In early January 2010, Richard G3CWI, Jimmy M3EYP and I attempted to beat the snow and activate Kinder Scout.  Our plan was to drive around to Hayfield, and walk up from there.  The walk up from the village to the Sportsman pub was fine, but as we gained height and lost civilisation, things quickly became more difficult.  Deep soft snow in the walled tracks made going particularly difficult, even for Richard in his snow-shoes!  As we climbed more steeply towards the edge of the Kinder plateau, I began to feel unwell, and so we decided to abandon and retreat.

On Saturday 30th January 2010, I wanted to go for a walk. Marianne, Liam and even Jimmy wanted to go to the pictures to see that 3D thing. So when Richard G3CWI suggested a walk, I took that option and suggested a favourite long circular route on Kinder Scout.

Things did not start well. Bang on cue, just after the leek, potato and thyme soup was warmed and into the flask, Richard 'phoned to report he was unwell and could not go out. I decided I was still going out for a walk, on my own, or if you like, "on me Jack Jones".  Things quickly got worse. I had only made two turnings, and was still on the estate when my car felt all bumpy and no longer wanted to go forwards. The unmistakable symptoms of a flat tyre. Now it was the car that was to be on its jack!

...eventually. But when I came to release the cage containing the spare wheel, the mechanism was found to be seized up. Furthermore, the plastic adapter given to me by the garage when they fitted the spare wheel lock was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. As I tried to use it to unlock the spare wheel lock, the plastic just moulded itself into a different shape, instead of getting any kind of purchase on the locking bolt!  Time to make use of that few extra quid I pay with my motor insurance premium every month, and call breakdown. He was not long in coming, and got me sorted, but now it was a trip to the tyre place for a new tyre. Or two new tyres as they advised I should have. The spare had to go in the boot, and the cage held up by tape. It was now 11.15am, I was still in Macclesfield, I'd had petrol station cold bacon & egg butties instead of the intended full Derbyshire breakfast at Stocks Cafe in Chapel-en-le-Frith, and there was a big gaping hole in my wallet. Any sane person would have gone home at this point.

   

Thankfully, that doesn't include me. I was going for a walk today, end of. Despite the very late arrival in Grindsbrook and the probability I would need to either walk there from the bottom of the road, or else park in and walk from Upper Booth, I was lucky enough to snag a parking spot right outside the Old Nag's Head pub.  Boots on, rucksack on, poles and map ready, I was at last sauntering along Grindsbrook Clough. It was a beautiful clear crisp cold but sunny day, exactly as forecast, and there was rather an ant-trail of hikers working their way around the curving clough. Most of them were effortlessly overtaking me, as I realised that my walking fitness was still not what I would like it to be.

   

A young couple breezed past me, enquired as to how I was, and then remarked something like "Well just so long as you're enjoying yourself, that's the main thing". Grrr.  Everyone was stopping to take photos when passing a cliff face on the other side of the clough, that housed a most spectacular array of icicles. It was stunning, and I hope the photographs I took do justice to the stunning spectacle.

   

I had forgotten how scrambly this route could be, and the final steep pull up to the Kinder plateau had extra difficulty due to the thick but extremely polished ice on all the surfaces, especially the boulders. The previously mentioned young couple were stopped and sat down as I passed them and enquired as to how they were. It turned out that the lad had gone over on his ankle, and they were having to turn back. I consoled myself that slow and steady was the best policy, even if it was all I could manage anyway.

   

On the Kinder plateau, there was a lot more lying snow, including deep drifts, than anywhere on the ascent. It must have been over ten feet deep in places, but unlike my previous attempt, the snow was strongly consolidated. Hence even on the deepest sections, I could just walk over the top of the snow and make no more impression into it than a normal footprint. As such, progress across to the summit was good, and very enjoyable walking.  I navigated to the true summit and passed by both of the cairns at the highest part of Kinder Scout. Realising that the late hour would necessitate use of headlamp later in the day, I chose to press on and activate at Kinder Low, from where navigation in poorer light would be easier.

