Pendle hill report SP-005
14/02/2010
Having not activated much since December it was high time i got my act together. A phone call to Stuart G0MJG confirmed he was ok for Sunday. Neither of us was feeling particularly fit so a short run was chosen and Pendle hill the target.
We have done this summit many times and usually ascend via the steep step short route. This time we opted for a longer walk in to make it more interesting and get more exercise. The start route was to be from Nick of Pendle and a three mile (there abouts) walk. I last ascended via this route over twenty years ago.
Stuart arrived at my qth and the journey uneventful apart from low mist and shallow fog. The path up was semi frozen and reasonable walking. Just under a mile later we arrived at a junction in the path at Badger wells hill. Complacency and not checking the map we veered off to the right and followed the path to the right thinking the summit was over to our right. It soon became apparent we were off course. In order to regain the path we had to circum-navigate along the Ogden clough valley this was a sapping strength bog/tuft walk.
Once the correct path was regained and lesson learned always check your map we continued to ascend up what was becoming a black soup of mud along the path. Eventually this became a paved walk way to arrive out at the trig point.
Avoiding the many throngs of visitors that were arriving we re-treated to the west by about 100yds and set up our base of operations with Stuart on 5megs and myself on 2m ssb. Summit conditions were quite good with the sky becoming increasingly overcast and a light breeze cold enough still to have many layers on. Stuart reported 5megs in good shape and with 2m reasonable we operated for a good hour. Best dx was a struggled contact with the two London chasers G6XLL, and G2BOF but the contacts were good.
Moving to 23cm a line of sight problem to Mike G4BLH was overcome by a wander across to the trig point where we became 5/9 both ways. Similarly a surprised John MW1FGQ was worked at 5/9 and was called by a station in Manchester G0NAG (i think that was the call as i didn’t write it at the time)
Time and cold had now taken over and we decided to clear off sporting my new aldi snowboard gloves which were very warm well worth the £5 or £6 quid i paid for them. Snowflakes were falling as we descended back to the car.
Conclusion the walk was well worth the exercise contacts were good and a nicer opener for 2010.
Many thanks to all stations worked.
Best rgds Keith G0OXV and Stuart G0MJG.