Continuation of the “GM Holiday” thread…
@MM0FMF - You’re obviously not following Jimmy on Facebook! if you were, you would know there was absolutely no need to urge him to “take plenty of photos” of anything when he’s out walking!
If you want to see several hundred photos of every minute aspect of Belling Hill when we do it, get on FB, and add Jimmy as a friend.
Hi Tom and Jimmy
Here are my quick comments based on my recent activations of these summits. You may have a different view depending on the routes you use.
I have a tentative pass out for Wed and Fri. So there may be some S2S if the times and weather work out.
Sun12:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-289 White Hill 250 m
Easy walk from the farm. Parking a bit tricky
Sun15:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-249 Grange Fell 319 m
A bit tricky, the last section to the summit the firebreaks had closed up so it is a bit tricky. I can let you have my track just to show me going is circles looking for a break to the summit !
Mon09:30z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-122 The Wiss 589 m
Easy
Mon12:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-140 Turner Cleuch Law 551 m
Take a zig zag, the direct route is a bit steep
Mon14:30z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-179 Cacra Hill 471 m
Surrounded by deer fences, there is a road almost to the AZ
Tue10:30z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-168 Law Kneis 499 m
Tough if you get into the wrong bits of forest with fallen trees. Follow my route and you should be OK. It is a long way round if you avoid the forest.
06 Sep15:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-119 Ward Law 594 m
Easy, You can drive the Community Forest section and park so I was told by some volunteers there. However you do need some ground clearance.
07 Sep11:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-082 Capel Fell 678 m
Easy
07 Sep14:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-074 Ettrick Pen 692 m
Easy, park at the end of the tarmac. There are loads of notices saying do not drive to the bothy.
08 Sep11:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-083 Andrewhinney Hill 677 m
Easy, there is plenty of parking BUT think that timber lorries will have to turn / pass so allow the space for this to happen
09 Sep11:30z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-197 Hownam Law 449 m
Easy
09 Sep14:00z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-244 Belling Hill 354 m
Easy if you stick to the road and the forest breaks. Terrible for VHF QSOs
09 Sep16:30z MM0HGY/P GM/SS-210 Rubers Law 424 m
Easy, follow the path
73 de
Andrew G(M)4VFL
Colwyn’s route up the firebreak is easier. Beware new electric fence running across the top.
I have a Dacia Duster. It has more ground clearance than a Porsche 911, but not that of a Land Rover. I shall have to see…
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for these route suggestions. We will be following your routes for the majority of these SOTA summits, but with some exceptions though. For Grange Fell GM/SS-249, we will take advantage of Andy @MM0FMF’s route as the quarry is closed that day with it being on Sunday, providing that the fence beside the road to access Grange Bank has not been mended.
For Capel Fell GM/SS-082 and Ettrick Pen GM/SS-074, we will be doing these as a circular walk which Martyn @M1MAJ and Caroline @M3ZCB describe as the Ettrick Horseshoe, but I believe that the descent of Ettrick Pen GM/SS-074 matches your route though.
For Andrewhinney Hill GM/SS-083, we will be following a route similar to yours and will be following Ian @MM0MXW’s route which appears to have a better track than your route.
Regarding Turner Cleauch Law GM/SS-140, we will be following your route rather than Andy @MM0FMF’s route route as your route starts at exactly the same parking spot as The Wiss GM/SS-122.
All these plans could change though if WX is bad, WX on the forecast so far for Sunday and Monday look unsettled, but will hopefully improve nearer the time. One thing we won’t be doing though is walking up any SOTA summits when it’s chucking it down with rain.
Jimmy M0HGY
Arrived at Tushielaw Inn in GM/SS. Everything fantastic, just enjoyed a nice meal. The only thing unfantastic was Andy @MM0FMF’s route up Grange Fell GM/SS-249 was was truly awful. I plotted a different descent route which was much better.
Jimmy M(M)0HGY
Not mine but Phil’s G4OBK route. Apart from me ignoring the GPS it was simple. But I did it in May so the grasses etc. would be less grown than now. And probably the forest rides have closed up somewhat as the branches have grown. But you will have taken your folding pruning saw with you if you were going up a forest ride.
Not Guilty m’Lud…
73 G4OBK
Here’s the GPS track including the 2 places where I just kept walking and didn’t follow the GPS. Lots of track points missing as there was so much forest it was reducing the number of sats the GPS could see. Computer says 34mins to the top.
It was good to work you on the summits today.
I gather the trees on Grange Fell have grown some more since I was there in Jan 2020. You will see my track would have been unhelpful as I also had a tour round. You did jolly well to get to the summit at the time you alerted.
I went to do the 80m challenge, highly unusual for me to do HF, there was not enough space on the summit to string a dipole ! I cut it to 60m and haven’t done HF since.
Your Monday’s itinerary should be OK. I will try to be at a better site than the Bigrigg TV mast, it was a bit tricky to work you today,
73 de
Andrew G4VFL
Hi Andrew,
There was a couple of fallen trees blocking our 2nd to last intended firebreak to the summit so walked a longer way round to get to this summit. Grange Back before this had ferns/bracken as tall of us and the first firebreak up the hill was full of nettles which stung both me and my dad Tom M1EYP a few times even though we were wearing long trousers.
We then descended by following some firebreaks to a track which we then followed to the road and met the road west of the quarry and walked along the road to the car outside the quarry. We had to keep amending our alert times as we were behind schedule. It was good to work you from both summits and I look forward to working you tomorrow.
Jimmy M(M)0HGY
Hi Jimmy
I am walking from Hartsop going up to Stoney Cove Pike with a group today starting about 9.30am. If the group have enough energy we’ll walk to High Street then down to Hartsop. It’s clear to the north throughout the walk so I will have a handheld on Squelch on S20 listening out for you.
73 Phil G4OBK
Hi Phil,
Maybe work you summit to summit later today.
Jimmy M(M)0HGY
These Scottish summits are a bit harder than their English counterparts aren’t they? Knackered dot com. (And scaling back alerts accordingly…)
That’s why the midges are so strong !
73 de
Andrew G(M)4VFL
On the plus side, three activations in and no midge mither so far.
What was the issue with the ascent of The Wiss? I do it from Tibbie Shiels Inn where it’s about 1hr10 to the top.
We did it from the road near Tushielaw. Jimmy had the idea of doing two summits from one parking spot. But we ended up just doing one anyway, so the ascent from the other side would have been better. I was also hampered by fatigue of last few days (working/driving/hillwalking) catching up with me.
Early night tonight and hopefully back on form tomorrow.
Tom you should take advantage of the Macc radio group that you run and post/alert or even tag in there … Especially if you are using CW!
I would have done - if there was any chance of working into Macc! As it was, Jimmy was using 2m FM and i was doing 20m mostly - so his sigs weren’t reaching there, while mine were jumping over and well beyond!
