Brecon Beacons - SW-009 Mynydd Troed and SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse

After our climb up to Waun Fach SW-002 in the morning we wanted something easier to climb for our afternoon walk which would still provide us with some SOTA winter bonus points. 

Geoff MW6PYG logging stations on Mynydd Troed GW/SW-009

We chose the two summits of Mynydd Troed and Mynydd Llangorse due to their proximity and their mutual parking place near to Long Cairn on the C class road at grid reference SO 161283, which is 1170 ft above sea level. 

We climbed SW-009 Mynydd Troed first, a 4 point summit which is 1998 ft high. It took 25 minutes to reach the summit on a fairly steep grass path. There were plenty of people at the car park, including families climbing the sister summit of SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse but we left them behind as none were climbing Mynydd Troed. 

We didn't expect to make many contacts but we did better from here than the much higher Waun Fach earlier in the day, so we stayed for thirty minutes and made 11 contacts each.  When I switched on I heard the YL operator Carolyn GW6WRW who was operating from Beacon Hill MW-009, and we followed this with a contact with her friend YL Helen MW0YHB who was on the same summit. We had several contacts into Cheltenham, and once again worked Don G0RQL in Holsworthy with our 5 watts and vertical dipole. 

We left the summit and returned to the col where the car was parked and from there climbed up to SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse. This was another flat topped plateau - albeit with some good views, hence its popularity, it was also an easier climb than SW-009, but it is also surrounded on all sides by much higher Brecon Beacon summits. 

Parking area for Mynydd's Troed SW-009  and Llangorse SW-015. Camera is looking at SW-009 from the flank of SW-015

What a dissapointment it was radio wise. We knew it would be difficult to qualify the hill with QRP gear on VHF and this turned out to be correct as we did not make one single contact between us!

Future operators be warned, you are likely to need VHF CW/SSB or HF gear to qualify the summit despite its height of 1690 ft!