SOTA outings by KØMOS and contributors

Category: SOTA trip report

SOTA (Summits on the Air) trip reports with pictures and videos by K0MOS

WØC/FR-ØØ2 (Grays Pk.) – 4341 m / 14270 ft and WØC/PR-Ø13 (Torreys Pk.) – 4340 M / 14267 ft

I picked the perfect early fall day to activate Grays Pk. (WØC/FR-ØØ2) and Torreys Pk. (WØC/PR-Ø13). There was no cloud in the sky all day long to threaten the activations. The two 14ers, which can easily be reached from Denver, are separated by only about 0.7 mi / 1.1 km and are commonly climbed together. Besides the scarcity of oxygen they do not pose any challenges. A well established and easy to follow trail leads up from the parking lot through Stevens Gulch all the way up to the summits. Pick either one to start with but in my opinion you are better off climbing Grays Pk first (meaning it is easier). Both peaks can be climbed all year round. To assist a winter climb, they have huge stone cairns along the way. If you are familiar with the French comic book series Astérix le Gaulois, the cairns have the size and form of Obélix. Or maybe my brain just played tricks on me, lacking oxygen.

Grays/Torrey – View up the valley

Trailhead: 11300 ft/ 2565 m
Summit: 14270 ft / 4341 m (Grays) – 14267 ft / 4340 m (Torreys)
Elev. gain: 3731 ft / 1137 m
Roundtrip: 7.8 mi / 12.6 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
As mentioned, access to Grays/Torreys is rather easy coming from Denver. Follow I70 West, take exit Bakerville (#221) and turn left just after the ramp. This is the winter TH (FSR 189). Follow the dirt road for about 3 miles to the parking lot at the TH. Make sure to check the status off the dirt road if you are driving a ‘normal’ car. It’s kind of rough but my Outback made it without problems. Just take it slow.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

Red Tape:
– Parking lots fill up quickly, specifically on week-ends.
– Rough road

The Ascent:

Grays/Torreys – Elevation Profile

One of the best resources to check the status of the trail, trail-head etc. is the 14ers.com Website. Check the latest trip reports and photos before you leave.
As already mentioned the trail is easy to find and follow. I went up Grays Pk. first. Since I left my QTH at 3:30 AM, I arrived early at the TH and pulled into an almost empty parking lot at 5:40. It was still pitch dark and below freezing, there was no wind or cloud in the sky. I used my headlamp for the first minutes to cross the bridge and get on my way. On my way up I passed two groups of hikers and finally arrived on the summit at 8:45 AM. A group of Mountain goats welcomed me on the summit – but kept a safe distance, not like the one on Mt. Evans.

The Summit:

Grays Pk. – My Shack

Arriving at the summit of Grays Pk (North Americas highest elevation in the Continental Divide) I setup my shack in one of the two stone shelters on the summit. A group of six hikers were having a good time in the other one. I setup and tuned the antenna for 20m. Going through the frequencies I heard special event station W6P calling CQ on 14.285 and I got my first contact within minutes of arriving on the summit – an excellent start. Just over 30 minutes later I had no more takers to my calls and started to pack up my stuff to move on to the next summit. By then, I had a lot of interested people surrounding me and enough time to answer all the questions. The most asked question was: “How far does your signal go?” Most were amazed to hear all the states I just contacted with just 5W. And it is amazing thinking about it… one just stops thinking about it after doing it for 14 months.

The route over to Torreys Pk. is again easy to find, even without the people caravan. You loose about 600 ft ASL before the steep ascent to Torreys Pk. When I arrived, the summit was very crowded and I could not find a safe location to setup the antenna. I opted for a spot about 10 ft below the summit to make sure nobody trips over my guy-lines. As usual during the HF setup I called CQ on 2m, hoping to make some local contacts but my calls were not returned. I definitely had better luck on 20m. The most unusual contact I had up there (or at all) was KB5FJN/Bill. We exchanged our signal reports (both 55) and our QTH… he was sitting on Grays Pk., the summit I just activated an hour ago just 0.7 miles north of me. Too bad I did not bring my binoculars… I sure could have spotted him up there.

The Descent:
The climb down was never ending , or at least it felt that way. I waited for Bill/KB5FJN on the saddle between Gray Pt. and Torreys Pk., trying to meet him in person – no luck. I could not spot him among all the people coming from Grays. I pressed on after about 15 minutes to avoid some of the heavy traffic on I70 going back to Denver on a Sunday afternoon. I am glad I did, turns out Bill never made it towards Torreys Pk. Driving back down slowly to I70 I was able to enjoy the yellow/golden Aspens glowing in the afternoon sun along the road – fall certainly arrived in Colorado.

