Some of the Langdales

Introduction

The Langdales is often described as a mini Lake District and it is easy to see why it is so popular with walkers. The forecast this Saturday was no rain, around 12 degC maximum with a cold Easterly wind around 20 knots on the summits.

You get a lot for your money here - the initial ascent is broken into two halves if you follow Stickle Gyhll, firstly to Stickle Tarn, and then a further ascent to either Harrison Stickle as the first Wainwright, or Pavey Ark. All of the Wainwrights here are a fairly easy walk once you have made the initial ascent, which makes for a very productive day in terms of WOTA bagging!

I had intended to follow the route around Pavey Ark straight to High Raise, but actually it is so close it is pointless not to do it.


The Main Langdale Wainwrights

Equipment

2m QSOs

RIG: Yaesu FT-817ND
ANT: Spectrum Communications Slim-G
PWR: 5w via internal battery
Case: PowerPort WorldPouch for FT-817

HF QSOs

RIG: Yaesu FT-817ND
ANT: SOTABeams Quadband Dipole
MAST: Decathlon 6m travel pole
PWR: 5w via ZIPPY Compact 2100mAh 3S1P 30C LiFePo4 Pack

All power connections standardized using PowerPole connectors.

Other

Logging: Rite in the Rain 4x6 Notebook and STAEDTLER Noris HB Pencil
Rucksack: Lowe Alpine Airzone Trek 45:55
Phone/Camera: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
Footwear: Salomon X Ultra 3 Prime GTX
Water: 750cl taken, approx. 2 litres consumed in total.
Water Purification: SAWYER PRODUCTS SP181 All-in-One Squeeze Filter

Safety

Strava Tracking




Parking in a dedicated motorbike bay!

First use of the water filter at the outlet of Stickle Tarn. Top tip - collect the water, then move to safe distance when transferring water to bottle. I managed to drop the filter in the stream, could have easily resulting in a single use item!

The filter worked great, water tasted great, it took about 5 minutes to gently squeeze 750ml from the filter bag into a bottle.


Squeeze Filter


Pavey Ark


Harrison Stickle, Stickle Tarn dead calm!


Wild Campers packing up

Pavey Ark

WOTA ID: LDW-089 Height: 700 m (2297 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: NY284079
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KL
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.461288 Long: -3.10468


Stickle Tarn from Pavey Ark


Panorama on a stunning day!

|Time|Callsign|Band|Freq|Mode|Locator| |Country|Name|Notes|
|–|----|-----|----|-----|----|-----|----|----|----|----|
|08:26|G1PIE|2m|145.575|FM|IO83qr||England|MARK PROCTER|OP: Mark, QTH: Preston|
|08:30|G7CDA|2m|145.575|FM|IO83qt||England|Douggie G7CDA||
|08:31|2E0EVD|2m|145.575|FM|IO84ic||England|Clive Douglas||
|08:32|M1BUU/P|2m|145.575|FM|||England|||
|08:33|G6LKB|2m|145.575|FM|IO84ke||England|David WARBURTON||
|08:34|G1OHH|2m|145.575|FM|IO84ob||England|Susan Griffin||
|08:34|G0BUB|2m|145.575|FM|IO92rx||England|MICK SHARPE|OP: Mick, QTH: Grantham|
|08:35|G0TDM|2m|145.575|FM|IO84oq||England|John Sutton||
|08:37|G1ZIM|2m|145.575|FM|IO84if||England|Simon Agnew||
|08:37|GM4WHA|2m|145.575|FM|IO84ix||Scotland|GEOFF HARPER||
|08:38|2E0SRL/P|2m|145.575|FM|||England|||
|08:41|F5RZC|2m|145.575|FM|||France||MHL: JO10AR, PWR: 40w, ANT: Colinear|
|08:42|GW1CJJ/P|2m|145.575|FM|||Wales||OP: Phil, QTH: Colwyn Bay|
|08:43|M0AYB|2m|145.575|FM|IO84gp||England|PHIL DAVIES||
|08:44|G7CAF|2m|145.575|FM|JJ00aa||England|SF BOND|RIG: Baoefeng GT3, ANT: Slim Jim|

What can I say about this set of QSOs! All fairly standard to start with, with Mark G1PIE proving to be an excellent chaser, I hope he is a regular. Then tropo kicked in and I got G0BUB in the log Mick from Grantham! Bearing in mind I’m using a roll-up SlimG and 5 watts he gives me a 59, wow! He was 55 with me. Mind, his 9700 and 10 element beam might have had something to do with it.

