Well, as I write this I’m sat in the car in the Ben Lawers car park having failed to get up Meall Corranaich GM/CS-010 this morning. My first failed ascent in 17 years of SOTA. Of course that cancelled my second summit.
The hill was covered in snow, increasing in depth as I ascended. At times I was in it up to my backside. I managed to get to the final steep section with just 200m of ascent to do (500m horizontal distance from the summit), but even with walking poles I couldn’t get enough grip on the grass beneath the 40cm of soft snow, so I kept slithering down. After several attempts, I decided the hill and its neighbour will be there for another day. Apologies to all chasers that were awaiting my appearance.
It hasn’t been done very often, so may be in demand, even as a 1-pointer? It looks to be accessible via forestry tracks, so may not have as much snow cover?
Count that long period as a blessing. My MTBF is much less.
Disappointing but - to quote Shakespeare - Discretion is the better part of valour. You got something, and maybe learnt something, from the experience anyway.
Thank heavens that you are still fit and healthy enough to do this kind of thing at your age [I do!], and plan for the re-attempt when the weather improves.
Wish there was a button other than “Like” I could press on your post, Gerald. I feel your pain. Even although I’ve have two activation failures this year already, it doesn’t make things any better for you so I send sympathies and very best wishes for getting onward and upward again imminently. 73 Mike
Well I had a look at Drummond Hill and guess what?.. the path around the summit is closed. Debris from Storm Arwen. Then it started to hammer it down. Maybe to wash the metre of snow I somehow dragged up from the Cheviots.
Now just chillin’ in a nice little car park just off the A822 near Dunkeld. Can’t even go for a bimble by the local stream as the rain has returned. Maybe set the alarm for 4.30 p.m. and have a kip - been up since 3.20 a.m. Ah well, best look on the bright side - I won’t have to wash the dishes tonight.
I noticed the temp was a bit cool for mid April on the way home from the club junk sale* last night. About 2C when I stopped at 2230. I didn’t know it had been snowing there as it’s only 60miles from here give or take. OK, 1000+m on the tops but so. You should have done Scald Law again, it’s overcast here and we had a few showers but remarkably benign with no wind considering how it is elsewhere.
I can understand the slipping… it’s noticeably steep that final pull, so no surprises really.
I didn’t know Drummond paths were closed either. That’s a fab wee hill, sorry to rub that in but you’ll enjoy it more next time you try.
And as Fraser says, bring sun not snow next time especially as myself, Gavin, Alan, Fraser used it all up at Easter
* AKA unofficial meeting of the Lothians SOTA activators group with me, John GM8OTI, Alan MM0VPM, Andy MM7MOX and Chris 2M0PVP all present.
Didn’t realise you not had a DNA for such a long time. I’ve had a few hills I’ve neither not mangaged to summit, or if I’ve got to the top, just walked back down due to really poor weather.
I still remember trying not to get soaked while out with you and Paul!
Paul and I have cancelled a few times before setting out up a hill… usually well in advance. As far as I recall Paul has been ill a couple of times, we cancelled once due to 70mph winds on the Lakes summits and reluctantly went home, we went to the Rabbie Burns museum when a horrendous snow storm was forecast (but annoyingly didn’t happen) and we changed a couple of summits on the fly due to access / parking issues. However, I don’t think either of us have been on the ascent and had to give up. Not bad… over 550 summits and the first failure. I hope they don’t come like buses.
Freezing (air temp) at the parking spot at 7.30 a.m., but the road was wet. I don’t think it was below zero on the hill and similarly no wind there either. With visibility closing in to 50 metres for much of the time, the ground 99% white over and silence (apart from my tinnitus), it was rather eerie.
Nice shot of the reservoir as I returned to the car.
I’ve never been too stubborn about ascents, whether climbing or walking, when its no longer fun, its time to find a friendly pub or cafe. I think it was Don Whillans (RIP) who answered a complaint about an aborted ascent by saying “the hills will be there tomorrow, you make sure that you are!” Too many people have suffered or perished because they refused to turn back, you did the right thing.
I am always very much aware that the risk factor is multiplied several times when on my own and I take extra care. I do carry a bothy bag and had food and water with me, so if the weather had developed (I did get a light dusting) I should have been okay until it cleared. There is no phone coverage in that area, so that was another thing to take into consideration. Of course, what caused me to return to the car was the fact that I couldn’t actually physically get up the steep slope… a veritable brick wall indeed.
Just remembered, when Paul G4MD and myself activated Stoney Cove Pike G/LD-018 in December 2010, our plan was to go to High Street G/LD-011 afterwards, but the route was too icy, so we ended up in the pub instead.
My catalogue of failures, filtered by the “set off walking but turned back before reaching the summit” criteria. (I have many other failures outside of this subcategory).
2002: Raw Head G/SP-016. Very green at this hillwalking thing. I used a road atlas to figure out where the parking spot might be, and what the route might be! Alas I ended up on a steep, muddy and totally unsuitable ascent with a 9 and a 5 year old. With care we made it to the top of that climb - which is when we realised we were in the wrong place!
2003: Freeholds Top G/SP-011: Research would have led me to approach from the north via the Limers Gate Track. The lack of research had me trying the shortest route on the public footpath from Shawforth from the west. However, I struggled trying to find the start of the path. I walked some distance along a likely candidate before accepting the strong probability it could turn out to be the wrong path - and decided to turn back and avoid the possibility of a very late return home.
2003: Yr Aran GW/NW-019 from Watkin Path. Weekend of 1st SOTA barbecue. Set out confidently that morning with Jimmy (10 years old) and Liam (6). Plan was for a linear walk finishing on Snowdon and getting the train down to Llanberis! Madness! Turned back having run out of energy and the clock ticking. When I did finally activate Yr Aran, I realised that we actually weren’t all that far from the summit at the point we’d decided to abandon - but it felt a long way off at the time!
2010: Black Hill G/SP-002 from Crowden. With Richard G3CWI. Increasing heavy snowfall increasingly impeded our progress, and the decision was made to turn back.
2010: Kinder Scout G/SP-001 from Hayfield. With Jimmy M3EYP and Richard G3CWI. Impeded again by fresh snowfall. Jimmy and Richard were going strong but I started to feel unwell - something I later realised was dehydration. We had to turn back.
So there’s a few that still give me nightmares. I’m sure Jimmy @M0HGY will be able to remind me of many more “set out but had to abandon” failures. Horrible stuff. In fact research / refreshing my memory of some of these sorry tales had uncovered other long-forgotten nightmares - like the time I activated Black Mountain G/WB-001 one evening, then drove up to the Midlands to a hotel ahead of a course the following day. Couldn’t find my logbook anywhere with my Black Mountain log in - plus several others from the previous week not yet submitted to the database. I last remembered having it out in the phone box (remember them?) in Hay-on-Wye… I drove 50 miles back down the road and found the logbook on the grass verge outside the phone box!!! Ended up getting to my hotel bad at 4am.
I guess I was addicted to SOTA back then and it made me do stupid and irrational things. I’d like to say things have changed…
