Wednesday 20th February 2014 - The Clwydian Range.

Moel Gyw GW/NW-053
Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051
Moel Famau GW/NW-044
Penycloddiau GW/NW-054
Mynydd y Cwm GW/NW-076

I had always* fancied the idea of doing all five of these in one day.

[*1 - since the discovering the Summits on the Air programme]
[*2 - since broadening my horizons from summits within an hour of my home]
[*3 - since the addition of Mynydd y Cwm to the Welsh ARM]

Well I got a pass-out to do so from Marianne, but sadly the weather forecast was less than promising. Well it was promising actually - promising heavy rain and high winds. I still submitted my alerts though and prepared for a more "extreme" day out (by my standards).  As we got closer to the big day, the forecast was slightly more favourable, suggesting sunny spells by mid afternoon after all the rain had cleared. I got up at 5am and prepared the must-have litre flask of mulligatawny soup for such a long day out. I was still quite full from the previous evening's meal at the Weston Balti Raj, so didn't bother with any breakfast.

       

A schedule was set of 0800, 1000, 1200, 1400 and 1600 for my five activations. I arrived at the Clwyd Gate Motel car park on the A494 around 7am, so the timing was good - at least at the start of the day. The weather was light drizzle, but this abated by the time I was climbing through the field on the Offa's Dyke Path.  As I switched back to climb to the summit of Moel Gyw GW/NW-053, I was increasingly aware of the high winds blasting across. I walked past the summit and a few metres downhill to get a more sheltered position. After setting up, I found that my Palm Cube was playing up. Basically, after pressing a button on the Cube, that seemed to lock everything up and nothing did anything - not even the keying on the Palm Paddle. I reset the Cube and replaced the battery but the same problem persisted. Oh, and I couldn't get a data signal on my phone to spot myself.

I managed to raise Neil 2W0TDX/M on 2m FM using the handie, and then I did managed to get a spot through, for 24.947MHz SSB. One station from each of G, UR and RA took the activation into qualification. I made my way back to the car and aimed to be on Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051 by the alert time of 1000 UTC.