This summit was activated by myself and Richard G3CWI, accompanied by Jimmy and Liam, and Richard's son Lewis, on Saturday 22nd January 2005.   

From Stiperstones G/WB-003, we drove along the increasingly snow-covered lanes up the Long Mynd.  In these conditions, I just "love" those reassuring signs; "Road not maintained by local authority in winter"!  We reached the Shooting Box car park, and prepared for our final activation of the day.  Liam and Lewis opted to remain in the car to listen to the football on BBC Radio 5 Live.  We were about to ask Jimmy what he preferred to do, but he already had his fleece, hat and gloves on!

The route from here is more or less horizontal, so we walked briskly as the snow continued to fall.  The first mound is within the activation area, and I recalled that Riley G7GOD once activated from here.  Then path the drops slightly to meet the bridleway that runs across it, before gently rising again to the trig point and viewfinder on the summit.  In order to make this a quick activation, we brought Richard's handheld, and the first thing we heard upon switching it on was Ian G7ADF/P calling CQ from Long Mynd - Pole Bank G/WB-005!  This being exactly where we were, we looked around, but couldn't see him.  Jimmy even shouted out his name, thinking he might be hiding in the heather in grouse style!  It turned out that Ian had attacked the summit directly from the south, and while not at the summit, was most of the way inside the activation area, and coincidentally at or very close to the spot where Riley G7GOD did his first activation of this summit.  Richard did the logging for me to improve speed (he was not activating, having done this summit within the past week), and I quickly made six contacts, including two summit-to-summits, with G7OZE/P on Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002 and Pete M1BZJ/P on Winter Hill G/SP-010.

By the time we returned to the Shooting Box car park, Ian was there too, and my car had gone into "economy mode" thus depriving Liam and Lewis of some minutes of their 5 Live listening.  Still a further treat was then in order as I realised that our position might enable us to hear 106.9 Silk FM, and the commentary from Wycombe Wanderers versus MACCLESFIELD TOWN!  This we did as we gingerly made our way back down, using the road back towards Bridges as a longer, but "defensive" route to avoid the notoriously steep descents towards Church Stretton or Norbury, and the black-spot between.  Even so, like the other two roads, this still requires great care around some exposed vertical edges off the side of the road, and the junction with the A49 was a welcome sight indeed.

We reconvened at a large friendly pub up near the A5, and enjoyed a pint of hand-pulled Tetleys.  Lewis had probably the most spectacular sausage butty I have ever seen, after which he challenged Jimmy to a game of pool.  Liam appointed himself as referee and Richard, Ian and myself had a chat about the day and such.  We got back to Macc around 7.45pm.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 5 watts: