Slievenalargy, GI/MM-015 - 280m ASL - J 297 355 - OSNI Discoverer 29 - 1 SOTA point            

Sunday 25th May 2014 began early with a 5am get-up, and a breakfast of toasted soda bread. I prepared a small flask of tea for Jimmy and I, and we set off to tackle Slievenalargy GI/MM-015, previously known as Tullynasoo Mountain. This is a northern outlier from the main Mournes area, a couple of miles west of Castlewellan.

We parked in the quarry at J304355. From here, we walked through the gate and along the track, which faded away pretty quickly. Much of the rest of the way does not remain as vivid memories, as I simply plodded uphill following Jimmy's navigational instructions to the letter.

We reached the summit in light but constant rain, hence we set up quickly in order to take shelter in the big bothy bag. Jimmy and I managed to get our initial contacts fairly reasonably, on 2m FM and 12m CW respectively. However, we both then faced real challenges to add to our logs. Fourteen minutes later, I got through to IK2ILH on 12m SSB and eight minutes later I got a S2S with HB9CAT/P on HB/TI-101, back on 12m CW.

As I worked 4Z5PF on CW to qualify my activation, Jimmy had still made only one QSO. With Michael 4X6HX on frequency and on SSB, I offered Jimmy the mike. Contact was made, following which Jimmy took over the 12m SSB calling, adding OM5DP to take himself to within one QSO of qualification.

Things remained difficult though, and it was only at 0814z, well over an hour after the start of the operating, that Jimmy got that all-important QSO on 2m FM. I added just a couple more to take my total to 7 QSOs, 3 on CW and 4 on SSB.

A mutual lapse of concentration while descending and omitting to recheck the map and do a bit of precautionary compass work, resulted in us veering in the wrong direction and losing some time. After recovering the error, we were back at the car in another 20 minutes or so, and then back at the cottage during mid-morning.  Another one down. The next day we would go out for another early morning bag, this time of Slievenaglogh GI/MM-012.