4th May 2019. GW/NW-012 Cadair Berwyn.

GW/NW-012 Cadair Berwyn. 4th May 2019.

Altitude 832M. Grid SJ 071323

My third visit to this summit since I started SOTA, the main difference was this time I was alone. I left home at 06.04 a.m. and headed towards Shrewsbury from my home QTH of Telford. I arrived at my car park Grid SJ 08013 29056 the same spot I parked in December 2018, I think this is a better spot.
I had managed to put my boots on and have all my gear ready to start my ascent at 07.13 a.m. There was a little snow on most of the hills around and mine was no different. I had a fairly easy ascent with a little break near the lake at grid SJ 07179 31543. Time for a coffee, a cheese and ham roll and a few photos. Then carried on up the left hand side of the hill towards the cairn at grid SJ 07179 32445. I arrived at 08.52 a.m. A full ascent in about 1 hour 40 minutes with a 5 minute break so I was very happy with that time.

I didn't see anyone on the ascent until I was nearly at the summit and met a walker on his way down, we had a little chat and found out he had camped up there the night before and he said he was a little shocked at waking up to the snow. during my activation I had four groups of walkers visit the cairn and on the descent I passed about 40 people at various altitudes.

This was my best activation for the amount of QSO's I had ever had on a summit. I managed to log 45 including 6 S2S's, My first contact was M1EYP/P (Tom) on G/SP-015, followed an hour later with G6PJZ/P (Andy) on G/LD-026, M1HAX/P (Richard) G/SP-001, HB9DBM/P (Mark) on HB/AG-012, G4TJC/P (Simon) on GW/NW-010 and finally GD0VIK/P (Dan) on GD/GD-005. Thank you to all of the chasers and especially to the other activators on their summits.

I had been on the summit for a little over three hours now and was starting to get a little cold due to sitting around for so long, so I decided to pull the plug pack up and start my descent. By now most of the snow had melted, the sun was warm and the views were fantastic, I could see the surrounding hills in all directions as the visibility was good.