Pike of Blisco Hike - G/LD-024 SOTA (2020)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Tuesday 22nd December, 2020.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Pike of Blisco, Lake District, England.
Summit ID: SOTA reference G/LD-024 (6+3 points).
Summit Height: 705m elevation, 177m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 54.42811, -3.12493. Maidenhead Grid IO84kk.
Distance: 5.1km travelled with 333m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T2.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 2hr 5m (including operating).
Weather: Feels like 7.2°C, 6 kph WNW wind, 79% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FTM100D, Diamond SRH770S, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4.
Callsign Used: M1HAX/P.
Contacts: 13 (2m FM).

Trip Notes

Pike of Blisco, nestled between the valleys of Great Langdale and Little Langdale, is a distinctive Lake District fell that commands exceptional views. The mountain’s name itself is steeped in local character - while Ordnance Survey maps use “Pike of Blisco”, the renowned guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright preferred the more poetic “Pike o' Blisco”, describing it with his characteristic flair as having a “fine-sounding, swashbuckling name”.

This was my second summit of the day, following an earlier activation of the Old Man of Coniston. I approached from the Wrynose Pass road, where parking is available at the Three Shires Stone - a small area accommodating around seven vehicles on this narrow mountain pass.

The route follows an easy, obvious footpath heading northwards towards Red Tarn before turning towards the south-western slopes of Pike of Blisco. The final ascent is rocky underfoot but stops short of requiring any kind of scrambling. A small stone shelter crowns the 705-metre summit, providing welcome respite and a perfect spot for my radio operation.

From this vantage point, the surrounding hills were beautifully cloaked in low-lying misty clouds, creating an atmospheric landscape. Using my Yaesu FTM100D on the two-metre band, I quickly made 13 contacts, including an great summit-to-summit (S2S) connection with David G0EVV/P on Tosson Hill in the Scottish Borders.

The entire activation took around two hours, netting me 9 SOTA points. An alternative approach worth considering is breaking away from the main path about 750 metres from the road and ascending via the south-eastern ridge.

Pike of Blisco offers a charming, relatively easy walk with truly spectacular views of the Langdale Pikes. It’s a summit I would ardently recommend to both hill walkers and SOTA enthusiasts.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Pike of Blisco on Tuesday 22nd December, 2020.

Walking Route for Pike of Blisco

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Pike of Blisco. The G/LD-024 summit area is marked on the map with a blue pin icon.

You can download the route shown above as a GPX file suitable for use with most GPS devices. This file is provided for information only, to support your own walk planning and research (it may contain navigation errors, detours and/or safety hazards). The route downloads provided here are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Station Log

I logged the following 13 amateur radio contacts operating as M1HAX/P from G/LD-024 Pike of Blisco on Tuesday 22nd December, 2020 (all times shown are UTC):

In the notes field I will usually log the other operator’s name and the signal report they provided. In accordance with the Summits on the Air rules, I do not make a log entry where a complete exchange of callsigns and signal reports was unsuccessful.

Additional Information

The following resources may be helpful to walkers, mountaineers and SOTA activators interested in Pike of Blisco:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for G/LD-024 Pike of Blisco.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Pike of Blisco.
• Google Earth view of Pike of Blisco.
• Wikipedia entry for Pike of Blisco.
• 360° Panorama near summit of G/LD-024 Pike of Blisco.

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