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The In Pinn.

Posted: 06 Mar 2014, 09:11
by Ham Brian
In a couple of weeks time I am giving a talk about SOTA to the Wythall Amateur Radio Club. I will be showing them photos of various SOTA summits, and just to raise a smile I would like to show them a photo of the In Pinn: as the only UK SOTA summit that is also a rock climb it is the far end of the bell curve of difficulty! (incidentally, it has been activated twice so far!) I am unable to locate any of the slides that I took when I was last there over thirty years ago, so I am asking if anybody has a good image of it could they please send me a copy to brncarter@yahoo.com.

Cheers

Brian

Re: The Inn Pinn

Posted: 06 Mar 2014, 13:18
by avmaestro
Brian,

Half a dozen pictures are winging their way to you. :smt051

Malc

Re: The In Pinn.

Posted: 07 Mar 2014, 08:39
by Ham Brian
Lovely pictures, Malc, just what I need, thanks very much. This will cause a bit of a stir after I show them pictures of ham radio set-ups on top of grassy summits like the Long Mynd!

Brian

Re: The In Pinn.

Posted: 07 Mar 2014, 18:17
by Vicki
Does that mean that you are one of the two people to have activated it? Nice one Brian. :)

Re: The In Pinn.

Posted: 08 Mar 2014, 10:44
by Ham Brian
I wish, Vicky! I've never climbed it: I set out to once, but got fed up with the size of the queue, and did the ridge as far as Sgurr a Mhadaidh instead, I wish now I'd gone round the back and done the easy route! The trade route was horribly polished forty years ago, Heaven knows what it is like now! :shock:

For reference, the actual hardest SOTA summit in the UK is one of the sea stacks of St Kilda, you have to climb from the boat and as it is a bird sanctuary I guess it will never be activated. A couple of guys activated Rockall for Islands on the Air (IOTA) but it isn't high enough for SOTA!

Brian

Re: The In Pinn.

Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 11:21
by Alan
The two sea stacks in the St Kilda group are Stac Lee and Stac Armin (both Marilyns !!). Murray and I passed them last year on our St Kilda trip. In addition to getting there by boat (lengthy and expensive) they are wildlife sanctuaries and therefore you are unlikely to gain permission to climb from the NTS. If all of that doesn't deter you getting out of the boat on to wet, seaweedy rock in a Atlantic swell would be exciting, then pick your way over all the bird poo and even then pick your way past thousands of aggressive gannets etc etc.

The inn Pinn is a doddle by comparison!!

Alan :)

Re: The In Pinn.

Posted: 16 Mar 2014, 09:43
by Ham Brian
Add to that the distance of St Kilda from the mainland means that you are unlikely to Qualify an activation with a handheld VHF radio so you will need to carry a heavier short-wave rig, batteries and a roach-pole mast and it starts to sound like "Mission Impossible" - but these radio guys can be pretty determined so I'm not placing any bets. People that are prepared to make a platform out of pallets and stick it on a rock jutting out of a shoal in the South China Sea are totally unpredictable. As a mere climber turned ham I am much tamer!

Brian