Tinto GM/SS-064 12-01-13

Well, it had been some time since our last outing, so it was time to stretch the legs again.  I had been using a knee support for a time after coming back from the Lakes, but with the passing months my leg was back to normal.   So, with the winter months upon us and the SOTA winter bonus points ( or idiot points as they are known ) available, I had been in discussion with Bobby GAX about doing a not too difficult hill.

You’ll no need it, but here it is anyway.

Bobby had looked at a couple of different hills,  we were looking for something that was easily navigable should the weather turn sour. A hill we had looked at in the past, but one we never got round to was Tinto near Biggar down the M74 direction.  I have in the past talked to a few people who have been on the summit of this hill, mostly Robert GUF who resides nearby and summits regularly.  So, it was decided this was the hill, we just had to decide on a date.  The festive period was looked at, but the weather was not in agreement with our plans.  So, eventually Saturday 12 January was to be our first outing of the year.

Working late on the Friday night put paid to plans to pack my bag, and indeed it was late on the Friday before it was finalized that Saturday was to be the big day.

I was up early for a Saturday, 06:00 saw me rising to a black, but calm and mild day.  Feed and empty the dogs, then myself and pack the bag.  Warm clothing was looked out as the projected wind chill was in the minus deg celsius region.  My old trusty TNF jacket has suffered a couple of failures over the last couple of weeks so I will send it away for a refurb to bring it back to life.  It’s about 13 years old now, but apart from two damaged zips and velcro that’s not quite up to scratch, it works as well as when it was new. I would rather spend a few quid on it than buy another one.  My ‘spare’ TNF was pressed into service, and in the event it performed well, but is still a bit too decent to subject it to the wear and tear that my old jacket gets.

Spending too long on the toilet pan, I was my customary 15-20 minutes late in picking up GAX.  All packed up, off we set from his QTH with dawn coming up.  The drive up the M8 and down the M74 was uneventful, except that we (I) took a couple of wrong turnings.  I missed the new time saving M74 extension in the city centre, then as we approached the hill, Bobby pointed out that we should have taken the cut off at J11 on the M74.  Och well, it was a nice day for a drive 😉  We easily found the turn off from the A73 to the car park (NS 964 375) which was signed from the main road.  The car park has apparently been extended and should easily hold a few dozen cars by the looks of it.  I had brought along Explorer Map 335, but it never came out of the bag.

The road is long – well, about 2 miles actually

Once booted up, we set off, GAX heading off with a ten minute head start to chase away the bears and keep me safe.  The first part of the track is on well cut up grass track which has more than it’s fair share of muddy sections sprinkled about.  The ground was decent enough to walk on, being mainly dry except for the muddy bits.  On past the Iron Age fort you start to hit the first of the steep sections. The first of a few hill runners sped past us on their return from the top, not a race, maybe in training?  Here the under foot conditions starts to turn to loose stone and turf with several

Eroded path

Grouse management areas on Scaut hill

well degraded sections of track.  As the Endomondo on my phone announced the 1 mile mark, I noted that the ground conditions were turning from firm to solid.  My Leki pole made that solid ‘springing’ sound as it struck the frozen ground instead of sinking in to it as it had done up to this point.  The path is easily followed – being an average of 5 yards wide for most of it’s length.  Further up the under foot conditions started to get frosty with signs of having had a slight flurry of recent snow, but not enough to make the ground white.  I noted some large bare patches on the hill beside us, and Bob told me these were connected with grouse beating and shooting – you learn something new every day.

Near top, evidence of a snow shower

The path was now red/orange stones which is supposed to be where the hill takes its name from.  A couple of steep sections were tackled slowly with the summit marker in plain sight teasing us for quite a while.

Heart of Tinto

Viewpoint indicator with my addition to the summit cairn.

Arriving at the top, we first headed to the trig point to congratulate each other on another hill climbed and stop the Endomondo which showed I had travelled 2.21 miles in 1 hour 21 minutes.  My Endo distance differed from Bob’s, so it’s something I must check out.   Then up the large (possibly Druid in origin) 6m high (45m dia) cairn to have a look at the view and take some photos.  There is a recently replaced view point indicator on top of the cairn which is in excellent condition – see it now before the ‘neds’ get to it 😦 .

Shack with a view

GAX works a STS on my set up

Frosty start to day, it never got much warmer!

