This summit was activated by myself, accompanied by Jimmy on Wednesday 18th August 2004.   

An impromptu SOTA YH get-together in the LD saw the reintroduction of the fleece hats (always carried, but used for the first time in months) and the hot flask of soup to our rucksacks; the gloves should have been added too, but we managed to leave them in the hallway at home. The weather forecasts were variable and unstable, not to mention pessimistic, so my services to chasers were suspended for the two days, as I concentrated on getting my 4 contacts and having a good walk and a natter with my son and heir.

Jimmy and I left Macc at 6.30am Wednesday morning, around 15 minutes later than usual, but accounted for by the preparation of the mulligatawny soup.  We got a good run up the M6 before calling in at Forton services for our expensive but well-liked large English breakfasts. On reaching Grasmere, the weather was gloomy, but generally dry with only patchy light drizzle.  It was quite warm (19 degrees) so the waterproof trousers were on, and the jackets when needed, but for the start of the ascent the fleeces remained in the rucksacks. We parked in the long lay-by at Dunmail Raise, just north of Grasmere on the A591, just before where the carriageway splits into two. We walked along the roadside verge for a short distance before climbing a stile and heading up towards the gap in the fells through which flows Raise Beck, and our footpath climbs. The going was steady and straightforward, and non-too steep at any point, despite the density of contours either side of the Beck.

  

After little more than an hour, we reached the cairn at the coll between Seat Sandal G/LD-022 (our objective) and Dollywaggon Pike. We turned right (south) and followed the track heading directly upwards on the left-hand side of the wall. At this point we began a conversation with Mark M0DEV/P on the adjacent summit of Fairfield G/LD-007, and he became the second contact on the summit after working Shirley M0YLS/P over on Red Screes G/LD-017. The summit was qualified courtesy of Rob G4RQJ and Nigel 2E0NHM, both of whom were to go on to work me on all three summits over the two days. Although the SOTA Beam was carried, it was not used at all, due to the possibility of thunder and lightning in the area. It was carried as an option should it become appropriate or necessary, but in the end it didn't.  I managed to qualify Seat Sandal using only my 230mW handheld, so even the FT-817 remained in the rucksack. I appreciate that didn't really give chasers further afield a sniff, but I was focussing on long walking routes and watching the weather carefully, so priority was not on playing radio for a change.

After packing up, we descended back down to the coll ready for our ascent of Helvellyn LD-003.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM using 2.5 watts: