Tom Read - click to email meBDXC ISWL WAB SOTA RSGB IOTA - see my radio page for more detailsLiam & Jimmy

Yr Eifl 2004

 

This summit was activated on Wednesday 29th May 2004, by myself, accompanied by Jimmy and Liam.  It was the final activation of a three summit day that had started that morning with Yr Arwedd / Mynydd Bodafon NW-071, which was close to our campsite.  From our second summit of Holyhead Mountain NW-069, we drove back down the A55, and over the Britannia Bridge to the mainland.   We then turned right and headed into Caernarfon and out on the A487 and then A499 towards Pwllheli.  Close to the village of Llanaelhaearn, we turned right onto the B4417 to the village of Llithfaen.  Here, we turned right to head up to the parking area by the small forest.

Summit of Yr Eifl NW-075    Jimmy & Liam in the summit shelter on Yr Eifl    Click to return to summit index

 

From this point, our map indicated a maze of public footpaths, bridleways and sheep tracks  which gave numerous combinations to the summit.  We selected to head along the bridleway towards Trefor (as indicated by the map), before turning right down a path and left up another.  This, like many of the dotted paths on OS maps ("sheep tracks") went a good way before fading into nothing, and we were left to pick our way up the steep slopes through heather and clambering over boulders.  This was not a 2-pointer in the mould of Shining Tor, Black Hill, Moel Famau and the like.   It began relatively low and relatively near to the summit, requiring nearly 300m of ascent and much of it fairly steep.  It was hard work, but nonetheless, the boys did well, and as we neared the summit, Jimmy spotted the good path to it.  Acting on Jimmy's instructions, we diverted directly to the clear path, even though this necessitated a drop in height.  Although it was after 6pm in the evening, the weather was excellent, and it was shirt sleeve order on the summit.  Next to the trig point there was an enormous shelter hollowed out of the many stones and rocks.  From the summit height, it must have been hollowed out to a good four feet below, and gave an excellent location from which to operate.

Tom & Liam in the summit shelter on Yr Eifl         Liam on Yr Eifl

My initial CQ calls drummed up a most underwhelming response, so as I chatted to Bob (home QTH very close to this summit) in my second contact, I asked him if there were likely to be other amateurs in the area monitoring.  The activation was then quickly qualified as the next two contacts came from his wife Dawn, and son Stephen in the same car!

The descent on the clear path took just 50 minutes, beating our ascent time by over an hour!  Back at the car at 8pm, we managed to drive to the Panton Inn in Pentraeth (on Anglesey, close to our campsite) just in time for last food orders at 9pm.  At camp, after Jim and Liam went to bed, it was back on 40m again (accompanied by a bottle of vodka and a carton of pineapple juice), but unfortunately I didn't manage to work the CX or the TF stations that came up against the pile-ups of QRO stations.  I did get through though to G0VHS in Weymouth who was impressing everybody with his stunning signal and audio.

The SOTA Beam, standing in the shelter wall atop NW-075

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

MW1DAO Treaddur Bay Ken
MW0RHD/M Bangor Bob
MW3CYU/M Caernarfon Stephen
MW3CYQ/M Caernarfon Dawn
MW3DIV Anglesey Pat
G6LKB/M Ulverston David