With an opening in my work calendar and good weather on the horizon, I decided to take a stab at tackling the Glen Lyon Horseshoe: four Munros with two SOTA summits on the north side of Glen Lyon. These summits had been on my radar for a while, so I took the opportunity to finally tackle them. Seeing no alerts for the region that day, I posted mine the night before.
I woke to an email and a new SOTA alert from @GM5ALX, who would be scedaddling up Schiehallion the same morning—so there was the added possibility of making a summit-to-summit (S2S) on almost adjacent peaks.
What’s good to know about the small settlement of Invervar, is that there’s a small car park for six vehicles, conveniently located just opposite the trailhead. This is well-reported online and well known to those who research the route. However—not me! Content in my ignorance, I blew straight past both the trailhead and the car park, aiming for the larger lay-by just outside the village clearway.
The initial hike takes you through woodland and a series of deer fences before reaching a track that marks both the beginning and end of the horseshoe. There’s excellent signage on this trail, with the route to Carn Gorm clearly marked. At this point, I heard a very faint CQ call from GM5ALX, who had just summited Schiehallion. I checked in with him, but made only a poor copy, as I was at the bottom of the valley on the opposite side of the mountain.
I followed the track north before turning west and crossing the stream via a very bouncy bridge. From there, the real ascent of Carn Gorm begins. After a pair of false summits, I reached the summit of Carn Gorm (GM/CS-019), which features a trig point lying on its side—not the only summit oddity on the route…
I checked in with Alex (@GM5ALX) on 2m (Yaesu FT-4X) for the pre-arranged S2S with Schiehallion, clearly visible to the east. I forgot to suggest a potential 70cm S2S, which would certainly have been possible given the line-of-sight conditions. After that, I set up my HF rig—consisting of a SOTAbeams Tactical Mini mast, a cut wire antenna in an inverted V and a Yaesu FT-818ND and made a couple of contacts on 14 MHz after a relatively unsuccessful attempt on 7 MHz.
From there I moved on, summiting the second Munro of the day, Meall Garbh, which also had an interesting example of a another odd summit sculpture.
Upon reaching Carn Mairg (GM/CS-016) I sent my 2m/70cm slim jim up the SOTAbeams Tactical Mini, making contact with a number of locals before a surprise S2S with MM/OE8MPR/P on Ben Macdui (GM/ES-001). Not having seen their alert, I spotted them for both 2m and 20m, as they had no data to spot themselves. I built the HF rig again, this time as a slopper with the lower end pointing southeast and successfully made a number of contacts on 20m.
After a late lunch, I moved on to summit Meall nan Aighean, the fourth and final Munro in the horseshoe. The descent made me acutely aware of the weight of my rig and the soreness in my feet, but it does provide a great view back up toward the three other summits. After rejoining the track and making it back to the road, I took a moment to contemplate a successful nine-hour hike, the two activations and two (relatively) serendipitous summit-to-summit contacts—before cursing my choice of parking spot and the extra 2.3 Kilometers it added to the route.
73
Jace
MM7VXJ
The track at the start and end of the horseshoe.
Bouncy bridge
One of Carn Gorm’s two false summits
The toppled trig point.
Schiehallion with Alex GM5ALX on-top (visible if squinting)
Sumit sculpture on Meall Garbh.
2m/70cm slim jim on Carn Mairg
FT-818ND and FT-4X on Carn Mairg
Carn Mairg viewed from the south on Meall nan Aighean
Carn Gorm from Meall nan Aighean
