SOTA outings by KØMOS and contributors

Tag: antenna restrictions

  • 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.

    ATTENTION !! 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!

  • Antenna Restrictions on Mt. Evans? The Conclusion

    I finally received a letter from the Clark Creek Ranger District regarding my encounter on Mt. Evans (read the first part of the story if you are not familiar with it).  It took me almost six weeks and several e-mails to get an official statement from the Ranger District.  I guess an underfunded federal agency has more pressing issues to deal with.

    The good news is that it was an over-eager FS employee who kicked me off the mountain.

    The bad news is that, according to the letter, the Federal Code of Regulation [36 CFR 261.10(a)], which applies to communication equipment, is written with some built-in ambiguity and might be interpreted differently in other Forest Service units.

    Official Response

    Well, I will deal with another interpretation if and when I run into another issue. The Clear Creek Ranger District interpretation however makes sense to me – chapter closed!
    I really appreciate the clarification.

    Read the entire letter by clicking on the thumbnail to the right.

    That’s my last post from Mt Evans but there are two more pictures  I wanted to share.  The first one was shot at the Summit Lake trail-head early in the morning. The trail starts on the right side of the picture, goes up the ridge to Mt. Spalding and over to Mt. Evans.

    Panorama of the Mt. Evans Area
    Mountain goat on Mt. Evans

    The second picture is from a close encounter of the third kind… well, not quite but is was remarkable. This unflinching mountain goat approached me. The picture is shot with a 52mm lens, not a tele-photo lens. He came up to me at arms lengh… too close for my taste. I normally try to keep a save distance between wild animals and myself, but this guy was not shy at all. Since I had never heard about occurrences of rabies in mountain goats and since I received some goat combat lessons earlier in the year (courtesy of Rooster) on my trip to Mt. Herman, I took the chance to take some real close-up shots instead of retreating.

    Comments are open, feel free to add your thoughts.

    73, Matt/KØMOS

    ATTENTION !! 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!

  • Antenna Restrictions on Mt. Evans?

    I activated Mt. Evans for Summits on the Air (SOTA) on July 15th. I took the route from Summit Lake to the top early in the morning since thunderstorms were in the forecast for the afternoon. I had the peak to myself for almost half an hour which was unexpected, considering that there is a road all the way to the top. I setup my vertical Buddipole for 20m and started my activation – so far nothing out of the ordinary besides the bad band conditions due to the recent CME.

    Mt. Evans – BP on the summit

    I was talking to ACØA in Kansas when I spotted a National Forest Ranger running up the path from the parking lot. I could not understand what he was saying since I was

    • distracted by my ongoing QSO and
    • the lack of oxygen combined with his running up the mountain made his signal about a 22, with highly distorted audio.

    He arrived at the summit breathless and stood next to me, courteous enough to let me finish my QSO (or just to catch his breath?). He then introduced himself and  informed me that I have to take down the antenna immediately.

    My first thoughts were that the antenna was considered some sort of a safety hazard for other visitors but NO. The reason is, he informed me, that you cannot build a structure on Nation Forest land without a permit. Sounds like a sensible rule to me…. who wants to see cabins etc. erected on public land everywhere. I argued that my antenna can hardly be considered a structure and my short survey among the few visitors on the summit (~10 people) came to the same conclusion – nobody considered my antenna a structure but he insisted. Furthermore he instructed me to drive to the Clear Creek Ranger District HQ in Idaho Springs to get a permit. Needless to say that I was not planning to make a ~60 mile round-trip to get a permit for my activities. I already had enough contacts for my Mt. Evans SOTA activation and the fact that I had planned another activation for later in the day I did not want to waste my time arguing and started to pack up. Luckily I had my tape-measure YAGI with me for my next activation and I was hoping it would pass the NOT BEING A STRUCTURE test by the National Forest (to make sure I did not ask).

    I tried to follow up with the person in charge for the Clear Creek Ranger District… she is on vacation. Sure glad I did not drive all the way to Idaho Springs.

    GOOGLing, I found Forest Rules You Need to Know, published by the Secretary of Agriculture. On page two, under the chapter OTHER PROHIBITED FACTS it indeed prohibits “Constructing, placing, or maintaining any kind of communication equipment without a special use authorization“. Again, that makes sense to me to avoid that every Tom, Dick and Harry sets up his own repeater on public land… it does however not make sense to me for a temporary, mobile/portable antenna as I was using.

    It would certainly put a damper on SOTA activations and the upcoming 14er event. I am almost certain that on Field Day a lot of antennas go up on NF land.

    I would be interested in your experience and/or opinion and I am planning to follow up with the Clear Creek Ranger District. Maybe I was just dealing with an overly eager Ranger? Stay tuned…

    Matt/KØMOS

    UPDATE: Read the conclusion

    ATTENTION !! 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!