Some video impressions:

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

September 9, 2012
WØC/SP-117 (Midland Hill) – 2907 M / 9556 ft
My First S.O.T.A. Activation by Frank Skinner KØJQZ

Some of the best things are unplanned, or half planned. After a grueling morning planting bushes in the 100 degree heat that we have known in Southern Colorado as the norm I asked the XYL (Lynn, KC0YQF) if she was game to head out to San Isabel National Forest near Buena Visita for an overnighter and a hike up Midland Hill the next day. She was game. We hastily packed, feed the fur kids and headed out.

I had no plan and the only thing for sure is I knew the road to turn off to get to the National Forest. We found a campsite and decided to set up camp before the storm hit.

While relaxing in the camper listening to the rain fall I looked at the topo map and noticed there were two ways to get to the trail head. One was to go up a ways and take another county dirt road and one was to go into town to “Riverside Park” on the Arkansas River and I opted for that. The next morning we woke at 5am, had some coffee, stopped in Buena Vista for breakfast and headed to the park. There were a few cars but not many. We headed out.

KØJQZ at the Trailhead

Of course I did get lost once and that cost us about 15 to 20 minutes and this was before we got to the Midland Hill Summit Trailhead. After making it to the summit trailhead, we had already hiked about an hour, I realized I may had made a mistake and should of parked at the summit trailhead and forgone the nice but unnecessary visit to Buena Vista’s Riverside Park. No matter we where on our way up to the summit.

Onward we marched. I was sick for a few years so while this is no big feat it has taken me a long time to be able to send code again, walk, run and of course climb up to a summit. We tried Mt Herman a few months ago and I was not really up to the task but walking 3 miles everyday at lunch has really helped me prepare for this.

We saw two people on bicycles on the lower trail but not a sole on the upper trail to the summit.

The view from the Summit

Upon arrival at the summit it was time to setup the buddistick vertical and start some QSOs. It is rather funny to think that at 9,500 feet that the little KX1 and Buddistick is a much better station than my K3 (QRP Version) and my vertical at 6,000 feet. A couple of CQs and nothing…. I decided to check to see if I could self -spot and I was able to do a shameless spot and the QSOs started rolling in.

KØJQZ working the pileup

I was only able to operate for a little less than 20 minutes and made only 8 QSOs. I was pretty disappointed but the clouds were moving in and I knew it would take us an hour to get to county road 304 and at least another 30 minutes to make it back to the truck. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare before the sky opened up. Of course we celebrate rain lately and enjoyed the cool down. I apologize for those that waited for me but I had to bug out. One thing I did not want to do is to get stuck on the summit with the ham gear.

I have a few lessons learned. I took too much stuff and while I like the buddistick I just hate carring coax. I built Stu’s tuner and will fashion something else for next time. I took two rigs, the ATS4b and the KX1, I just wanted to make sure I could operate just in case something happened to one of them. The KX1 has the advantage of the built in tuner but the AS4b is smaller and with Stu’s tuner I may just use it next time. There will be a next time.

So my first activation came to an end. I have been following all the hams in Colorado that do this and have worked a few from home. I am fairly active as a chaser but really never had the appreciation for the activators until I tried it. Lucky for me Lynn came along, as it is nice to chat while on the trail. She is studying for her General and when she passes I promised her a rig to get on HF with (KX3 is a top choice). I am just a cw operator so I will leave the fancy SSB Ops to her.

I want to thank the following operators I was able to chat with for my first SOTA Activation.
- W6ZKH
- W7CNL
- K6ILM
- WO6M
- NS7P
- WA2USA
- K7NEW
- N4EX
72, Frank K0JQZ
f_skinner at yahoo dot com

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0d2MFrfu10

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!
July 6, 2012
WØC/PR-Ø15 (Mount Bierstadt) – 4277 m / 14060 ft

Mount Bierstadt or WØC/FR-Ø15 is one of the easier fourteeners (mountains with peaks above 14,000 ft (4267 m)) in Colorado. It is located near Denver in the Frontrange of the Rocky Mountains. The peak is named after the German/American painter Albert Bierstadt. The easy access from Denver and the close proximity to Mt Evans (another 14er) makes this summit a popular destination all year round. There are several routes to the summit, I have chosen the ‘standard’ route from Guanella Pass over the west slopes.