   

I bedded down behind a big rock in order to shelter from the wind and finished my leek, potato & thyme soup. I then erected the 30m dipole antenna and made 8 contacts into HB, HA, OE, 9A, G and S5. I was about to pack away when I heard a few random dots and dashes. But not random enough for me not to recognise the nervous fist of Sean M0GIA.  I called M0GIA? a couple of times, but no response, apart from a couple of jokers sending HI HI. But then I heard "QRS" at about 10wpm, so I dropped my keyer down from 22wpm to 15wpm, which I know Sean can read, and called CQ. Sure enough, it was Sean M0GIA coming back, and thereafter he managed a faultless CW QSO with reports exchanged and all the niceties. Congratulations Sean!

       

There was nobody else waiting for me on 30m, so I packed up and called on 2m FM. Just one station - M6TKS - was worked, so at the rather late time of 1615 UTC, I commenced my descent from Kinder Scout.  Care was needed on most sections to prevent slips and falls, but I was enjoying the final leg of my solo winter walk. Descending Jacob's Ladder was relatively easy with no dangerously iced up bits, following which it was generally level walking, albeit with a good 4/5km to cover, back to Edale.

       

The headlamp was needed from Upper Booth farm, and that final leg over the hill was quite tiring. Then came the fun and games, Mr Bean style! On the very final section, a riverside path into Grindsbrook village, the whole width of the footpath was solid ice. For the very first time of the day, I slipped and was on my backside. However, every time I tried to get back to my feet, my feet just slipped further forward in front of me and I slipped a bit further down the path. I slipped over no less than five times in the next 60 seconds, until I was eventually able to stand up!

As I reached the car at about 6pm on a Saturday evening, I was disappointed to find the Old Nags Head pub shut. So straight home it was for a shower and a curry, then back out to see my brother's band playing live in downtown Macc.  Many thanks to everyone who called me on this activations, and especially Sean for braving it in the CW pile-up!

"How bad is Kinder Scout as a contest site?".  This was the question in mind as I planned for session 2 of the Backpackers series of contests. After coming a distant 2nd to Rhys GW4RWR in session 1, and knowing that he was going to be on Cadair Berwyn GW/NW-012 again, I was only too aware that the advantage of his VHF take-off over mine would be even greater.

But other things come into play. Priorities that are ahead of trying to actually win include doing a SOTA activation that Jimmy M3EYP wishes to join me on, having a nice walk and fitting in with the family. Those were the factors that led to the selection of a SOTA summit that is less-than-optimal for a VHF contest. But I was actually looking forward to the challenge of seeing what could be achieved with 2.5 watts from an FT-817 and a SOTA Beam from Kinder's plateau summit.

   

It was a necessarily early start on Sunday 13th June 2010. Unlike the other four Backpackers Contests, which run from 1100 to 1500 UTC, this one was 0900 to 1300z. We set our alarms for 5.30am BST and, unusually, had cereal for breakfast before leaving the house.  First port of call was Bollington, to pick up Jimmy's mate Craig who was joining us for the expedition. From there, we cut up the back lanes to Rainow, and then along the B road to Whaley Bridge. Continuing through Chapel-en-le-Frith and we were soon turning left for Edale, and again for the parking area at Barber Booth.

       

The usual route up Kinder begins with a long road walk from Barber Booth to Upper Booth to Lee Farm. The road is "access only" after Barber Booth. It always crosses my mind to enquire at Lee Farm as to the possibility of parking in one of their spaces for the day in return for a fiver! Certainly later in the day, a couple of walkers came down off Kinder and got in their car which was parked at Upper Booth Farm, but perhaps they had been staying in the bunkhouse there.

The road walk actually passed quickly and got us into our stride. As ever, Jimmy and Craig zoomed ahead at a pace that I couldn't even aspire to match, so I called Jimmy back and agreed some checkpoints. It was arranged that we would rendezvous at Lee Farm shelter, the bridge at the bottom of Jacob's Ladder, the right turning just before Edale Cross, Kinder Low trig point and the true summit. This proved a good plan and structured our walking nicely without forcing the two 17 year olds to dawdle at my pace all day.

