SOTA - Fan Fawr - GW/SW-005

Fan Fawr - 734m, 6 points

Association: Wales  Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 51 45 N, Longitude: 3 29 49 W
Grid Reference: SN 970193, QTH Locator: IO81GU

Meeting only two people descending Fan Fawr, when I arrived at the top I had it entirely to myself. This is in contrast to the hundreds I'd seen earlier this morning just across the road!

Arriving at the summit

With a keen, icy wind, I quickly pitched the tarp and busied myself getting the antenna up.
No sooner had I completed this task than I felt the first drop of moisture landing on my face. I glanced westward to see a leaden grey sky rapidly approaching.
I quickly called CQ and was thankful when the calls started to quickly roll in. There was no time for niceties this time, just a report and quickly move on. The snow was falling heavily, the wind was piping up and the visibility had dropped to only a few metres.

The Shack

Snow closing in

With a well behaved pack of chasers I quickly rattled them off 38 QSOs in 30 minutes and then apologised that "snow stops play" and pulled the plug!
No S2S but nice to bag VE1WT, KG3W and KT5K for some transatlantic contacts.

Log

Summary

Log2Map

I packed as much stuff away as possible in the shelter of the tarp, then made a dash for the antenna and pole, doing as much packing as possible under shelter. Finally with everything stowed away, it was pull out the 4 pegs holding the tarp and scrunching it into the top of my pack. I then made a beeline for the car (being careful not to go over the edge of the ridge :-) )

Snow arriving

This was an extra special activation for me as It took me to exactly 500 activator pointers. That's halfway to Mountain Goat! Maybe I'm now a Mountain Kid!
There's an awfully long way to go yet for MG...

Halfway there!

SOTA - Fan Fawr - GW/SW-005

Fan Fawr - 734m, 6 points

Association: Wales  Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 51 45 N, Longitude: 3 29 49 W
Grid Reference: SN 970193, QTH Locator: IO81GU

After Pen y Fan it was time to depart the crowds and ascend Fan Fawr!
It's unbelievable the difference between these two summits. One is incredibly busy, the other you'll be lucky to see a soul.
And a soul and his dog we did see. Just after setting up a guy turned up with his dog, pitched his tent and made himself comfortable for an overnight camp. Meanwhile in the distance, humanity continued to clamber up towards Pen y Fan just across the valley!

Band conditions were again sparkling, with 67 QSOs in the log but only a single S2S with OM/SP9AMH/p on OM/ZA-045

QSO map from Log2Map by ON6ZQ

Two good activations in beautiful spring weather. A pleasant 20 points :-)

SOTA - Fan Fawr - GW/SW-005

Fan Fawr - 734m, 6 points

Association: Wales  Region: South Wales  
Latitude: 51 51 45 N, Longitude: 3 29 49 W
Grid Reference: SN 970193, QTH Locator: IO81GU

SOTA - Fan Fawr - GW/SW-005

Fan Fawr - 734m, 6 points

Association: Wales  Region: South Wales  
Latitude: 51 51 45 N, Longitude: 3 29 49 W
Grid Reference: SN 970193, QTH Locator: IO81GU

Path starts to contour near the top of the climb

After some lunch I set out to tackle Fan Fawr. I started form the carpark opposite the Storey Inn. There are three kissing gates and not one of them had any obvious path which headed upwards. I could make out a definite scar, which I took to be a path, on the steeper ground ahead, so I headed for that across the open moorland. Conditions were good underfoot and as expected as I got closer to the scar it was the result of many feet pounding this route. It was not a difficult climb and I was getting excited at how quickly I was getting to the summit. Of course this was a false summit and once we crested this the true summit could be seen majestically towering  above us off ahead in the distance. The ground flattened off here and once again it was hard to pick up any path on the ground which was now wet and boggy, but I headed towards what looked like a steep climb up towards the summit. The obvious path was now deeply eroded and some attempts at repairing it with stone had been made but there remained a deep, muddy, slippery gully which headed skyward. It was at this point that I met another walker on his descent as I scrambled up this steep section. Near the top the path branched off to contour around the hill. This again was in the form of another deep gully, but it was comforting as it gave some protection to the very steep drop off to the right! After that it was an easy stroll up to the summit where there is a small cairn. 

Summit Cairn

With acres of space and not a soul in sight I set up close to the edge of the ridge overlooking the valley below.
HF conditions had much improved since the morning. As I tuned up I was called by HB9BCB/P for the first contact and a S2S into the bargain! The chasers were out in force this time and I worked 32 stations in as many minutes on 14mhz before moving onto 30 and 40 metres which again netted 28 more callers.
A foray onto 21Mhz brought a eight chasers, two Stateside being N4EX and W4ZV. 18 Mhz was a bit dead and I struggled to get 3 contacts in the log.
I was surprised when a couple turned up making it a total of three humans that I encountered on this hill.
Looking across the valley you could see the little black dots of ants  heading for the summit of Pen Y Fan whilst here there was peace and solitude!
A good activation, a nice walk and a complete contrast to the mornings activities.
At 71 QSOs , 26 DXCC, 2 S2Ss and 14 activator points for the day, I packed up and called it quits.

Corn Du in the background

Wild ponies. Trig point in the distance is below summit at 715 m