Mt. Bierstadt – Guanella Pass

Trailhead: 11607 ft/ 2565 m
Summit: 14060 ft / 4285 m
Elev. gain: 2897 ft / 883 m
Roundtrip: 7.0 mi / 11.3 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
As mentioned, access to Mt. Bierstadt is rather easy coming from Denver. Take I70 West, exit at the Georgetown. Follow the many signs to Guanella Pass Scenic Byway. Follow the road for ~12 miles all the way to the pass. The road is brand new and two large parking lots (on either side of the road) cannot be missed. The trail starts near the parking area on the east side of the road (first parking lot coming from Goeorgetown), just behind the restrooms.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

Red Tape:
Parking lots fill up quickly, specifically on week-ends.

The Ascent:

Mt. Bierstadt – ElevationProfile

The ascent does not present any challenges. The summit is clearly visible from the parking lot and so is the route. The well maintained trail starts rather easy, slightly downhills through the Guanella Pass marsh area with a thick willow growth. To lessen the impact on the trail, you will find wooden bridges leading you towards the base of the mountain. You have to cross a creek and interestingly you will not find a bridge but you have to jump from rock to rock to get to the other side – with quite a few people on the trail, you might have to wait in line until it’s your turn. That’s when I remembered why I am not a big fan of fourteeners… it’s not the elevation, the thin air or the steep slopes – it’s their popularity and the resulting crowds trying to summit. Needless to say that I was never alone during my hike to the summit. I tried to stay equidistant between a larger group in front of me and a group of eight college students behind me. You can’t see the other groups as long as you are hiking in the willows, you can however hear them – a problem which was resolved when the trail got steeper about half way up the mountain. After reaching the saddle, most of the elevation gain was behind me and the remaining part to the top consists mostly of boulder hopping.

The Summit:

Mt. Bierstadt – The view from the summit

The view from the summit is of course spectacular. Mount Evans (WØC/FR-ØØ3) is just a mile or two to the north-east and can be reached crossing a class 3 ridge (over Sawtooth). Many higher SOTA peaks can be spotted including Torrey Pk. and Gray Pk. (both 14ers) to the west. The summit never had less than probably 25-30 people during the time I was up there. Finding an appropriate location to setup my HF antenna with all the guy lines and counterpoise was important to me… with all the people mulling around, there was a danger that somebody trips and takes down the antenna (or worse).

Mt. Bierstadt – The Summit

I set up my 2m tape measure Yagi and pointed it towards the west, hoping to catch Bob/KIØG near Glenwood Springs on the HT. Bob did not answer my call, but Tom/K7HRO picked-up my signal in Cheyenne (WY). Since there were no more takers on 2m, I put down the Yagi (still pointed towards the west) and started to setup my vertical Buddipole. Tuned for 20m, I made contact with the usual suspects, Elliott/K6ILM leading the way. There were also some new (to me) stations who were chasing before I picked up KIØG on the HT. The signal wasn’t great and I started to jump from boulder to boulder, waving my Yagi towards the west in the hope to pick-up a better signal. My behavior attracted the attention of my fellow hikers on the summit who started to wonder whether I had lost my mind, waving a magic wand and speaking in code. Nevertheless, Bob and I had a successful QSO on 2m and I spend the next few minutes answering questions about amateur radio and SOTA.

Keeping an eye on the clouds and weather in general, I re-tuned the BP for 17m… realizing that I would have to leave soon. One of the clouds looked kind of black, but not quite threatening (yet). Made only one contact on 17m withing 10 minutes and decided to call it quits and get off the summit due to the increasingly dark cloud hanging over us. Some newly arrived hikers assured me that they are not worried at all about the clouds – but I was. Within a few minutes I was on my way.

The Descent:

Mt. Bierstadt – APRS

About 300 ft below the summit I saw the first lightning strike towards the west, followed by loud and rolling thunder echoing back from the mountains. Dense rain and hail showers developed quickly and I spent the remaining descent in heavy hail and rain showers. I put on my gaiters and rain jacket before the first wave of hail hit – a smart move… the constant hail and rain made the descent a slippery slope – literally. By the time I reached the flatter area down in the willows, it was a swamp with several inches of hail/rain mix to wade through. Thanks to the gaiters, my feet stayed (mostly) dry – however I was dirty all the way up to my knees as if I had been shoveling manure on a pig farm.

I was wondering how the sandals wearing crowds I had met on my way up and on the summit were coping with the icy situation – I am sure it was tough.

Luckily I still had all my winter equipment in my Subaru Outback. The car was covered in ~2 inches of heavy/wet hail. I literally had to dig out the car – in June.

