GW/SW-001 – Pen y Fan – 886m – 8 Points

Finally I climbed the highest hill in South Wales. I arrived at Pont-ar-Daf at 8am (sunrise was at 8:21am) and there were already 20 cars parked. The path up to Pen y Fan is really nice and easy to walk. On the top the hill was covered in fog, wind blew and snow fell from time to time. The whole hour I was up I saw the sun for less than a minute but I was surprised highest windspeed I encountered was further down at Blwch Duwynt on the way down. For the antenna I selected a spot on the NE side and wind was not too high although it came from almost all directions. While I was errecting my SOTApole a tourist from Japan was interested in my work. On the way up I saw serveral tourist from Japan (they all started their walk at sunrise), small kids and one guy with shorts (although the remaining clothes were more than adequate for a hill covered in snow).
My antenna was again my Inverted L and KX3. After 15 QSO the HNY-Contest in DL started and I lost my QRG. At the same time wind picked up and I decided to dismantle my station. SOTApole and all guying were covered with a few millimeter of ice but with temperature rising just above 0C it was easy to clean it away.
As a tourist in Wales I want to enjoy the views on top of each hill (and not only fog). Therefore, I spend a fair bit of time up on Pen y Fan and took some pictures whenever the fog layer lifted for a few seconds.
At 11am I was back at the car park and it was full to the last spot 🙂

1 January 2013: 09:21 – 09:32UTC

Temperature 4C at the car park and 0C on Pen y Fan. The ground was still frozen on Pen y Fan and the hilltop covered in clouds.

Rig: KX3, 10W, 4400mAh LiPo
Ant: SOTApole, 13.1m Inv. L, 5x 4m Radial

15 CW QSO on 7’031.5 kHz

Car park: 51.867874N / 3.471579W, 441m.

Hiking statistics – uphill only:
Time: 55 min
Distance: 3.3 km
Total Ascend: 465 m
Total Descend: 15 m

: Pen y Fan from SW.

: Corn Du on the left and the path to Pen y Fan to the right.

: The final approach to Pen y Fan.

: Pen y Fan, 886m a.s.l.

: View ?!?

: My Inverted L dancing in the wind.

: and my outdoor shack at the base. Temperature just rose above 0C and I could key CW without any gloves on.

: View to NW.

: On the way down I took this 180 degrees shot.

: 10:30am on the highway.

: Fan Fawr, GW/SW-005 on the other side of the valley. I was up there (covered in snow) on 30 Dec 2012 and I can recommend GW/SW-001 as well as GW/SW-005.