Time to start activating.  Using just the VX7 with rubber duck, my first 3 contacts were Summit to Summit with others out on this chilly January day.  First up was Iain WJZ on WS096 – Buachaille Etive Beag-Stob Coire Raineach 89 miles distant, next it was Colwyn YCJ on SS010 – Stuc a’Chroin 55.7 miles away and the last of my first batch of STS contacts was Jack COX on SS085 – Uamh Bheag 50.8 miles as the crow flies.   Robert GUF in Biggar asked me to QSY after my contact with Jack and we had a wee gab.  It was a bit of a role reversal as Tinto is Robert’s local SOTA hill and I have chased many points from him on this top.  For him to get the chaser points from me was a pleasant change.  I set up my trusty homebrew dipole which just leaned against one of the handily placed fences that cross the summit area.   After Robert, Steve UAU in Greenock came on frequency and we had a chat.  I informed Steve that Bobby was trying 4m, so Steve agreed to connect up his 4m handie to his outside antenna and try for the contact – I don’t think it happened in the end up though.  I gave out a CQ call and Barrie KZX in Dumbarton answered.  We had a good QSO with me plunging my hands into my pockets while he done the gabbing as I had a pair of cheap but effective hand warmers in my jacket.  I had initially had them in my TNF gloves, but they started to get a bit too hot so I had to take them out.  Using the radio my hands were ungloved so the jacket pockets were the next best thing.

View from top over Scaut hill

After a bite to eat, which was a tasty baguette courtesy of the Tesco petrol station in Greenock, I heard Iain WJZ on the radio again.  He had moved on to another summit so another STS was in the bag to WS079 – Buachaille Etive Beag-Stob Dubh 88 miles away.  After that I heard Adrian DHY calling CQ from SS148 – Meikle Say Law, so another 42.6 mile STS was bagged.   Bobby was calling CQ on 2m with his 5 ele beam, getting some takers from the South.  We then heard COX talking to Robin PKT who was on WS274 – Beinn nam Beathrach.  Bob’s 2w handie wasn’t making the trip, so I stuck a new battery on the VX7 and we hooked it onto Bob’s beam (this gave us the ideal antenna and a radio with 5 watts) with a bit of trouble due to me having no strength in my fingers and struggling to unscrew the SMA connector from the top of my radio!    5/1 was the signal report with a bit of QSB, but the contact was 107 miles, or 172 km – got to be happy with that :-).

I started to pack up while Bob talked to the Lake district and I heard him yap to some of the chasers whom we had talked to when we were down that way.  We also talked to a few people who were at the summit at the time with everyone enjoying their day out.  During the day I had fended a few questions about what we were up to, one chap had seen someone else doing radio on another summit in the past, but he couldn’t recall where.

The things you see when you’ve no got a gun!

Teas up

The cold was getting to GAX, so we were soon ready to head back down.  The journey down had no drama, a couple of wee slips on loose rocks but we made it down safely.  We stopped off to look at the Iron Age fort on the descent and agreed that a good number of man hours must have gone into it’s construction.  Its size is impressive considering the rudimentary tools that must have been employed in its construction.  We arrived back at the Landy in 1 hour 1 minute after 2.17 miles – different from the ascent for some reason?  I had my JetBoil stove with us so we soon had a very welcome mug of tea to heat us up.  I got talking to a woman we had met at the top and she told me her husband was scouring the hill looking for their ‘lost’ car keys.  She had returned to the car to find them still in the ignition – how lucky was that?!

sunset heading home

The journey home was in the dark for most of it, except for a nice red sky sunset as we were leaving the hill.  The round trip was 143 miles – slightly more than predicted, but not too far off considering I got ‘lost’ twice on the way down.  Thanks to Bobby GAX for the usual good company and to the chasers and fellow ‘summiters’ for the contacts.  All in all, a grand day out.

The doggy forecast.  Many friendly pooches were to be seen at the top, mostly on the lead but a few off.  There were no animals to be found on the hill on this occasion – I obviously can’t vouch for other times of the year, but I would as always recommend that dogs without excellent recall abilities should be kept on a lead.  The extendable type of lead was much in evidence on the hill.  I could see no obvious dangers that would trouble dogs, although a distant bit of shooting was going on which might spook some of the nervous persuasion.