Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 45 55 N, Longitude: 3 6 56 W
Grid Reference: SO 231080, QTH Locator: IO81KS
For a bit of a change, I decided to park today at the Railway station on the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway, rather than the usual Big Pit Museum car park.
This wasn't any closer to the trail head, but was slightly more convenient when moving on later in the day to the second summit.
I still had the horrible trek across the bog and brush to reach the access road up as far as the disused mine workings. Maybe someday I'll just walk the full length of this road rather than bush whacking!
The weather was fine with blue skies and a keen icy wind.
Posing by the reservoir
There was still snow on the upper flanks of the hillside, so I duly left a calling card for following activators.
Calling card - SOTA Fever.
It didn't take long for the calls to roll in, once I had set up, with conditions being very good and an orderly pile ensued.
Staying out of the wind
A crackle on the 2 metre hand held, turned out to be Vicky, MW6BWA/p on Waun Rydd - GW/SW-004. A quick call and I netted my one and only S2S for this activation.
Good views
Whilst Coity is a pretty uninspiring summit, it does command some reasonable views of the beacons on a clear day.
Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 45 55 N, Longitude: 3 6 56 W
Grid Reference: SO 231080, QTH Locator: IO81KS
My first trip to South Wales for 2015 and I seemed to pick the only day of the week where the cloud never lifted above 300 metres!
Anyway today's pair were picked to provide a reasonably easy 10 points with the winter bonus in full swing.
Big Pit with Coity Mountain somewhere behind!
As per usual, the trip up Coity was from the Big Pit museum, firstly scrambling across the open bog land before arriving at the access road to the disused mine workings. This presented the usual issues of finding a path which didn't take you thigh deep in the bog. Today as well, there was no sign of the access track ahead, visibility was down to about 10 to 15 metres at best. The trusty GPS came to the rescue but I also took a compass bearing just in case things should go pear shaped. I was soon engulfed in the cold grey cloud , the Big Pit now lost in the mist behind me. Right on target I hit the access path and started climbing into the clouds above.
Track to mine workings
Upwards past the old mine workings and then we were completely "off piste".
Even on a clear snowless day, there are no obvious tracks to the summit, which is in itself a featureless unmarked entity.
I scouted around the cliffs at the back of the mine workings, took a bearing for the summit and headed off uphill.
Summit bound
It was quite tough going, the snow being quite deep in places. Eventually my reckoning and the altimeter told me I was either at the summit or pretty close, certainly well within the activation zone.
The summit.
I set up the station and got ready to go. Looking for a clear QRG on 14Mhz I stumbled across a pile up on 14.062Mhz This was Bruno, HB9CBR/p on HB/VD-035 - Le Chasseron, and obviously he was to be my first QSO and S2S of the day. Finding a clear frequency I was about to call CQ when the 2m handheld burst into life. This was Phil GW4OBK/p and Geoff 2W0NON/p on Mynydd Sylen, GW/SW-036, approx 70 Kms to the west. Needless to say I waited around to work them (an unusual occurrence for me to be on 2m FM) for my third S2S of the day.
Working 14, 10 and then 7 Mhz resulted in a further 28 QSOs before Peter, G3TJE/P on Dunkery Beacon, G/SC-001, called in on 7Mhz to make it 4 S2S of the day.
As I was packing up to leave the handheld burst into life again. Again this was Phil GW4OBK/p and Geoff 2W0NON/p, but this time on Mynydd Llangyndeyrn, GW/SW-039, some 75 Kms to the west. Those boys were moving along fast!
That made it 6 S2S for the day and 34 QSOs.
I packed up and retraced my footsteps (nice easy navigation!) back to the access track. After a quick bite of lunch and some coffee it was off to summit number two, Mynydd Carn-y-cefn, GW/SW-014
Association: Wales Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 45 55 N, Longitude: 3 6 56 W Grid Reference: SO 231080, QTH Locator: IO81KS
I read mixed reviews of this summit, but with only couple of days left before the winter bonus period ends, I thought I'd give it a try. I parked in the car park of the Big Pit mining museum in Blaenavon. From here there is a marked trail and, as I discovered, marked parking for walkers. I left my car where it was in the virtually empty car park rather than move the 100yards or so to the designated spots. Initially the marked trail takes you up to a disused reservoir. I crossed a style to walk across the dam, and then another style onto open moorland. There was no sign of any track on the ground other than a few animal trails. I headed upwards to intersect a road up to some old mine workings. The trek across this boggy ground was difficult and slow going and needed occasional back tracking to find a way through. Once on the old road it was an easy ascent up to the derelict mine works. This is a sorry state but a reminder of the working heritage of the site. Following the track past the workings there's a short sharp climb before open moorland and the final ascent. From here there was a faint but definite path heading in the general direction of the summit. The summit is marked only by a small earth mound and, with nothing to support a pole, I had to revert to guying, something I try to avoid if at all possible. A quick activation with 39 QSOs and 15 DXCC followed, all the time watching the building clouds heading in form the north. There were occasional flurries of snow in the cold north wind. A quick descent and on the way back I picked up a better track between the old road and the reservoir. I'm not sure whether it was an animal track or not but it seemed to avoid the worst of the boggy terrain. A quick bite of lunch and then off on the the second summit of the day, Sugar Loaf.
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