Great Mell Fell Hike - G/LD-035 SOTA (2021)
Summits on the Air Activation Report
Activation Date: Tuesday 1st June, 2021.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Great Mell Fell, Lake District, England.
Summit ID: SOTA reference G/LD-035 (2 points).
Summit Height: 537m elevation, 198m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 54.61985, -2.93564. Maidenhead Grid IO84mo.
Distance: 3.6km travelled with 279m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.(?)
Elapsed Time: 1hr 25m (including operating).
Weather: 25°C, 12 mph ENE wind, 52% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FTM100D, MFJ-1714, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4.
Callsign Used: M1HAX/P.
Contacts: 8 (2m FM).
Trip Notes
Great Mell Fell is a distinctive, rounded hill located in the northeastern Lake District, standing at 537 metres elevation. Like its neighbor Little Mell Fell, it is an outlier from the central Lake District mountains but offers excellent views across the region. The fell is notable for its wooded lower slopes and grassy summit.
Having already activated Blencathra and Little Mell Fell earlier in the day, I completed my trio of Lake District summits with Great Mell Fell. This made for an excellent day of varied SOTA activations in perfect summer conditions.
For this ascent, I parked on a minor road to the southeast of the summit. There’s limited parking available in a small layby area, though it wasn’t busy on this weekday.
From the parking spot, an obvious path winds its way around some woodland before turning to take a more direct route up the hillside. The path is generally well-defined throughout, though can be a little boggy in places after wet weather.
About halfway up the ascent, I spotted some wild horses grazing on the hillside, adding to the picturesque nature of this walk. The climb is steady but never too steep, making it accessible to most walkers.
The summit area is open and grassy with spectacular panoramic views. I could clearly see Sharp Edge on Blencathra where I had been scrambling earlier in the day, as well as Ullswater and the far-reaching Pennines to the east. The conditions were excellent with clear visibility in the warm summer weather.
I set up my Yaesu FTM100D with the MFJ vertical antenna and made eight contacts on the 2-metre band. This included a summit-to-summit (S2S) contact with Alan MM0VPM/P who was activating GM/SS-094 (Blackhope Scar) in Scotland.
After enjoying the summit views and completing my activation, I retraced my steps back to the car via the same route. The entire hike and activation took approximately one hour and twenty-five minutes.
Great Mell Fell is a lovely hill to visit, particularly on a clear summer’s day like this. It’s not demanding, but offers rewarding views and good VHF radio propagation. Combined with Little Mell Fell, it makes for an excellent pair of SOTA activations that can easily be completed in half a day.
Photos
Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Great Mell Fell on Tuesday 1st June, 2021.
Walking Route for Great Mell Fell
The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Great Mell Fell. The G/LD-035 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 8 amateur radio contacts operating as M1HAX/P from G/LD-035 Great Mell Fell on Tuesday 1st June, 2021 (all times shown are UTC):
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:14 | G0TDM/M | 2m | FM | John, 5/9 |
| 13:16 | M0WIT/M | 2m | FM | Daz, 5/9 |
| 13:17 | G4WHA/M | 2m | FM | Geoff, 5/9 |
| 13:18 | 2E0MIX | 2m | FM | Derek, 5/8 |
| 13:19 | 2E0GFU | 2m | FM | Colin, 5/9 |
| 13:21 | G1OAE | 2m | FM | Tony, 5/9 |
| 13:22 | G0TDM/M | 2m | FM | John, 5/9 |
| 13:25 | MM0VPM/P | 2m | FM | Alan, 5/9, S2S GM/SS-094 |
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 Great Mell Fell:
- Sotl.as Summit Page for G/LD-035 Great Mell Fell.
- Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Great Mell Fell.
- Google Earth view of Great Mell Fell.
- Wikipedia entry for Great Mell Fell.
- 360° Panorama near summit of G/LD-035 Great Mell Fell.
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