Activity Summary	Weather
Date 26th December 2025 Distance: 5.11km Ascent: 518m Max Altitude: 737m Time to summit: 1:45 Total time: 4:16	Clear Temperature 1 ℃ Humidity 84% Feels like -3 ℃ Wind Speed 11.9 km/h Wind Direction ENE

Equipment Used

SRH770 2m antenna
Yaesu FT65
PoLo logging app on iPad mini

Parking Location What3Words

///motorist.messed.pints

Activation Report

At first light on Boxing Day morning, I set off from our holiday cottage in Coniston. The drive to the parking spot, at the start of the walk took 30 minutes. The parking spot was a large lay-by at Dunmail Raise.

The parking spot at Dunmail Raise, with a very distinctive old AA box.

At 8:40 am, I left the lay-by, crossing over a stile onto the start of the path. I was taking the route that follows Raise Beck, climbing towards Grisedale Tarn. As I approached the waterfalls, at around the 450m contour line, the path started to become icy in places, and the ground was now frozen solid, needing some care.

At the shoulder just before Grisedale Tarn, there were some rusty steel posts. These posts marked the point where the path turns right and up toward the summit of Seat Sandal. This final ascent was steep and with the frozen ground, it was a bit slippery in places.

The steel posts. Fairfield in the background. Grisedale Tarn is just over the brow.

I started to see the sun appear, giving me the clue that I was getting close the summit. As I arrived on the summit there was an icy wind, and so the small stone shelter was a welcome sight. This would make a perfect position for activating. Once on the summit, I had a walk around, taking in the views, and chatting to fellow walkers. The sky was clear and the views were fantastic, as can be seen in the video below.

I was under a bit of time pressure, as I had promised to be back at our holiday cottage for 13:30. So I thought I better get down to business. I set up for 2m and hadn’t even got a spot out, when Dave, G6AEK, was in the log. 2m was pleasantly busy and I managed to work ten callers including three summit to summits. Unfortunately, this now left a bit tight for time. I was sat working out if I had time for 20m, when I thought just go for it. I got the spike and radials out for my telescopic ground plane antenna and then hit a snag. The ground was frozen solid, and I couldn’t get my spike into the ground. So I made the decision to call it and get down.

I had made the decision whilst on the ascent, that I was going to wear my micro spikes for the descent. This was a good call, as there had been no sun on the north side of Seat Sandal. The ice and frozen ground hadn’t changed and the spikes made easy going of the steep frozen slopes.

Starting to descend on the frozen north slope

I managed to get back to the car for 1pm, and then back to our holiday cottage just after half past one. Just in time for out traditional Boxing Day hotpot being served up.

The interactive map below shows a track of the route taken. You can zoom in or out to change the scale. The map can also be shown in full screen. The GPX track can also be downloaded using the link below the map.

Download file for GPS

Further information can be found on the SOTA resource page for the summit