I headed to Cadair Berwyn, G/WB-012, today, Sat 23-04-2022, with my daughter Alice, M7SQT and friend David M0YDH and son Tom 2E0TKH. We parked on the summit of the B4391 mountain road to Bala and made the long trudge over the moorland to Moel Sych and then on to Cadair Berwyn - about 4.2 miles each way. I had intended opearating on HF and Alice duly carried all of the heavy equipment - this had the effect of making her walk even faster!! David and I just about managed to keep our children in sight and duly arrived on a misty and extremely windy summit of Cadair Berwyn. Conditions were too poor for stretching out HF wire dipoles so we billeted ourselves in the summit shelter. MW0YDH kicked off on 2m FM and then I took over with QSO’s with SOTA chaser favourites 2E0LKC (Mark) and 2E0LMD (Anne) at Radio Heald Green. M7DJM (David in Walsall) was my fourth contact, who took me to the magic total of 1003 activator points. After a few more QSO’s, M7SQT took over and made 4 contacts. Tom was getting too cold to operate and it was even a bit too cold to drink the celebratory beer!
We headed back the way we came and had the strong wind behind us. We drove down into the valley and stopped at The Railway in Penybontfawr - a lovely little pub where Three Tuns XXX beer, cider and guiness exercise rehabilitation liquor was enjoyed.
A lovely day our and I’m sure M0YDH will post the official photos.
A few of my mountain goat statistics:
- 3 associations: G, GW, OK
- most popular summit G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee Hill - 12 activations
- most points in 2021 (from 03/04/21 to 30/12/21 - because of lockdown) = 221 points
- not less than 12334m of total ascent in 2021
- in 2021 climbed GW/NW-001 to 013 except 009 & 010.
- GW/NW-003 - Glyder Fawr - was my favourite activation - a strenuous ascent up Y Gribin and then I stayed on the summit 2 hours. Descended Devil’s Kitchen and got back to the car at 5.30pm.
Thanks for all the chasers.
73s
Alastair, M0TYM