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opAyuMhfffA

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

June 28, 2012
W7/SU-xxx (La Sal Mountains)- Utah

It was a great trip to the La Sal Mountain Range it Utah. Mike/KØYO and I activated four out of the six SOTA peaks. Here a teaser video… full trip report will follow.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmn-0oBoVc

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

June 5, 2012
La Sal Mountains: Part 2 – W7U/SU-004 (Manns Pk.) & W7U/SU-005 (Mt. Tomasaki)
The first part of our planned activations was targeted at the northern cluster of La Sal Mountain Range. Three possible SOTA summits were in reach:
- Mount Waas – W7/SU-003 – 12,331 feet (3758 m)
- Manns Peak – W7/SU-004 – 12,272 feet (3741 m)
- Mount Tomasaki – W7/SU-005 – 12,239 feet (3730 m)
View from base-camp

Mike is not what you call an ‘early bird‘ when it comes to crawling out of a sleeping bag. We compromised on a 6AM wake-up call to get a chance to activate all three summits. After a quick breakfast and a final equipment check we were on our way from our camp at the base of Mt. Tomasaki up to Burros Pass.

Trailhead: 8552 ft/ 2565 m
Summits: Manns – 12272 ft / 3741 m Mt. Tomasaki – 12239 ft / 3730 m
Elev. gain: 2853 ft / 870 m
Roundtrip: 5.0 mi / 8.0 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
Check out Part-1 of the story.

Red Tape:
The La Sals are withing the Manti La Sal National Forest and thus all their rules apply. It is a remote area and for the most part without cell-phone coverage . VHF/UHF repeaters are also scarce and they can only be reached from very high elevations. If you are traveling off season it’s a lonely place and help in case of an emergency is not available. I was driving a Subaru OUTBACK and had no major issues but I was lucky that the creek we had to cross was quite low. However, for the Subi it was borderline. The ‘roads’ after Geyser Pass are indeed rough for this kind of a car and some help from a second person to navigate critical sections would come in handy. I also recommend taking a chain-saw to avoid being trapped by falling trees – and there are tons of them, sometimes barely enough road to scrape through. Make sure to carry a map with all the NFS roads. Roadsigns are scarce and typically used for target practice or used as floss/toothpicks by Porcupines making them unreadable. Keep that in mind when you travel.

The Ascent:

Manns/Tomasaki – Elevation Profile

We decided to ascent Manns Peak first which is located between Mt. Tomasaki and Mt. Wass. The idea was to get a good look at the route to Mt. Wass and Mt Tomasaki to determine whether snow is still an issue and activate accordingly.
From our base-camp we traveled north and then slightly NW up the gulch towards Burros Pass. After reaching the pass, the trail forks towards the NE and the other continues back down on the other side.

The view from Burros Pass towards our base-camp

Cast Iron ‘something‘

We followed the NE trail and along the east side of Manns Pk. Retrospectively I would choose a more northern route to gain more elevation and then follow the ridge all the way to the top. On the positive side, we discovered several interesting remnants from mining activities along this route. Since Mike used to be a Mining Engineer in his former life, he was a fountain of useful information related to geology and mining operation.

Mike reached the Talus

The La Sal Mountains are famous for Talus or Scree. So far we hiked on solid ground but that was about to change… the final approach to Manns Pk. gave me an idea what to expect for the next couple of days. Mike called it: ‘Potato chips on ball-bearings’. They indeed look like giant potato chips, they behave as if they were lying on top of ball-bearings and they sound as if they are hollow. Needless to say that hiking on this stuff can be difficult at times. You will see what I am talking about on some of the pictures and videos clips. Nevertheless we made it to the top without any troubles.

The Summit:
The summit is basically a huge pile of loose rocks (Talus) with a wind shelter built from rocks at the top. Plenty of room to setup antennas. The views are spectacular and very unique. The La Sals are a relatively small Mountain Range towering high over the Colorado Plateau and therefore offering (almost) unobstructed views to the horizon in every direction. Despite a forest fire to the East, the air was clear and crisp with blue skies and pleasant temperatures. From up here we could actually see the only repeater in the area (Bald Mesa/146.76- tone: 88.5 Hz), operated by Royce/K7QEQ in Moab.

Mt. Mellenthin, Mt. Peale, Mt. Tukuhnikivatz as seen from Manns Peak

Our priority was to set-up for 2m first to keep our “appointment” with Bob/KIØG who climbed another SOTA summit, WØC/SJ-Ø15 (Crags Crest) in nearby Colorado. Our Google Earth plots (see below) were in favor of a S2S contact on 2m. LOS looked good and a distance of 80 mi (~130 km) should not be a problem with 5W and a tape-measure YAGI.

Elevation Profile between Manns Pk. (left) and Crag Crest (right)

Mike/KØYO using a tape-measure YAGI on 2m.

