it.
Around two thirds of the way up, I paused for a water break and to take in the view; the wind was definitely noticeable at this point, but the view over Stirlingshire to the west and Clackmannanshire to the east meant I was happy to linger for a few minutes before continuing.
The last third of the summit got steeper and scrambly in a few places. I skipped the detour to the old hill fort, and instead ploughed onwards. Arriving at the summit fifteen minutes after schedule, I touched the brazier and then retreated a short distance to get away from the big lump of metal and out of the wind, which by that point was getting gusty enough to leave me unsteady standing.
I self-spotted, set up my rig - a Baofeng DM32UV handheld matched with a home-made handheld dual-band flowerpot - and called CQ, fifteen minutes after my planned ETA. In quick succession I got QSOs with @GM0AXY, @GM4COX, and @GM4YMM, who all reported a good signal. I later learned that there were other stations replying who I couldn’t hear, which became a bit of a theme for the day.
After hearing a couple of signals which I was receiving as intermittent to the point of incomprehensibility, I opted to reposition and moved around to the southwest of the summit, losing a few metres of elevation in exchange for a slightly better view over Stirling. However, in the twenty or thirty minutes I was there I wasn’t able to make any more contacts, despite calling and knowing there was at least one station listening in Edinburgh. So I gritted my teeth, repositioned into the wind, and was able to make contact with @MM3BMK, @MM1ROS (who I later learned had been replying to most of my CQ calls before we finally managed a contact - thanks, Ross!) and @MM7MOX on North Berwick Law, marking my first S2S.
At that point, with no more clear signals coming through and the windchill getting to me, and having spent an hour on the summit, I opted to QRT and pack up. I ended up using hiking poles for most of the descent to protect my slightly dodgy knees, and despite the local fell runners (and a couple of parents carrying kids on shoulders) making me feel a little silly, I kept them out, and they helped me through some bog.
I returned to the carpark at 1445, which - given an hour on the summit - leaves me having done 8km and 300m of climbing in 2 hours and fifteen minutes. A fair place to start.
My thanks to those who made QSOs with me; my apologies to those returning who I couldn’t hear. I’ll be adding some extra height to my antenna for my next outing, though I think the handheld is at least partly to blame. I’ve definitely been bitten by the bug, and as my gear and planning improves I hope to iron out some of the kinks from this activation.
