Fair Snape Fell, G/SP-007 - 520m ASL - SD 597 472 - OS Explorer OL41 - 2 SOTA points       

Three tins of Baxter's Cock-A-Leekie soup were warmed up and poured into the flask before the lads got up this morning. The flask was placed in my rucksack, and loaded into the car. With Jimmy and Liam up and about (ie once all the hard work was out of the way) we drove to Lymm Truck Stop for a fry up breakfast and up the M6 to J31A, and through the lanes to Chipping, and beyond to Fell Foot. The verge we have previously parked on at Fell Foot has now been blocked off by strategic placement of large rocks, but there was, unusually, plenty of space in the lay-bys a little further back down the road.

We commenced the steep climb up Parlick, and I soon realised that Liam was "not in the mood" today. An eon later, when we had topped Parlick, Jimmy was but a dot in the far distance, as near to the summit of Fair Snape Fell G/SP-007 as we still were to the car. As we curved around Blindhurst Fell, Jimmy M3EYP/P called from Fair Snape Fell summit. He told me he had gone to the true summit rather than the trig point which is 10m lower and and 700m away. I monitored and logged for him as he made his four contacts, then Liam and myself continued up to the boundary with the highest part of Wolf Fell. By now, a very thick fog was down. Liam wanted to set off back to the car on his own, to be caught up later. A good idea for time saving, but I wasn't so sure with the very low (10m) visibility. He managed to convince me that the path was easy and followed the wall and fence all the way to Parlick, so I let him go. I checked my map and verified I was well within the activation zone, as I knew Jimmy's return from the summit would pass this point. I made my four contacts on 2m FM with the handheld.

Three days before Midsummer's Day, and it was cold, wet 'n' 'orrible. I packed away the waterproof pad and the non waterproof biro (thanks to G4BLH for remote logging - I really must remember to put some pencils in my rucksack), but still no sign of Jimmy. Visibility was still low, and Liam was now well away too. Still, I had absolute confidence that the lads would stick rigidly to the agreed routes, and sure enough Jimmy appeared out of the mist, following which we caught up with Liam at the coll between Wolf Fell and Parlick. A bit of drying out was necessary at the car as most of our waterproofs had wetted out. I must get that reproofing I have been putting off done this week. I searched for the flask, but it wasn't in the rucksack. Must have left it at home again. I called at the Post Office in Chipping (the only shop open) and bought some Pringles and Chorley Cakes from the very limited stock.  We then headed for our second summit of the day, Longridge Fell G/SP-014.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM.  Jimmy used 5 watts from his Yaesu VX-110 handheld, while I used 2.5 watts from my Yaesu VX-7R handheld: