Being a considerate husband is what I spent the weekend doing.  My wife, Marianne, needed some time and space on Saturday to sleep off her night-shift.  She needed same on Sunday to prepare for a job interview in peace and quiet.  I was told in no uncertain terms that it was my responsibility to entertain J & L throughout the weekend.  Hmmm.  "Would it help you if I took the boys away, stopping at a Youth Hostel Saturday night?", I asked her.  Marianne readily accepted my kind offer, and I am sure she appreciates what a thoughtful and considerate man I am.

Now, as you will have gathered, there is a bit of banter and rivalry going on between Richard G3CWI, Steve G1INK and myself regarding the number All-Time unique SOTA summits activated.  I needed to extend my total, but also pile on a few points.  The Youth Hostel best placed to serve my requirements was Dufton, and sure enough, it had three beds available when I rang to book.

We set off early on Saturday 9th July 2005, but without the usual QSO with G3GAH or later chasing the summit early-birds, since I hadn't got round to replacing the damaged plug on the power lead between car battery and FT-817.  Breakfast was taken at Lymm Poplar 2000 services, and we headed up to M6 to J40. From here, it was a longish drive to Alston, and then back down towards Barnard Castle, but pulling into plenty of parking space by the cattle grid near the highest point of the road. We simply followed the fence around to the summit, but the ground by the nearby shooting boxes was generally better underfoot, and better avoided the peat hags.  The summit is at the junction of three fences, and the trig point stood around twenty yards away.  Visibility must have been poor for those that have reported not finding it. 

Being screened by Great Dun Fell, Little Dun Fell and Cross Fell G/NP-001 to the west, and Mickle Fell to the south, getting into the North-West chaser hotbed was always going to be a challenge, and I took up the fishing pole for the possibility of needing an HF contingency plan.  However, straight in was Kevin G1EYD in Newcastle upon Tyne, and three more stations gave me the points.  Liam remembered the ridge of three summits culminating in Cross Fell and confidently pointed them out on the horizon.  He did insist that the first one was "Big Dun Fell" however!  It was a scorching hot lunchtime, and it felt around 28 degrees on the summit, indicating that it may have been around 35 degrees at sea level.  We completed the simple descent, and backtracked to Alston to move onto Cross Fell G/NP-001.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts: