I was pleased to have another chance to exercise my international CEPT privileges and operate again in Ireland as EI/WN3F, starting this past Monday. We were fortunate to have warm sunny weather for the longer outings.
Two non-hams were with me, so my activations were a little shorter than they might have been. We all agreed to try and climb Broaghnabinnia EI/IS-019 in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks so that I might activate it for the first time. We drove to park west of the mountain at a wide spot in the road. We lost time trying a more direct approach (turned back by bog) and wound up passing through gates on a farm property where we saw signs for the Kerry Way path. From there we worked around to find a route up the west ridge - the southern face of the ridge seemed most tractable. Slow going with a mix of tricky scramble and heavy bracken ferns, then becoming very steep. A bit higher up, a fence follows the ridge line (below photo)
The summit was open with a good view of Carrauntoohil (EI/IS-001) (background in below)
Four QSOs on 20m CW including two calls I recognized made me very happy!
I didn’t stay longer as it was late in the day and I expected a very tricky descent.
Above photo taken along the descent of Broaghnabinnia
We made camp at Cronin’s Yard and climbed Carrauntoohil in the morning on Tuesday, ascending Devil’s Ladder. More amazing views all along the route and 20 QSOs at the top.
We descended via the Heavenly Gates route (a little tricky scrambling required, but I think a better way to descend in good weather) - photos below taking during that descent.
On the way back to eastern Ireland yesterday, we did a quick ascent up Arderin, EI/IE-019 (14 minutes from car park to summit) up a shallow slope with fields of heather I think. Strange not to have sheep all around after the last two summits.
Here’s me trying to pick anything out of a little pileup.
It was great hearing some callsigns familiar to me from my activations on the US east coast. Thanks to all the chasers for their patience with my limited skill in Morse code.
