A local jaunt, so it won't be too cold...

Normans Law, GM/SS-262,  NO32, Trig TP5143 is just 20 minutes along the other side of the Tay plus a fairly brief walk of a km or so and ascent of a mere 140m. 

Ian had stuff on later in the day and neither of us had much appetite for anything serious this week - heavy snowfalls inland would make anything into the Cairngorms a challenge.

On leaving the car just up from Luthrie we had the first hints that this may not be a walk in the park.  All the puddles in the parking pull off were solid ice and a keen wind was flattening anything that might once have grown.  Even the low level path had a good dusting of snow.

And as we got out of the woods onto the hill proper and a view of the summit, it was clear things were a bit wintery

The walk up became quite icy,  where there had been streams across the path were solid glace sheets.

The summit was very breezy (euphemism for an absolute hoolie) but opens up fantastic views for such a little hill

The aerial mast was bungeyed to the trig - with some difficulty due to the wind - and only used just over half of the mast

you can see the feeder "flying" in the wind

looking through the aerial to the north, we felt justified in not being in the "proper" hills!

The operating position was hunkered down into the cairn

 And was reasonably productive.  I should have just started off by spotting a frequency as we had the rare treat of a mobile signal due to being near civilisation, but I attempted to join what seemed like an existing gathering on 7160.  This was challenging, perhaps many of the participants in G couldn't hear each other so it all seemed a bit chaotic.  We were struggling with the low temperatures and wind and getting heard initially was hard, I did manage 7 qsos in 6 minutes there but  a move to 7130 with a self spot  produced another 14 qsos in 10 minutes with some very good signals and very flattering reports for our 4 watts.   Good to catch Esther gi0aza as usual although at a lower strength than originally heard, band conditions were changing fast.  Karl m3feh, the Cornwall Beacon, was a great signal as often he is these days on 40m when no-one else can get to Scotland due to the skip length. Also good to get John mw0xot, Dave g4iar (also much weaker than when first heard), Don g0rql (of course!), Dave g4sqa was a strong signal as was Frans on5swa and Geoffrey g7bga was booming in.  Dan sm6cnx was also booming in thanks to his greater distance.  Nice to catch SOTA regulars Alan gw4vpx and Brian g8add.

A move to 20m started with Marius sp9amh and then Manuel ea2dt - an activation seems lacking without him!  ok2pdt, is another regular and nice to catch Sylvia oe5yyn from home. Surprise qso was ki4svm in South Carolina who gave us  54 with no other US calling.

A move back to 40m with Ian gi0azb back home netted a qso with a bit of a struggle, but completed.

One very odd thing happened during all this.  I normally take my wristwatch off and place it by the rig to use for logging.   Due to the temperature the display went off!  You could still read it if you looked at it on edge from underneath, but from the front it was blank.   It recovered when put back on my wrist.

By this time it was declared I was turning a funny colour of blue...  What a stupid game, go to the top of an exposed summit and sit there getting cold rather than moving around,  or just getting off it like sensible people do...   So I did.

At the bottom we spotted a couple of deer who true to form didn't pose nicely against the summit.  Well, they did until the camera was out,  you may just be able to spot one of them in full flight

 The other locals were rather slower moving