Carleatheran is just about 5 miles from me so it was an obvious next summit to ‘do’. Took advice last week from the local store keeper and keen walker as to the best way up to hill from the closest village - Gargunnock. Having been told there was a waymarked footpath from the end of the village which would take me to the summit I based my planning on that.
Yes there was a footpath at the end of the village and yes it did head towards the hills. However, it vanished after about 2 km and was never waymarked! This now gave me the tricky issue of negotiating a very steep climb through the vertical craigs that form the north face of the summit. Several different routes tried eventually found a route through and onto the ridge. From that point it was easy to the top but throughout the rest of the activation there was always the nagging thought in my mind about the descent.
Activation went well with the Welsh Mafia qualifying the hill for me closely followed by some of the Scottish Mafia. QSO’s achieved on 5Mhz SSB/CW, 7Mhz CW and 10Mhz CW. Thanks to all who perservered through my poor CW today. Still getting used to the Palm Paddle and trying to send CW whilst shivering was not easy.
Descent was generally straight forward managing to find an easier way through the craigs. Would suggest the southern approach route used by Jack GM4COX as the easier and probably safer option in future.
73 Glyn…GM4CFS