Manod Mawr, GW/NW-035 - 661m ASL - SH 724 447 - OS Explorer OL18 - 4 SOTA points            

We were both pretty tired when we awoke on Saturday 10th August 2013, but that mattered not one jot to Jimmy - he had a plan and intended to execute it! Breakfast was really nice as we had the "Royal Sportsman Special" - toasted muffin, with poached egg, bacon, mushrooms and hollandaise sauce. After a couple of cups of tea, we were ready to go, and got on the road to Manod Mawr GW/NW-035.  We drove east until picking up the A470 through Llan Ffestiniog. Turning right took us onto a minor road which continued with a good tarmac surface all the way to the entrance to Manod Quarries at SH732456. Here, there is a parking are for several cars, and we were the second car there on this day. More cars, presumably workers, were parked beyond the quarry gate.

       

We ourselves briefly walked through this quarry gate and then almost immediately out of the side of the site that backs onto the rising steep slopes of Graig-ddu Quarry. This rough track led up to a pool of strange colour. To my eyes it was "bleached turquoise", but I am colourblind, so it could have been anything! Probably something to do with the slate though!  Also here was a large mine entrance, which was blocked by a large locked gate. It looked a huge cavern in there though. The next phase of the ascent had us on a rougher grassy, sometimes boggy surface, but reasonable good going. I assumed this was a partially man-made route, possibly for an old mining railway, or even horse-drawn wagons. Jimmy had advertised this summit to me as "an easy 4 pointer", but as easy 4-pointers go, this was not in the same classification of tameness as Tal y Fan GW/NW-040!

       

Once beyond SH728452, the gradient eased considerably, and it was an easy stroll onto the summit. Jimmy expressed some concern, as he could not find the trig point, and he felt sure he had seen photos of a pillar, as well as the symbol appearing on the map. We both set up close to the shelter, which itself was unusable being full of loose rocks and nettles! Also in the shelter was what appeared to be the base of a trig pillar.

       

Jimmy experienced difficulty in guying the SOTA Pole upright, and suffered a collapse resulting in damage to some sections of his MFD and one section of the pole. Nonetheless, it was possible to get the whole assembly in the air, with the good sections of the SOTA Pole supporting the broken sections of the MFD and vice versa.

       

I had not such difficulty with the 12m groundplane, amd was quickly into making contacts, numbering 8 on CW, 6 on SSB and 2 on PSK31. Included was a S2S with Jirka OK2BDF/P on Vysocina OK/VY-044 on 12m CW. On 2m FM, Jimmy made eleven QSOs including Neil 2W0TDX/P and Karen 2W0XYL/P on Mynydd Bodafon GW/NW-071, plus Allan G4VPX/P and Mickey 2E0YYY/P on Shining Tor G/SP-004. I tail-ended these contacts to get the S2S points, but didn't manage to get through to Iain MM3WJZ/P who could be heard activating Culter Fell GM/SS-049.

       

After descent, we reversed our drive down the quarry road and then north through Blaenau Ffestiniog. The next - and final summit of our trip was Allt Fawr GW/NW-025.