After fiddling for a while with the HT to punch in the right frequency, Mike raised KIØG quickly on 146.520. The first contact and successful first activation of both summits, a nice start of our trip. During Mike’s and Bob’s QSO, I set-up the Buddipole for 20 m, eager to make some more contacts and move-on to the next summit – you never know how the weather develops in the mountains.

Here some more pictures from the summit:

Mike/KØYO doing some Voodoo to the FT-817

Matt/KØMOS operating on 20m

After a total of 13 QSO we started to pack-up the gear and evaluate our options. In order to get to Mt. Waas we would have to follow the ridge-line, bagging several unnamed summits including Pilot Mountain (which is not a SOTA summit). With the help of binoculars we were able to determine a rather big snow cornice still hanging in the saddle just before the steep ascent to Mt. Waas. Not a big surprise since it is only May and snow can hamper your activities in the La Sals even in August. Mike was firmly against making an attempt under these circumstances and I had no good arguments to go forward with this summit – after all that is the advantage of having a hiking buddy who is familiar with the area and conditions.

APRS coverage

We turned in the opposite direction instead where Mount Tomasaki was waiting for us. Tomasaki is only about 1.5 mi (~2.5 km) SE of our current position and the cross over is straight forward and no snow was hampering our efforts. Only the Talus…. and I think I used a few swear words on our way up to the summit. Luckily we were high enough to have APRS coverage between the two summits in case chasers were watching our progress.

Mt. Tomasaki from the saddle

KØMOS on the ascent

The summit of Mount Tomasaki is very similar to Manns Pk. The shelter was little smaller, the wind had picked-up a bit but the views were also stunning. We followed the same procedure, Mike tried to get contacts on 2m with the Yagi and I prepared the Buddipole in the mean time.

Why are these radios so darn small?

The Descent:
We tried to keep the descent as short as possible and turned SW as soon as we reached the saddle. This led us into steep and treacherous territory and we had to scout our options carefully. We finally reached the trail just a few hundred yards above our camp.
Plenty of time to charge our batteries with the solar panels, cooking and sharing stories and making plans for the upcoming day. The cold wind after sunset finally drove us into the sleeping bags – as far as I am concerned, it was a great day even-though we missed one of the summits.

Bascamp

Some video impressions:
httpvh://youtu.be/r-JkcnNGlT4

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

Wondering how our trip progressed? Click the FOLLOW button at the bottom right corner of this page to sign-up.

73, Matt/KØMOS

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!
May 30, 2012
La Sal Mountains: Part 1
La Sal Mountain Range as seen from Arches N.P.

I have always been fond of the La Sal Mountain range. They provided a nice backdrop to many of my photos taken on visits to the Moab and Lake Powell area. It never occurred to me to climb them though… until I ‘met’ Mike/KØYO.

Mike commented on my trip report to Mount Werner, an area that he is very familiar with. We started to exchange e-mails about SOTA and summits in Utah where he now lives, and soon started to make plans for activating some of the summits in the La Sal Range for the upcoming season.

La Sals as seen from Delicate Arch

The La Sals can carry snow until August which can make an ascent of the rather steep slopes hard if not impossible. Luckily for us, it had been a very dry winter in Utah and most of the snow was already gone. With the weather forecast in our favor, we set a date and within 5 days I was on my ~550 mi (ca. 900 km) journey to Utah.

The mountain range contains of two clusters of peaks and rises high over the surrounding Colorado Plateau. It has several major peaks and six of them are currently SOTA peaks:
- Mount Peale – W7/SU-062 – 12,721 feet (3877 m)
- Mount Mellenthin – W7/SU-001 – 12,645 feet (3854 m)
- Mount Tukuhnikivatz – W7/SU-002 – 12,482 feet (3805 m)
- Mount Waas – W7/SU-003 – 12,331 feet (3758 m)
- Manns Peak – W7/SU-004 – 12,272 feet (3741 m)
- Mount Tomasaki – W7/SU-005 – 12,239 feet (3730 m)
During the preparation we debated for a while where to set-up our base-camp to make the activations as efficient as possible. We went back and forth but finally settled on the Geyser Pass area because both clusters can be easily reached by foot from the pass. Since Mike was leaving earlier than me… that’s where we planned on meeting.

