SOTA outings by KØMOS and contributors

Tag: K0MOS

WØC/FR-Ø36 (Bighorn Mtn.) – 3487 M / 11463 ft

It was a ‘last minute’ decision to go on this activation. WØC/FR-Ø36 or Bighorn Mtn. is located within Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), just east of the Mummy Range (Continental Divide). Yesterday we got some snow/rain in the mountains and the road to Mt. Evans is already closed for the season. Trail-ridge road was temporarily closed as well. The weather forecast for today was excellent (at least until later in the afternoon). However, I woke up to thick fog so I could not even see the road, let alone the mountains. The drive up to Estes Park was slow, thanks to the fog and to some heavy trucks in the canyon. I arrived ten minutes later than planned at Lawn Lake trail-head to a beautiful blue sky, bugling elks and pleasant temperatures.

Bighorn Mtn. – Trailhead

Trailhead: 8552 ft/ 2565 m
Summit: 11463 ft / 3847 m
Elev. gain: 3280 ft / 1000 m
Roundtrip: 9.0 mi / 14.5 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
Take US34 from Loveland towards Estes Park through Big Thompson Canyon. Enter RMNP through the Fall River Entrance Station and take a right at the Lawn Lake trail-head sign. A rather large parking lot which can be found shortly after.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

The trail-head provides toilets and the usual information kiosk.

Red Tape:
– RMNP is a federal fee area

The Ascent:

Bighorn Mtn. – ElevationProfile

Bighorn Mtn – Views from the river banks

Since there is no established trail to Bighorn Mtn., I consulted Google Earth to find a suitable route. An approach from the west seemed to be a good solution because I could follow the Lawn-Lake Trail for about 3.5 miles before turning east, bushwhacking my way up to the summit. The Lawn-Lake trail follows the Roaring River through a gorgeous forest, mainly pines but with a few Aspens groves which sparkled yellow and golden already. On several occasions along the the river you get an idea of the massive flood that occurred here in 1982, killing several hikers/campers. Huge boulders were swept down-rivers like marbles. The steep banks of the river also allow some very scenic views of the northern Mummy Range. Shortly after passing the sign to the Cutbank and Golden Banner camp areas, I left the comfortable trail and started the steep and unpleasant bushwhacking part. I tried to aim for the saddle between Bighorn and Tileson. It was very slow going. Thick forest, steep terrain and slippery boulders (thanks to the rain, the lichens on the boulders were very slick) hampered my progress. Every now and then, I could get a glimpse through the trees to the Mummy Range – a spectacular view from the summit seemed very likely.

The Summit:

Bighorn Mtn – The Summit?

After breaking through the tree-line, I could finally see where I was heading. There were several rock-outcroppings at the top to choose from. The first one I climbed was of course not the summit, but the second one was the highest point and I found a summit book which confirmed that I had indeed reached the top of Bighorn Mtn. The summit is rather large, ideal for multiple activators at the same time. The views are spectacular, one of the best in this area for sure. My initial calls on 2m were unanswered but the HF antenna was up and tuned in no time. Phil/NS7P was the first who answered on 14.343 and thanks to his spot the summit was activated successfully in no time.

The Descent:
I tried to find a gentler and easier way down, heading more towards the saddle. The fact that I could actually see where I am going helped quite a bit. The first part was just fine but I ended up in similarly steep terrain, trying to find the Lawn Lake trail. I hit the trail at the same location I had left it, thanks to GPS technology :)

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4DjZ5q9cj0

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 28, 2012
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
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

!! 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!

August 23, 2012
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

!! 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 18, 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