A beer later, and I’m going to head out towards Skye tomorrow. I have a view of Ben Nevis from the living room, or rather did - and now just have a view of lowering cloud layers. Tomorrow will likely be a day to stay low.
I plan to activate the local 1 ptr GM/WS-339 Druim na h-Earba some point in the evening. Early days for me in learning how 10m works here, but I figure later in the day might be better.
Re: Augstenberg HB0/LI-004: I found a nice report from Paul HB9DST for the hike up on this summit.
The HB9SOTA home page has also numerous other informations regarding summits in and around Switzerland.
73 de Martin / HB9GVW
Well a failed activation of GM/WS-339 (3 contacts) and a very successful activation of GM/WS-001.
Your 40m band is a little bit more crowded than in VK… I’m quickly figuring things out, 2M FM here is critical for success, at least for QRP voice.
Setting off at 6:40am i expected the walk up Ben Nevis to take roughly 3hours based on my fitness level (or lack of) and I touched the summit trig point at 2:58. There were about 15 people ahead of me and I had the summit to myself for half an hour. That rapidly changed to OMG levels but I was happily on FT8 by that point.
I had an eyeball QSO with a QRP operator from Texas which was probably the most surprising thing today.
One of my knees had some minor complaints with the descent. Will have to keep an eye on that. I think I’ll be up for the easy 6ptr tomorrow with a good sleep.
Obligatory selfie:
I did listen on 10 even called; nothing, maybe try 20, a lot of FT8 operators on there.
73 de Geoff vk3sq
Good luck with the activation of the “Big Three”. Several years ago, I activated them over a period of 2 yrs. There are not many foreigners who did all three.
Perhaps we can meet in Friedrichshafen.
Cheers Martin DF3MC
Thanks for the S2S, you quite took me by surprise when you called on 2m. I was just setting up my EFHW whilst still listening on 2m, and I heard a VK call 
I had the opposite experience with 2m on GM/ES-027 even with 10w into a flower pot antenna, you were my only 2m contact
Paul
Martin - I’ll be at the dinner. I was chatting today with a regular in my log who I’ll catch up with there.
Paul - glad I grabbed that opportunity. The call is a mouthful.
I was chased off the mountain today by that south westerly. It went from pleasant but windy to hat, gloves, extra layers and I don’t want to be here anymore rather quickly. Light rain on the descent.
I’ve posted an alert for GM/WS-343 for tomorrow. It’s going to be a sight seeing day due to early weather and recovery for my legs. The tides line up nicely for Tioram Castle and since I’m there, there’s a summit within walking distance however it’s not clear on the best access. I’ve got a rough idea, will see how that goes.
A week of summits largely enabled by cortisone. I upset my shoulder competing in obstacle course racing a few months ago and finally got a cortisone shot in it right before leaving. There was no way I could have handled the even light scrambling on some of these summits without it.
Friday - GM/WS-343
A fine Scottish bog fest but otherwise a nice enough summit. This pairs nicely with visiting Castle Tioram and both require low-ish tide. The bog bit will com back to bite me later. Probably 8km and 300m ascent.
Stopped at the Glenuig Inn on the way back and had the best scones of the trip so far.
Sunday - G/LD-018 & G/LD-011
A nice walk from the top of a mountain pass cutting the vertical required. Steep & technical in parts and a nice stroll on a well defined path in others. Rain as I descended to the car ruling out G/LD-017 on the other side and to be honest I was acutely aware about the following days effort. I’m sure a local would have activated it in the rain but my bothy bag didn’t survive the culling when packing. 14km & 850m ascent.
Monday - G/LD-003, G/LD-007, G/LD-010
Possibly the highlight of the trip. Stunning views on a gorgeous day. The climb up Fairfield (LD-007) is a bit on the unreasonable side. Could you have a steeper track on a scree field? Having initially summited Helvelyn, I exited the region from one of the saddles not realising how technically demanding it was and this was on tired legs. 9 hours 20 minutes, 22km and 1300+m ascent for the day.
Tuesday - G/LD-001
Took the popular route up from Wasdale along with all the other tourists. Unfortunately my recently re-soled right boot started to lose the sole. This is the point I learned that bogs are naturally acidic. Summit (boulder field) and climb was a bit disappointing but the weather probably contributed. 11km & 904m ascent.
Due to the boot failure, the rest of the activations were done in trail runners which resulted in needing to cut the pack weight for the sake of my ankles and the sense of adventure. Hence often just with the base loaded whip and no FT8.
Wednesday - G/NW-001
A nice walk up the Pyg track and down the Miners. This is a nice experience with fantastic scenery, but way too many people and not enough space within the activation zone. Had to go QRT as I had people right next to me by the end. 13.5km and 773m ascent.
Thursday - No SOTA but I climbed (90m) Cad East in the Mach Loop for the aircraft.
Friday - G/NW-009
As with Helvelyn, one of the nicest walks. Easily qualified on a Friday including a SSB S2S on 10m but forgot a cable to enable FT8. 10m signals/condx were highly variable. 12km and 934m ascent.
Two more summits today, chosen for closeness and minimal walking.
Many thanks to all the chasers especially on 2m FM which really made things go easily and quickly. On the Helvelyn loop day I was really pressed for time on the last summit.
I should add - I’m now 40pts short of MG. Achievable maybe around Friedrichshafen. Maybe.
Thanks for the S2S today Andrew. I looked up your summit and yes, I wouldn’t want to try and pronounce it either!
Also quite cool that Vkportalog pulled your name out for me! That was one less thing to try and log…
Great to get you in the log the other day James.
Today was an eventful day activating HB0/LI-004 together with Glen VK3YY. No problems getting there and fantastic scenery but again ran into issues with mobile phone coverage above probably 2100m.
Qualified with 10m but pleasantly surprised to nab a S2S with F5MMP on 2m at a distance of probably 200km. That’s one of my longer 2m FM contacts.
Just when you think you’ve packed up and ready to leave from a summit this guy is still grabbing 10m contacts handheld:
We made our way back to the chair loft conscious of time and weather closing with thunder as we approached the end. It’s hard to tell whether stopping for hot chocolate and Apfel Strudel was a wise choice because it started bucketing down as we were leaving to catch the chair down. Fortunately we were prepared but my goodness it was wet.
Back in FN at 7pm with lots of wet gear to dry out in the blue skies and sunshine…
Congratulations Andrew on reaching Mountain Goat today on Gehrenberg, DM/BW-348 (8 points)!!! despite the mozzies.
Glenn VK3YY.
You did it Bravo for your accomplishment 1st MG of many…
Sweet as… Keep pushing 
Frank
F4JYM
Pleased you got there Andrew, and what a fantastic trip you’ve had!
It was great to meet you Frank at the dinner and then get the S2S the following morning.
The pressure was on after Joao CT2GSN game me my Mountain Gallo at the dinner. Unfortunately missed the S2S.
Gehrenberg was sure an interesting summit on the Saturday. We arrived just as Ed had finished and then Andy OE6ADE turned up. Glen counted 7 activations that day. Fortunately (for me) German mosquitoes seem to prefer Austrian activators instead of Australians.
Thanks to all the patient chasers dealing with my various prefixes over the last 3 weeks. It’s been a blast. Also thanks to those in attendance at the SOTA talks for the callout and congratulations. I’ll have to work out what’s next after the 10m challenge is done.
I’m currently at Munich airport waiting for my flight(s) back home. Apparently there are two dogs waiting for me so I guess I’m not getting any time with my feet up.
Well done Andrew in achieving your goal and having a good time too!
Geoff vk3sq