Along the Colorado River – Scenic Byway to Moab

I left my QTH early in the morning on May 29th , hoping to arrive around 5PM at our base-camp. Traffic was light on I25 as well as I70 and I made good time with just one pit stop to re-fuel the car and to get some caffeine in my system. I took the scenic byway to Moab along the Colorado river. Route 128 has always been a favorite of mine. From Moab it is another hour to get to Geyser Pass, mostly over dirt-roads. I was pleasantly surprised about the good condition of the dirt road in the Manti La Sal National Forest. Besides all the fallen trees along and over the road, my old Subaru Outback had no issues until Geyser Pass… then the ‘road’ condition changed and I was moving at a snails pace to navigate the holes and uneven track towards the base-camp. I received a phone call from Mike just a few hundred yards before reaching the pass. He was investigating possible routes to Mt. Mellenthin when he picked-up a cell signal. He gave me the crucial details on where to find his camp. Perfect timing – just 15 minutes later I discovered his truck in the trees, just

La Sals – I found Mike’s camp

below Mount Tomasaki. The final approach was tough for the old Outback but with spinning wheels I (barely) made it up the steep, dusty and bumpy ‘road’ to the camp.

La Sal Mountain Range: SOTA summits (click picture to enlarge)

Mike was still out exploring and since I had been sitting in the car for almost nine hours, I needed some exercise. I took my HT and hiked up towards Burros Pass to explore the ascent to Mount Manns and Mount Tomasaki. I continued uphills, making good progress towards Mt. Manns when Mike called me on 146.52 – he was back at the camp. I turned around and 45 minutes later, we finally met in person.

After dinner we discussed out plans for the coming day and turned to the sleeping bags early…

Video Impressions:
If you have not yet seen the trailer… here it is:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlmn-0oBoVc

or move on to Part 2 of the trip. If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!
May 29, 2012
WØC/FR-Ø88 (Mount McConnel) – 2nd activation

This was a re-activation for me. If you are looking for all the details on how to get there and other useful info, you can find the original trip-report with the necessary details right here. This post has only a few specifics from today’s activation.

Waking up this morning, I was not sure whether I saw fog or smoke when I looked out of the window. However, my nose was clear about what was going on – it was definitely smoke… coming from a large wild-fire (Hewlett fire) just a few miles north of here. It has been burning for the last six days and consumed over 7300 acres (~30 square km) in the Poudre Canyon, one of my main access routes to SOTA summits. Checking the Web confirmed that Co14 was closed between Ted’s Place and Rist Canyon due to the fire. I was planning to activate Mount McConnel, an easy hike of ~4,2 mi (6,8 km) and 2110 ft (643 m) ASL, about 10 miles up the Canyon from the fire. The road closure forced me to take an alternate route through Rist Canyon to get to the trail head. The early morning drive along the small and winding road was very enjoyable and I reached the trail-head ahead of schedule. The bridge over the Poudre River to Mountain Park Campground (where the TH ls located) was still closed for the season – so I parked the car on the downhill side of the road on a small gravel strip and started my hike. The temperatures were perfect, low 60s with a light breeze. Wildflowers started to come out everywhere and I quickly found my rhythm heading up the trail. Hanging out with my own thoughts, I almost stepped on a large male Dusky Grouse who panicked and flapped nervously into the trees. He almost gave me a heart-attack, but I was glad it was just a grouse and nothing more predatory. Shortly after that incident we had another encounter. This time it was a little more civilized and relaxed, at a safe distance. He displayed his square tail but did not allow me to take a good picture – too bad. By the time I reached the summit, it was partly cloudy and with all the particles in the air from the raging fire not too far from here, the views were not as good as I had experienced last time. I used the top of a tree (growing below the cliff) to attach and tune my antenna for 17m. My first contact was with Kriss/KA1GJU/AM who was en route to San Francisco. He was just about 50 miles east of me at 36’000 ft (~11’000 m) and was kind enough to use his unique position and 400 W radio to drum-up some more contacts – thanks a bunch Kriss. 17m was not very productive so I re-tuned to 20m and worked most of my regular chasers. By the time I could not copy any more chasers, more clouds already moved in and the winds picked-up too. A sign to pack up and head down.

Thanks for all the contacts and spots.

Update: Sadly, since then Mount McConnel has now been consumed by the Highpark fire as well. As of yesterday, two more SOTA summits are within the burn area.

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvG7_AnVAk

Please post comments or questions through YouTube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

May 19, 2012
WØC/FR-127 (Signal Mountain) – 2nd activation

This was a re-activation for me. If you are looking for all the details on how to get there and other useful info, you can find the original trip-report with the necessary details right here. This post has only a few specifics from today’s activation.

Signal Mtn. – View from the summit

From my prior activation in September 2011, I knew that it was going to be a long hike (11.7 mi/18.8 km – 4064 ft / 1239 m) mostly within the tree-zone. The two summits (Signal Mtn and South Signal) are just pushing their ‘heads’ above the treeline providing some amazing views.

