Tom Read - click to email meBDXC ISWL WAB SOTA RSGB IOTA - see my radio page for more detailsLiam & Jimmy

Allt y Main 2007

 

After Y Golfa GW/NW-061 on Thursday 12th April 2007, we headed for Allt y Main GW/NW-059, and for the GW4BVE recommended parking spot at the end of the high narrow country lane due East of the summit. But we had forgotten something! The walk up the grass bank and along the first ridge, in warm sunshine and with superb views was delightful, but then we looked ahead at the forest - which had been felled, but not cleared. Disaster - our route was impassably blocked.

        Liam at the summit of Allt y Main                    Jimmy at the trig

Looking back and upwards, I spotted a public footpath waymarker post. We clambered up the undergrowth remains of an area that had been cleared of the timber, and struggled across the twigs, holes and brambles with difficulty. We reached the post and realised that we could have taken another footpath to it, by earlier forking right from out previous path. We followed this path as the waymarks zigzagged us down a bank and over a stream. Then we realised that this simply connected up with the first path we had followed, save for the considerable blockage of felled trees between this and the first point we had reacher.

        Jimmy & Liam                Tom MW1EYP/P on Allt y Main GW/NW-059

However, where there's a will there's a way, and with Jimmy in the party, the 'will' is there by default. He spotted a well trodden route up by the side of the northern extremity of the felling operations. This coincided with the southern extremity of a felled and cleared area. This was steep, but we were able to make rapid progress. Within ten minutes, we were reunited with the proper surafced summit path, and able to progress unimpeded to the trig point. We sat backwards on the bench to avoid looking into the sun and enjoyed another easy activation with ten contacts coming in little over twenty minutes. The descent seemed incredibly quick.

We were getting hungry, and we were out of energy bars from the supply. We stopped by at a bakery in Llanfilin and bought a savoury pastry each, plus a flapjack each to stuff in rucksacks for snacks on our final hill of the campaign - Rhialgwm GW/NW-046.  Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:

G4JZF Walsall Graham T, J
2E0KPO Burton-on-Trent Steve T, J
G1DDU/M Mow Cop Andy T, J
M0GIE Royton Phil T, J
G0AKF Knutsford Ken T
M3HGH/P near Bury Ken T