Activation report of ‘Grasmoor’ G/LD-009:
Saturday 19th November 2022
@GW4BML & XYL
Unfortunately, the planned trip to GM land was cancelled last minute due to a poor wx update on Friday midday, so plan B was chosen and the Lake District it was to activate the SOTA summit of Grasmoor G/LD-009:
After a 4 hour drive from the home QTH in Mid-Wales, Martha and myself pulled up at a campsite in Lorton slightly west of G/LD land - our aim was to climb and activate the SOTA summit of Grasmoor early Saturday morning. This was the only summit I have left in the top 10 to complete in G/LD.
We found a nice quiet camping spot to ditch the disco, and up went the new Tentbox with ease. This was its first adventure and a tester for us. I had sneakily packed a rum and coke to help me catch the ZZZ’s faster - I don’t think I really needed this, it was extremely cosy inside!
To be fair, we had a really good nights sleep and it kept us very warm until we had a shock in the morning when opening the side - it was freezing out! The moon was shining through the trees which helped light our area up:
There wasn’t a sound to be heard, it was 06:00 UTC in the morning, so we exited the tentbox, jumped in the disco, and went to park up and have breakfast just below the summit at the start of our route.
Once we’d scoffed down the full english (from a pack 
) we gathered our equipment together and began our ascent. I hadn’t checked the wx forecast in the LD for our outing today because it was plan B, anyhow, it seemed to start off well with the moon still shining bright in the sky and water coming down from the mountains in fashion:
As it started to get lighter, we agreed we’d struck it lucky and were in for a beautiful morning! Half way up the path, we joined a couple of sheep to enjoy watching the sun rise where it followed us right to the top.
This enabled us to have a distant view of a view larger mountains climbed earlier on in the year - Great Gable which stands out so large, Kirk Fell still being an 8 pointer but looks so small between the peaks, and Pillar with its triangular top:
Although Grasmoor gave them a run for its money:
The route was brutal in some areas, it was one steep pull from the start! Nevertheless, the wx and views helped us forget about the walking, so it didn’t take long until we hit the last col. I could see some sheep in the distance across the ridge - this is always a good sign for a low wind level on summit:
The last part of the ascent was pretty steep, so as we veered over the brow, there was a nice stoned Cairn to greet us 
this was going to be my SOTA office and Martha’s kitchen for the next half hour or so:
As normal, I set my station up which comprised of the Elecraft KX2, 14.4v Li-ion battery pushing 12w into my EFHW antenna on the fixed 6m tactical mini pole. While I was putting call outs and working stations, Martha was busy cooking dinner for us both on the stove:
I had a nice pile-up on all bands that I worked 60/40/20m SSB and 145-FM - logs below:
It was a nice surprize to work Fraser @MM0EFI on 2m FM, who was /M with Mo just below GM/ES-033 busy doing recovery at the ‘Borders Hill Rally’ in Southern Scotland. A nice 90Km contact - was great to have a brief catch up buddy!
Final calls were given, pot noodles were demolished and a summit selfie had to be done:
Another cracking morning in G/LD land with a successful SOTA activation had 
it was now time to take in the views, take care when descending and head for home to see our lovely little daughter Lyra who would of loved this trip!
Thank you very much to all SOTA chasers and S2S stations who called into me - great support was given as per normal 
looking forward to being out again soon roaming the mountains calling out CQ SOTA!
73, GW4BML & XYL. Ben & Martha
Couldn’t see anything when I was up there in September, just cloud and horizontal rain! Same route up, you do gain height quickly though.