My backpack with Yagi

Besides my normal gear, I also carried a ‘tape-measure’ Yagi antenna I wanted to test on the summit. The first two miles of my hike went as expected but the following 2-3 miles through the forest were extremely difficult. A winter-storm must have destroyed large parts of the Bulwark Ridge. Trees were lying around everywhere. And I am not just talking about dead-trees… large and healthy trees were broken apart like tooth-picks, blocking the way to the summit. It was a very time-consuming and exhausting hike, climbing over trees or trying to find a way around it. Often I

Devastated Forest

had a difficult time finding the trail again. Finally, the last 1-2 miles above the tree-line provided more challenges in form of big, soft, and deep snow-fields. Without having any ‘floatation-devices’, I was post-holing through approx. 3-4 ft of snow. Luckily I brought my gators – keeping at least my feet dry. It took me almost 4 hours to reach the summit (compared to 3’10” in September). The view from the summit was worth it though. After setting up my antenna, I was hiding from the wind behind the small stone-shelter on the top. The wind behaved kind of strangely… completely calm for several minutes, followed by very strong gusts for a couple of minutes and back to complete calmness again. One of the stronger gusts took my antenna down (again), just after switching from 20m to 17m. Unfortunately the stinger of my shock-corded whip got bent during the process . I guess its time to use some of those spare parts. I took it as a sign to leave and packed-up my gear, knowing that it would take me quite a while for the ~6 miles climbing over all the trees again. At least it was downhill this time. I have to admit that I was pretty tired by the time I reached my car.

Thanks for all the contacts and spots.

Some video impressions:

Please post comments or questions through YouTube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

May 5, 2012
WØC/FR-Ø61 (Taylor Mountain) – 2779 m / 9134 ft

Taylor Mountain (WØC/FR-Ø61) is part of the Front-Range of the Rocky Mountains and located south of Estes Park, close to the towns of Boulder and Longmont. Now that I am writing about this activation, it occurs to me that I should have left the first activation of this peak up to Jerry/KDØBIK – it would have been a nice touch for the first activator to share the same name than the mountain. I guess it’s too late now – sorry Jerry. You can still try to first activate Taylor Mountain in the Sawatch Range.

Trailhead: 8415ft / 2565 m
Summit: 9134 ft / 2784 m
Elev. gain: 908 ft / 277 m
Roundtrip: 3.5 mi / 5.6 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
Taylor Mountain is close to Denver, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park and Fort Collins. Go west on CO 66 (Ute Highway north of Longmont) towards Lyons. In the quaint village of Lyons take a left (south) onto 5th Avenue or CO-7 which is also St. Vrain Drive. Continue on CO-7 through the gorgeous St. Vrain Canyon until you encounter CO-27 on your left. From there it is another 2.2 mi (3.5 km) to where you have to take a right onto Taylor Road, a dirt road that leads through a small subdivision. The trail-head is now just 0.7 mi (~1.1 km) ahead of you.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

Red Tape:
Taylor Mountain is managed by the National Forest Service. There are no permits or entry fees required. The parking possibilities at the TH are limited which might not be an issue as soon as the FS opens the gate to all the forest roads up there.

The Ascent:

Elevation Profile

For most of the way you can hike along forest service roads. The TH is located at FR-330. A gate blocks access to the FR system – it was still locked for the season,

Taylor Mountain as seen from TH

preventing access of motorized vehicles. FR-330 leads gently up the slope through a thinned out pine forest. Several larger areas were completely cut-down… the purpose is unknown to me but a good guess might be to control the Mountain pine beetle infestation. Soon you will encounter the intersection with FR-330B – take FR-330B towards the right. FT330B is not much of a road and feels more like a hiking trail (for most parts anyways). A sign indicates where FR-330B ends… but a narrow track continues uphills and eventually reaches the summit. Navigation or terrain is not much of a challenge and this, combined with the short distance (3.5 mi / 5.6 km round trip) makes it an easy morning hike.

The Summit:

View from the Summit

The summit is rather flat and the highest point is defined by a large stone cairn with a summit register in a peanut jar. The views are limited due to the trees but you can take a peek through the trees at some 14ers near the Continental Divide. Longspeak and Mt. Meeker are visible as well as some peaks in the Mummy Range. The summit can easily accommodate several activators and provides ample space and trees for antenna and guy-lines. I made 20 contacts in ~40 minutes on 20m and 17m.

The Descent:
I followed the same route back to the car but managed to get lost on my way down, loosing the faint trail just a few minutes after leaving the summit. A look at map and compass and a little bit of bush-whacking finally brought me back on the trail.