Whilst reeling from that DX I then get F5RZC in the log! Unfortunately he isn’t on QRZ.com but he did give me his Maidenhead locator as JO10AR:


2m FM contact into France

Wow!

The walk to Thunacar Knott is very quick, but a little zig-zagging is required to avoid the fell-top bogs.

Thunacar Knott

WOTA ID: LDW-076 Height: 723 m (2372 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: NY279079
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KL
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.461218 Long: -3.112392

Derek 2E0MIX thought this was the weird one, and it is, not really a summit more a hillock with a few piles of stone strewn around. Still a pleasant enough spot and another good set of contacts, although no DX this time.


Thunacar Knott

Time Callsign Band Freq Mode Locator Country Name Notes
09:06 G7CDA 2m 145.550 FM IO83qt England Douggie G7CDA
09:07 GW4ZPL 2m 145.550 FM IO73wd Wales Colin John Barwell
09:08 G0TDM 2m 145.550 FM IO84oq England John Sutton
09:09 GM4WHA 2m 145.550 FM IO84ix Scotland GEOFF HARPER
09:11 G1OHH 2m 145.550 FM IO84ob England Susan Griffin
09:12 G6LKB/M 2m 145.550 FM England
09:12 G1PIE 2m 145.550 FM IO83qr England MARK PROCTER
09:12 G8CPZ 2m 145.550 FM IO84of England Andy Barth
09:14 2E0LDF 2m 145.550 FM England
09:17 2E0MIX 2m 145.550 FM IO84fn England Derek Edge
09:21 G0HIK 2m 145.550 FM IO84je England Nick Gregory

High Raise (Langdale)

WOTA ID: LDW-056 Height: 762 m (2500 ft)
SOTA ID: G/LD-019 Grid ref: NY280095
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KL
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.47561 Long: -3.11124

The SOTA summit of High Raise is a little non-descript too, although we do have a trig stone and a summit cairn horseshoe which allowed me to get out of the wind whilst doing my VHF activation.


Trek up to High Raise


Good views to the West

Actually I was a bit harsh about this summit last time, but it does have good views all around, just maybe not the drama of some summits where there is a steeper drop off.

First in the log was M1EYP/P on SOTA G/SP-004, then Geoff, then EI6FR/P on EI/IE-005 - good contact considering the range of mountains in the way to the West.
G7WKX/P could have waved at me from Crinkle Crags, a very easy WOTA S2S!

What followed was 14 S2S contacts on all bands, only afterwards did I discover that there was a SOTA European S2S event on, makes sense! FT-817 setup once again proving that even S2S don’t require any more power when the bands are favourable!

Of note was my contact with GM3CWI/P - Richard from SOTABeams, I recognised his voice not the callsign and this was a vertical to horizontal SSB QSO that happened purely because I dropped to 144.300 SSB just to see if anyone was about. He’s now touring Scotland, was on his way to Mull of Kintyre in a motorhome, not jealous at all!