   

The target was to be on summit for setting up by 9.30am. We were a bit behind this as we reached Kinder Low trig at 9.25am, but generally, we had made good time. We couldn't see the true summit, so Jimmy set the compass against the OS 1:25000 map and led us off in the necessary direction. Soon I picked out the first cairn, from which we progressed to the second cairn which we knew to be the true summit of Kinder Scout G/SP-001.

Jimmy and Craig set up the little tent while I concentrated on the SOTA Beam. The three of us huddled inside the tent as I completed setting up by connecting battery, aerial feeder, microphone and paddle (in the event unused) to the FT-817. I switched the power down to 2.5 watts to be in accordance with the contest rules and was QRV just a little late at 0903z (10.03am BST).

   

My initial run on my own QRG was disappointing, and seemed to confirm that Kinder was not a great VHF site. After only serial number 008, I switched to search & pounce operation and cruised up and down the 2m SSB band. The good thing was that a variety of locator multipliers came quickly. In the Tuesday night contests, it is typical to work 15 or 20 from IO83 before getting a second multiplier, but on this occasion I had worked IO83, IO92, IO93, IO94 and JO01 all in the first ten minutes. The JO01 gave me a little hope that some decent contacts were going to be possible from Kinder.

Soon this was extended to IO80 and JO00 (France), then IO73, IO81, IO82, IO84 and IO91, so the mults did build up. Further squares worked in the contest were JO02, IO90 and IO74. DXCCs also counted as multipliers in this session, but this only netted me G, GW, GI, GD and F. Obvious "gotaways" were EI and GM, and arguably ON, PA and DL, as well as squares IO63, IO64, IO70, IO75, IO85 and JO03. But I didn't hear 'em!

   

Jimmy and Craig disappeared from the tent when the sun came out, and went for a wander around the plateau. During this time, Jimmy qualified the summit on 2m FM from his handheld. He later rejoined me and grabbed the mike every time there was an S2S going. These were Graham G3OHC/P on Bishop Wilton Wold G/TW-004, Ian G1RVK/P on Black Hill G/SP-002, Richard G3CWI/P on The Cloud G/SP-015, Rhys GW4RWR/P on Cadair Berwyn GW/NW-012, GW0RMX/P on Graig Syfyrddin GW/SW-020, Walt GW3NYY/P on Mynydd Eppynt GW/SW-018 and G4ZOI/P on Whernside G/NP-004.

I tried a couple of times on 2m FM to keep the QSO rate going in quiet periods, but there were no takers at all. Picking up more distant contacts from IO90, IO80, JO00 and IO74 was a better use of the time anyway. The final QSO count was 74, one more than my previous best which was when I won the session from Gun G/SP-013 last September. However, it won't be enough to win this time, but may match the second place I got in session 1 this year.

Soup of the Day was Baxters Turkey Broth, which was welcome especially when the temperature dropped somewhat later on. At 1.15pm I was visited by two Peak District National Park rangers who asked a few questions, but were very friendly and departed quite content with my answers. I find that "I'll pack it all down now if you want me to, it will only take 5 minutes" is quite a useful one to say, but it was also useful to inform them that only 45 minutes remained of the contest and I was going then anyway. It was interesting to hear them say that they get lots of "radio hams" up here, but that "everyone else always has a letter of permission from the Peak District Office of the National Trust that they can show us". I didn't contest the issue, as they were being very reasonable anway.

Just as we completed the pack away, some rain started, so it was on with the waterproof overtrousers. The rain was light but persistant, and lasted for about 10 to 20 minutes. As we were dropping down from Kinder Low, we could see a group of people going in and out of the cracks on Edale Rocks, and suspending a large sheet of foil over the entrance to one of them. Later, as the rain got a little heavier, I was surprised to see no less than nine walkers (in ones and twos) ascending up Jacob's Ladder and beyond. After 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, in rain, this was weird, especially as most of them had nothing more than very small fluorescent shoulder bags and lack of waterproofs. One chap was even wearing designer jeans. That famous SOTA celebrity Joe Public again, no doubt.

Many thanks to any SOTA chasers and activators that worked me. I guess Kinder wasn't that bad as a contest site, but certainly not the best!