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jUbml6wBNg

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

April 22, 2012
WØC/FR-15Ø (Thunder Peak) – 3083 m / 10134 ft

I had planned a double activation for today. Thunder Peak or WØC/FR-15Ø was the first on the list.The weather forecast was great for the Estes Park area and a friend of mine joined me for the hike. We drove into Estes Park and were surprised to see how much snow the mountains got during the week. Dark clouds were hanging in the Mummy Range (Continental Divide). A stiff wind greeted us when we left the car at the trail-head. Light snow-flurries were present for the first part of the hike, even though we had blue skies above us.

Trailhead: 8244 ft / 2513 m
Summit: 10134 ft / 3083 m
Elev. gain: 2051 ft / 625 m
Roundtrip: 4.5 mi / 7.2 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
Take US34 from Loveland towards Estes Park through Big Thompson Canyon. Thunder Peak is on the south-west side of Estes Park. Stay on US34 towards Rocky Mountain NP. Go left on County Road 66 (or Tunnel Road), following the signs to the YMCA campus. Follow the road all the way to the end. There is a campground at the very end – as well as the East Portal of the Big Thompson Project Pipeline. Park your car at the loop of the road (there is room for about 10 cars on a gravel strip at the south side of the loop.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

East Portal with Reservoir

Follow the dirt road at the end of the loop (SE) towards the reservoir and East Portal trail-head. The kiosk of the trail-head can be found when you follow the road on the right-side (north) of the reservoir.

Red Tape:
At the East Portal of the Adams Tunnel is a small (really small) reservoir – and the surrounding area is Federal property. You are not supposed to park, fish, boat, pee etc. within 100 yards of the dam – Homeland security and such. Thunder Peak is within the RMNP, ergo it is a fee area and their rules apply (no dogs etc.) I am not sure about RMNP entry fees… since the parking lot is outside of the park, I think you are not required to have a NP pass. I have a yearly pass anyway and therefore did not look into this further.

The Ascent:

Elevation Profile

Turn left after the Horse hitch

For the first few hundred yards we followed the dirt-road on the north-side of the Reservoir to the kiosk. We continued on the dirt road along Wind River (more like a small creek) to a concrete retention pond. About 20 yards before the pond there is a faint trail to the right which continues to follow the creek. It was hard to see on our way up and we missed it. The result was some bush-whacking until we found the trail again. [UPDATE (3/13/13): There is now a new sign pointing you into the right direction. You cannot miss it.] On the opposite site of the creek are some nice rock-outcroppings. Right around the horse hitch we left the established Wind River trail and turned towards the drainage between Thunder and Lightning Peak.

See what I found

First we had to cross the creek which was easy with the current water-level. We kept going along the drainage through lodge-pole pines and areas of aspen groves -always staying on the left (NE) side of the drainage where we encountered more open areas. As a result we made good progress. Interestingly, the soil in the drainage was very soft and sandy – sometimes we found big piles of sand as if a few kids had destroyed their sand-castle. You can’t get lost if you stay in the drainage and keep going all the way up to the saddle between Thunder and

Where are we?

Lightning. From there you can see the summit and head up there. We wanted to shave off some time and took a more direct line to the summit since we were aiming for a second activation. Every now and then I verified our position with the GPS to see whether we were still on the plotted track. Heading up the south-west side was quite a work-out… it was rather steep (around 30%) and with the soft and sandy soil it felt like climbing sand-dunes. Having enough momentum was sometimes crucial to overcome a section.

The Summit:

On the Summit

The views from the summit are spectacular. There are quite a few SOTA peaks right in front of you. To the south are Estes Cone (WØC/FR-Ø39), Longs Peak (WØC/FR-11Ø) and Mount Meeker; to the East, Lily Mountain (WØC/FR-Ø50), Twin Sister Peak East (WØC/FR-Ø37) and West. To the north we could see Emerald Mountain (WØC/FR-Ø58 ) and Eagle Cliff Mountain (WØC/FR-Ø68 ) and finally to the west, the Continental Divide and the Mummy Range with too many SOTA summits to list. The summit was very windy but the skies to the west looked a lot friendlier than earlier in the morning. Setting up the equipment was very efficient due to the fact that I had help and Phil/NS7P was my second contact after just a few CQs. His spot posted on SOTAwatch attracted the usual chasers within minutes (thanks guys).

The Descent:

Ben running downhills

The descent was quite fun… the soft and sandy soil allowed us to run/slide downhills towards the saddle and finally turn north into the drainage again, following our ascent route back to the trail-head an car. We only took the time to exchange our empty water bottles with full ones and off we went, heading to the second summit, a ~30 minutes drive.

Some video impressions:

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers… there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required – enjoy!

April 20, 2012