SOTA Activation Mapping

|Time|Callsign|Band|Freq|Mode|Locator||Country|Name|Notes|
|–|----|-----|----|-----|----|-----|----|----|----|----|
|09:54|M1EYP/P|2m|145.425|FM|||England||g/sp-004|
|09:56|GM4WHA|2m|145.475|FM|IO84ix||Scotland|GEOFF HARPER||
|10:01|EI6FR/P|2m|145.475|FM|||Ireland|||
|10:03|G7WKX/P|2m|145.475|FM|||England||WOTA: LDW-017|
|10:04|2E0MIX|2m|145.525|FM|IO84fn||England|Derek Edge||
|10:05|G6LKB/M|2m|145.525|FM|||England|||
|10:06|MW0IDX/P|2m|145.525|FM|||Wales|||
|10:07|G0HIK|2m|145.525|FM|IO84je||England|Nick Gregory||
|10:07|M1BUU/P|2m|145.525|FM|||England|||
|10:08|G1OHH|2m|145.525|FM|IO84ob||England|Susan Griffin||
|10:08|G1OAE|2m|145.525|FM|IO84fp||England|TONY STEEL||
|10:09|2E0CSS|2m|145.525|FM|IO84mv||England|Karl Latham||
|10:10|G7CDA|2m|145.525|FM|IO83qt||England|Douggie G7CDA||
|10:11|2E0IKM|2m|145.525|FM|IO84fp||England|Mike Moffat||
|10:12|2E0LDF|2m|145.525|FM|||England|||
|10:13|2I0YIM/P|2m|145.525|FM|||Northern Ireland|||
|10:14|2E0XYL|2m|145.550|FM|IO83lg||England|Karen Richardson||
|10:17|GM3CWI/P|2m|144.340|SSB|||Scotland|||
|10:42|M7MZB/P|2m|145.550|FM|||England||OP: Matthew|
|10:47|9A1AA|20m|14.315|SSB|JN95fq||Croatia|IVO NOVAK||
|10:50|YO8XCM|20m|14.310|SSB|KN37SD||Romania|Mircea Craciun||
|10:53|OH3GZ|20m|14.315|SSB|KP11oq||Finland|JUKKA " Jack " KOVANEN||
|10:53|EA5K|20m|14.315|SSB|IM97jr||Spain|Miguel Campos||
|10:54|CT2GSN/P|20m|14.315|SSB|||Portugal|||
|10:55|SQ9BQW/P|20m|14.315|SSB|||Poland|||
|10:59|M0JCQ/P|2m|145.425|FM|||England|||
|11:07|G0RQL|80m|3.690|SSB|IO70uv||England|DON ROOMES||Confirmed on 2020-09-20 17:45:02|
|11:08|G0FEX|80m|3.690|SSB|IO92jp||England|KEN PORTER||
|11:09|EI0AZA|80m|3.690|SSB|||Ireland|||
|11:09|2E0FEH|80m|3.690|SSB|IO70VJ||England|Karl Kruger||Confirmed on 2020-09-20 17:45:02|
|11:09|G0VWP|80m|3.690|SSB|IO93kx||England|Terry Sayner||Confirmed on 2020-09-20 17:45:02|
|11:10|M7RSD|80m|3.690|SSB|IO82ng||England|Jon R Stannard||
|11:19|HB0/HB9GKR|40m|7.180|SSB|||Liechtenstein|||
|11:20|EA2CKX|40m|7.180|SSB|IN83ta||Spain|PEDRO CHINCHURRETA JAUREGUIALZO||
|11:21|EA2DT|40m|7.180|SSB|IN92et||Spain|Manuel||
|11:21|G6WRW/P|40m|7.180|SSB|||England|||
|11:22|ON5SWA|40m|7.180|SSB|JO21if||Belgium|Francois (SWA) Gorremans||
|11:23|ON7ZM|40m|7.180|SSB|JO20ol||Belgium|JEAN PIERRE HUBERT||
|11:25|F4VPX/P|40m|7.125|SSB|||France|||


HF Set up on High Raise

I didn’t really have a plan on the way back from High Raise and that was reflected in me missing Sergeant Man which would have been a quick and easy detour. By the time I noticed it I was too far gone to turn back. Again, with the plan to get to Pike O’Stickle I found that I had to pass right by Harrison Stickle to get on the path to Pike O’Stickle so it made sense to get it out of the way.

Harrison Stickle

WOTA ID: LDW-068 Height: 736 m (2415 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: NY281073
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KK
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.455854 Long: -3.109162


Harrison Stickle

There were a lot of folk around now. I’ve started taking a few QSL cards with me, as it helps explain what I’m up to and the two young lads were made up to get something free when they asked me about what I was doing!


