This summit was activated by me, accompanied by Jimmy on Monday 29th December 2003.   

Monday 29th December was Gaulfest Day, conceived and arranged by Mark M0DEV and Dave M0DFA.  Jimmy and myself got a later-than-intended getaway from home at 8.30am due to a flurry of last-minute mind-changing by Marianne (my XYL) regarding our "pass-out" to the event!  Anyhow, the final decision was favourable, and we made very good time down the M6 and M54 to get back on track. We continued onto the A5 and A488, turning right at the signpost for Priest Weston, by which time our intended Marilyn of Corndon Hill GW/MW-013 was looming over us.  At the sharp double-bend in the road there are a couple of parking areas, and this is also the start of the track. We walked up the track for about 5 minutes, then climbed the stile onto the steep permissive path up by the side of the wood.  Halfway up, on my tiny 230mW handy I use for monitoring, I could hear Shirley MW0YLS/P and Mark MW0DEV/P calling from G/MW-002 Great Rhos, and threatening to descend soon.  I called in desperation, but could not raise them on the low power.  I raced ahead of Jimmy to the summit, and thankfully a pile-up of chasers had prevented their closedown before I reached the summit.  From this point I could work them on the low-power handy, and indeed did so. The summit and surroundings were covered in snow, and were rather busy with people sledging, playing and even 4x4-ing.   I then worked Alan M1EYO/P on Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002, still on the handy.  3 contacts, only one more required, so I didn't set up the SOTA Beam for once, and just screwed in the rubber duck as supplied with the FT817.  I quickly worked four more summits in Carl GW0TQM/P on Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051, Mark G3XYS/P on Kinder Scout G/SP-001, Stuart G0MJG/P on Long Mynd-Pole Bank G/WB-005 and Dick M3EIQ/P on Black Hill G/SP-002. A further seven QSOs then followed, including John GW4BVE, Graham G4JZF, Peter M0COP and two more summit-to-summits with Chris G7NBP/P on Caer Caradoc Hill G/WB-006 and Phil M3PMM/P on Winter Hill G/SP-010. We descended and drove the long way around (to avoid the ice problems up on the Long Mynd) to Church Stretton.  We found Mr Bun the Baker's, courtesy of a talk-in from Alan M1EYO on 2m, and ordered coffee and lunch. Alan was already there with Stuart G0MJG, and during the next hour or so we were joined by Mark M0DEV, Shirley MW0YLS, Dave M0DFA and Riley G7GOD (with Mike & Scott), resulting in a discussion about the SOTA database, chaser tables and more coffee! On the way home, I continued to converse with Alan and Stuart, this time via 2m mobile.  An excellent day out; thanks to Mark and Dave for putting it together.

Thanks to the following stations worked, all on 2m FM with 2.5 watts, except for the first three where 0.23 watts was used: