At this time of year it’s sometimes hard to pick the right hill for the weather. White coomb GM/SS-030 was today’s choice. Initially I thought I hadn’t picked the right one with the low cloud half way up the Grey mare’s tail waterfall. But as we climbed up through 600m we broke out of the cloud into sunshine. Both of us got wet feet crossing the burn on the slippy rocks !
The views from the summit were spectacular, snow covered mountains to the northwest standing out above the clouds.
Seamus MM7SST joined me today for his first sota activation, thanks to the chasers on 2m who helped him get his activation. GM0VEK, MM7DCD, 2M0IPQ, MM0XPZ and GM4CXM.
After an hour or so in the sunshine the breeze started to bite so we made our way off the top and were rewarded with brockenspectres on the cloud below us.
That’s a cracking photo.
You have the same fabulous views as we had yesterday.
We ticked a lot of boxes for Seamus yesterday, but he stuck to 2m FM after listening to me dealing with a couple of pile-ups on HF !
It was interesting talking to other activators and chasers yesterday, Steve MM0XPZ was lamenting the cold foggy weather at his lower level QTH, while Erik LB7PC/P mentioned the -12C temperature on his summit !
Andy
MM7MOX
Well I’ve done it in really dense fog and in sun. I prefer the route up from the Megget Stone side, longer but you don’t have to cross the Tail Burn and you have a fence to follow.
Best I can offer is this from 2012. It certainly doesn’t feel like 12 years since I was last up there.
I wondered what happened on Wednesday, in the middle of our s2s between GW/SW-006 and GM/SS-030 your signal just disappeared. There was a lot of fading on 40m so I guess the conditions got the better of us.
Andy
MM7MOX
Hi Mark,
I think it works out at about 220km between us for that Qso on 2m FM, I was very pleased with that from 5w into a home made flowerpot antenna.
Andy
MM7MOX
White Coomb GM/SS-030 has been on our agenda on two GM/SS/Tushielaw Inn trips already, but remains on our to-do list!
In 2023, the weather forecast decided that we needed to smash-and-grab something trivial like Cairnpapple Hill GM/SS-254 instead of climbing up White Coomb.
In 2024, we arrived at the NT car park on a pleasant day, but the NT warden on duty advised us that the burn at the top of the initial climb was in spate and not crossable.
I have no doubt it will be on the agenda the next time we venture into GM for a SOTA holiday - third time lucky?
It looks a splendid hill - these photos are fabulous!
There’s space for 10 cars and this car park is not used by people attempting Broad Law. There’s a good track to Molls Cleuch, a bit of heather bashing to the fence that runs straight up to Molls Cluech Dod. Another fence runs to Firthybrig Head. Then a fence to Donald’s Cleuch Head, Firthhope Rig and then runs to within about 20m of the cairn at White Coombe. No rivers to cross and a handrail to the AZ so you cannot get lost. 7.5km walk with 490m of ascent. Easy, peasy, lemon, sqeezy.
