"Chance of a lift":  I'm not referring to forecast radio conditions, but an invite from Richard G3CWI to be chauffeur driven to Arenig Fawr GW/NW-011 on Monday 1st August 2005.  I had not done many hills at all in this area, so I readily accepted, as did Jimmy, despite the necessary 5.30am get-up.  Richard picked us up as arranged at 6am and off we drove in a direction that had previously only taken me as far as Mynydd Nodol GW/NW-048.  This time we were going one hill further!

We parked at SH 845396, close to the start of the track heading south around Llyn Arenig Fawr.  We passed the bothy at the dam, and then took on the first climb up Bwlch Blaen-y-nant.  Although from here no track appears on the map, a distinct path contours around to the summit with only one or two ambiguous moments. There was not a breath of wind, so it was midge hell on the summit.  Richard plastered himself with his repellent, whereas Jimmy and myself took more direct action, hiding ourselves tent-like under our larger coats, which were in the rucksack and otherwise unnecessary on this warm day.

Richard concentrated on 40m CW, and I operated on 2m FM.  However, the appearance of the debut Swiss activation - HB9SGS/P on Lagern HB/ZH-010 - necessitated a change for us both.  We hastily combined my FT-817 with Richard's 40m dipole and 40 watt linear amplifier, and Richard got in with his first call for the first ever Switzerland - UK summit-to-summit.  I then got in for the second, using the International Short Wave League club callsign MC1SWL/P, and for a blissful moment, we didn't even notice the midges. On the descent, I was able to match Jimmy's pace (for once), but neither of us could keep up with Richard.  But then we saw him appear sitting in the grass ahead of us.  In fact he had slipped and fell very painfully, knee-first into jagged rock.  Thankfully, no major damage was done, but Richard was in far too much pain to be able to use the clutch appropriately, so I had to drive his car back to Macclesfield, and the luxury of being chauffered all day was not to be. Despite Richard's uncomfortable end to the day, a great day out overall, and thanks to G3CWI for the invite.  

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts, except HB9SGS/P, worked on 40m SSB with 40 watts: