Saturday was due to be a good day as predicted from early in the week so I was slightly concerned to wake up to a persistent sleet and a thin covering of wet snow on the grass. Still, raintoday was showing that the bad weather was all to the south of where we were going and we were in for a nice day of lightish winds, mostly sunshine and not much fresh snow underfoot...
The plan was straightforward, park up at the parking near the Clova hotel, head up to Loch Brandy and then traverse at that level to Loch Wharral and then up to the summit "The Goet", coming back along the high route to Green Hill and down. Taking time on the top to put up the radio to activate GM/ES-016, NO37, trig point TP6385. Simples.
En route to Forfar for breakfast it was clear that there had been reasonable snow on the local hills overnight.
And then while eating breakfast came the news on the internet that the road to Glenshee (ski centre) was blocked whether coming from the north or from the south and they had sent for the "BIG" cutter. Cairngorm was similarly cut off. We'll be fine though, it's a "lot" (20kms!) further east...
Just outside Kirriemuir we hit the first snow on the road,
But it didn't deteriorate too much
Once we got started, there was a "bit" of snow around the glen, making it pretty but not hampering the walking too much
at the start
heavens, you could even see the path
Occasionally
OK, so there were one or two deeper bits
in fact, so deep that we were starting to flounder, in fact the only way across was to spread the weight on hands and knees
And here we first met two other young guys en route to the same summit
using the same technique! Still, the views were stunning, and it would surely get better higher up where it would have blown the snow off....
Eventually we hove in sight of Loch Brandy, or more correctly in sight of the bowl surrounding it, and met the first real challenge
First of all I had a go and got defeated, I just couldn't make it through
Of course, an old fart like me declaring it impassable was too much for the young guys who made it
While we took an easier detour
Remember me saying earlier of the "lightish wind forecast"? Hmmmm.
Loch Brandy was stunning, I've never seen it half frozen before
And now we came to challenge number two. There is a nice burn that flows out of Loch Brandy, that is easily crossable, not at the moment it isn't
What's really nasty is looking at what should be a piece of solid ground, hearing a raging river underneath. And in fact one of the young guys went through the ice and in up to his knee - could have been worse.. We left them to it and were prepared to loose some height to find a lower, safer way across.
Once over, the going became a LOT worse. In fact we really struggled to get out of the river valley in the deep snow
By this stage "bitching betty" (map my walk) was telling us from Ians phone that we were achieving the stunning pace of 26 minutes per km, less than half normal.... after struggling through a couple of really bad patches we stopped to have a conference, and to watch the two young presumably much fitter guys making really really heavy weather of the slope above us
You can just make out the two black dots (they had gained quite a bit on us while we faffed around the river). And then we just stopped and watched, and ten minutes later they'd got this far
We looked at the map, hell we've hardly started, and its getting worse with each metre up, we're at 680m with the top at 896m. Reluctantly we made the sensible decision, there was no way in these conditions we were up to this. And felt immediately vindicated when we hit even worse conditions heading down!
Time for a bite of lunch, never has homemade veg and lentil soup tasted so good.
Nicely rested in a sheltered bowl in the sun, we started out again, first of all we had to get across that bloody river. Never mind that, first of all we had to get to it!!
We then hit a patch where Ian sank in over his knees, I went to help and went in up to my waist! It's not very pleasant being in snow and not able to move your legs, didn't like that.... We got out of that but were then in the middle of a sea of snow, the patent crawling technique worked, very briefly before I sank in past my elbows
There was nothing for it, but to go down the slope Roly-Poly style, flat out, rolling through the snow. It worked, that's about all I can say...
Eventually we hit the river again although lower down and a lot more contained.
It's not often I've seen fastly flowing water freezing as it flows
Looking back at our trails coming down we were just grateful we hadn't continued up, the descent so far had been as hard work as the ascent!
We had to stop for a pint in the cosy bar at the Clova (Orkney Corncrake),but forgot to take a picture. And then on the way down the Glen we were pleased to catch sight of the two young guys some three and half hours after we'd last seen them, but still way up the hill with only an hour till sunset. They'd get down ok but not with a wide margin and they won't have stopped to play radio on the summit. I'm glad we didn't bother.
So, in order to restore our confidence in our ability to climb a summit we picked the smallest one we could find to stretch our aching legs on sunday morning :-) Mount hill at a stunning 221M asl and 163m prominence is GM/SS-277, NO31, trig point TP4941. It even has a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hill
The plan was to park at the 90m mark where the yellow road kinks (a well kent place) and battle up the 130m, gosh it must be all of one and a half kilometres.
It's pretty though, here we are looking north
But we nearly came unstuck on the way up,
Neither of us had remembered the Crampons or Ice Axe.
The monument provides a nice backrest
Eagle eyed viewers will spot the bottle of Conniston Olivers Light Ale, which had previously travelled 2/3 of the way up Ben Tirran,but was "not required" on that trip.
The radio proved quite productive with 68 qsos in 75 minutes which included two 10 minute arm flapping breaks while band changing (it was still quite chilly) so only 55 minutes on the air. There were some quite busy times, there are 5 in the log at 11:38 ( I don't guarantee the accuracy of that watch!).
I started out finding a hole on 7124. It was a bit annoying to find so many PA stations in 7.100 to 7.130 which is against their rules, I've written to the VERON contestmanager saying "I trust they will be disqualified"... Then, having been on the frequency a few minutes the bloody IRTS news started up 1khz lf, only it didn't, there was no newsreader and they just had a damn chat there instead. Still a lot of people managed to break through into my little space starting with Peter mm3pdm/p up in Peterhead who was booming today, I didn't even spot myself but got found anyway. A lot of the WAB and SOTA regulars found their way including Don G0RQL, Karl M3FEH was a good 59, Ken G0FEX was end stopping as usual, Mike, G6TUH, Dan SM6CNX, Ken and Christine 0AXY and 4YMM down in Edinburgh, Geoff, GM4WHA down in Annan, MU0GSY down in Guernsey, Gez, M0NTC (who's name and callsign I have only just put together!), EA2CKX, Pedro, who is always a surprise qso on 40m at that time of the day, and Carl 2E0HPI on what seems like a rare operation from his home qth (do they remember who you are?). Please forgive me if I don't mention you here, or if I forget your name, or if I haven't managed to put names and calls together yet!
40m was just getting silly so I stopped for a break and a wander around to warm up a bit and then started 10 minutes later on 20m with Sergei RV9DC, although a bit more of a struggle than usual, then straight away, Manuel EA2DT and a string of regulars including Robert SP8RHP and Mariusz SP9AMH, Martin OM5DP, Guru EA2IF, Rudi HB9MKV, a surprise call from W1OW in MA, OZ7JZ made it into the log on both bands. Sorry not to mention you all, but all appreciated! At the end of the session I completed an S2S with DC1SK/P and DM2AXL/p on DM/TH099 before a qsy back to 40m to visit the WAB net on 7160 although most had found me earlier. Then just as we were about to pack up I saw a spot from Peter OE5AUL/P back up on 20m, a quick qsy secured an S2S with OE/OO433.
I was going to try some other bands but by this time the cold had worked its way through and we made a chilly pack up.
The End.
(for today)
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