Activity Summary
- Date : 12th January 2026
- Distance : 5.31 km
- Ascent : 340 m
- Max Altitude : 547 m
- Time to Summit : 0:59 hrs
- Total Activation Time : 3:02 hrs
Weather
- Cloudy
- Temperature 7 ℃
- Humidity 88%
- Feels like 3 ℃
- Wind Speed 16.6 km/h
- Wind Direction SW
Equipment Used
- Icom IC705
- 2m Flowerpot antenna (homebrew)
- SOTABEAMS Carbon 6 pole
- PoLo logging app on iPad mini
Parking Location What3Words
///thanks.initiates.clatteredActivation Report
This was actually my second attempt at Moel y Gamelin this week. I had started the walk at lunchtime the day before. As I started waking that day, there was more snow on the ground than I had been expecting. I actually couldn’t make out the path very well. It was also cold with driving rain. The final straw was the impending cloud that I was about to walk into, ensuring zero visibility if Ihad carried on. I do SOTA for enjoyment, and realised that I wasn’t go to enjoy this walk. And so the decision was made, and I turned around and went home. Although, to be fair, I may have made a different decision if home wasn’t just 15 minutes away.
Back at home, I was feeling a little frustrated with the weather. I studied the mountain weather app, looking for my next window of opportunity. It looked like there was a short spell of reasonable weather the next morning. And so a plan was hatched for attempt number two.
Just before 9 am the following day, I was walking up the path again. This time the weather was much better, most of the snow had now melted. The pictures above and below, show the difference a day makes. The carpark, pictured above, was still covered in snow the day before. Below, the pictures taken a day apart show the difference in weather.
In good weather, the walk up Moel y Gamelin is straight forward, with a well defined path to the summit. Well actually there are two summits encountered on this walk. The first summit reached in Moel y Faen, unfortunately not a SOTA summit. From here you drop down slightly before starting up the final ascent to Moel y Gamelin. I soon discovered on the final ascent, that the path was filled with snow drift, and so progress was slow on this section. After an hour of walking, I finally arrived on the summit of Moel y Gamelin.
After taking in the views as usual, I setup my station on the leeward side of the summit mound. Today I was operating 2m FM, and 2m SSB. I was using my IC705, with a flowerpot antenna, mounted on a carbon 6 pole. I started on 2m SSB, after self spotting, and calling for a few minutes, I didn’t get any takers. So I switched to 2m FM and managed to log six contacts. I then switched back to 2m SSB, and managed five more contacts on that mode. After working a GM6LJE, I heard a very faint station. I turned on my preamp, and quickly realised it was Don, GW0PLP. Unfortunately, I was only 22 with him and we couldn’t quite complete the contact.
Activation summary, eleven QSO’s in the log, six, 2m FM, and five, 2m SSB.
Once packed away, I stood on the summit drinking my coffee. I could see some ominous looking cloud, heading towards me from over the Berwyn range. That was my cue to head down. I had been lucky with the weather, although, I did get a few drops of rain, that lasted for less than a minute. Back at the carpark, it was now busy, particularly with dog walkers. I couldn’t help think, it’s such a shame the Ponderosa is now closed. Hopefully someone will buy it’s soon.
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 GPSFurther information can be found on the SOTA resource page for the summit