Muggles on Harrison Stickle

Time Callsign Band Freq Mode Locator Country Name Notes
12:12 M5TUE 2m 145.350 FM IO84qi England Nigel Wadsworth
12:14 G7CDA 2m 145.350 FM IO83qt England Douggie G7CDA
12:16 G1PIE 2m 145.350 FM IO83qr England MARK PROCTER
12:17 G0TDM 2m 145.350 FM IO84oq England John Sutton
12:17 GM4WHA 2m 145.350 FM IO84ix Scotland GEOFF HARPER
12:18 G6LKB/M 2m 145.350 FM England
12:19 MW0ISC 2m 145.350 FM IO83JE Wales Steve
12:20 GM7CAX/P 2m 145.350 FM Scotland
12:20 G1OAE 2m 145.350 FM IO84fp England TONY STEEL

Pike O’Stickle

WOTA ID: LDW-083 Height: 709 m (2326 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: NY273073
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KK
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.45574 Long: -3.1215

My first time visiting Pike of Stickle and what a handsome summit this is, very Tolkein-esk! Some rock scrambling is required to get to the top, but it is fairly spacious (not 80m dipole spacious however!) Plenty of folk making the pilgramage here too!


Pike of Stickle

Time Callsign Band Freq Mode Locator Country Name Notes
12:46 G7CDA 2m 145.350 FM IO83qt England Douggie G7CDA
12:47 GM4WHA 2m 145.500 FM IO84ix Scotland GEOFF HARPER
12:48 G1OHH 2m 145.350 FM IO84ob England Susan Griffin
12:51 GM7GAX/P 2m 145.350 FM Scotland
12:51 G0LWU/P 2m 145.350 FM England
13:00 M0JCQ/P 2m 145.450 FM England
13:01 M7CID/P 2m 145.450 FM England

Loft Crag

WOTA ID: LDW-097 Height: 680 m (2231 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: NY277071
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KK
Book: The Central Fells Lat: 54.454 Long: -3.115282

My final Wainwright, Loft Crag, again new to me.


View South from Loft Crag

By this point I was short on time, so made the decision to use the FT1XD with stock whip, which worked really well considering how short it is! I could hear Andy G8CPZ/P on Latrigg so it was great to get him in the log from here. A couple of S2S contacts with Colin M1BUU/P from High Street and then Stony Cove Pike was great too, as was getting James M0JCQ/P and his wife M7CID/P on St Sunday Crag and then Fairfield. James is trying for Mountain Goat this week with lots of fells planned.

Time Callsign Band Freq Mode Locator Country Name Notes
13:12 G1PIE 2m 145.425 FM IO83qr England MARK PROCTER
13:14 2E0MIX 2m 145.425 FM IO84fn England Derek Edge
13:15 G8CPZ/P 2m 145.425 FM England WOTA: LDW-206
13:16 G6LKB/M 2m 145.425 FM England
13:16 G1OHH 2m 145.425 FM IO84ob England Susan Griffin
13:17 GM4WHA 2m 145.425 FM IO84ix Scotland GEOFF HARPER
13:17 2E0LDF 2m 145.425 FM England
13:18 G7CDA 2m 145.425 FM IO83qt England Douggie G7CDA
13:19 M1BUU/P 2m 145.425 FM England

Descent was down by the side of Harrison Stickle, on a mainly easy footpath with a few menacing drops at the start to Dungeon Ghyll.


Descent from the Langdales via North-Easterly Dungeon Ghyll route

This was magnificent walking weather, clear skies but not too hot. Thank you to the chasers, what a great day’s radio and walking. I would say my unplanned route worked out very favourably, but I would take in Sergeant Man for the minimal additional effort.

It is Alex and I’s 17 year wedding Anniversary this weekend, having not really planned anything we ended up in The Smithy (on the road up to Booths in Windermere) which is a wonderful, somewhat undiscovered bar, very relaxed and serves lovely pizzas.

1 Like

Excellent report as always Mark. We had the perfect weather this weekend for walking and activating. The great photos make me want to do the Langdales now for the first time.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the write up. I’ve not done any Wainwrights until this year, so I’m sure they will prove a valuable insight when the time comes.

Cheers

Steve

Stuck in the house with a cold :mask: seeing these photos and even one with a pub in is breaking my heart …all joking a side great wright up and more successful activations :clap:

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Building your immune system doesn’t seem like such a bad deal at the moment Mike :crazy_face:

Seriously, sorry for the :beer: photo, I appreciate that was uncalled for.
Hope you are back out soon.

Mark.