Bryan/NØBCB and I attempted to activate Bighorn Mountain for the TTF/SOTA event on Saturday. The summit (3487 M / 11463 ft) is in beautiful Rocky Mountain N.P., the weather forecast was excellent with temperatures in the 70s (~20 C) and the amount of ALERTS posted on SOTAwach promised a very busy activation with tons of S2S possibilities.
Bighorn Mtn. – ElevationProfileBryan/NØBCB at the Trailhead of Bighorn Mtn.
We started early at the Lawn Lake trail-head to have enough time available on the summit. We headed up at 7:00 AM with temperatures around 30F (~0 C). The snow on the ground was hard and crunchy. The first three miles of the trip climbs rather steadily along the banks of Roaring River on an established trail.Thanks to the fresh snow we received last week, the trail was snow covered and soon became a major obstacle on our way up. Snow-depth was around 2-3+ feet and we had to take turns to break the trail. It got increasingly difficult and we made very little progress, on occasions sinking in all the way to out belly-buttons.
Bryan/NØBC breaking trail
Upon reaching the point where we would have to turn SE, leaving the trail and bushwhack our way up the steep slopes, we assessed our situation and options. So far we had only covered 3 miles in 2.5h and we estimated at least another 2h of ascent in deep snow. That would have put us on the summit at least 2h late of our plans and therefor we opted to head back to the TH, and to setup our radios to at least participate in the TTF event.
It took us almost 2.5h to reach the TH and we logged our first QSO around 18:15 (UTC). Band conditions and our location (surrounded by mountains) were less than ideal. All bands we tried (10/15/20/40) were pretty quiet, even Megawatt stations barely copyable. The only SOTA/TTF station I was able to contact was Jeremy/NH6Z in Oregon and a few stations in Florida.
Overall a disappointing SOTA/TTF day for us but a nice outing in the RMNP. More snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, looks like the snowshoes have to stick around for a little while longer.
Since we had no chance to take pictures on the summit, check out last years trip-report with video footage.
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!
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
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.
Bighorn Mtn. – ElevationProfileBighorn 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!
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 AreaMountain 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!
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…
!! 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!
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!
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!
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
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-campCast 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-817Matt/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 saddleKØMOS 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!
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:
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!
La Sal Mountain Range: SOTA summits (click picture to enlarge)
Mike/KØYO and Matt/KØMOS will spend a couple of days to explore this unique environment. Obviously we will try to activate as many SOTA peaks as possible :)
Date/Time/Routes:
We do not have a fixed schedule and we will adapt to the situation and environment. Snow, wind and thunderstorms will dictate the schedule and routes. Our first activation will be on May 30th and the last probably on June 2nd. Starting from our base-camp, we will attempt to summit Manns Peak first, followed by Mount Waas and/or Mount Tomasaki. Mike and I might be on different summits at the same time but always be in contact via HT. If we cannot activate all of these summits on day 1, we will activate the remaining summits on day 2 before moving to the southern part of the range where we will focus on Mount Mellenthin, Mount Tukuhnikivatz (looking forward hearing that name in CW) and Mount Peale.
We are planning to be on the first summit in the morning (~15:00 UTC). Conditions permitting we will try to activate multiple summits each day.
Alerts/Spots:
The ALERTS I will post on SOTAwatch are just reminders so you guys don’t forget about us. Date/Time/Summits may change on any day. Make sure to get the correct SOTA reference when you talk to us – and please SPOT us when you find us. If we have coverage, we might try to self spot via SMS and/or update our status incl. frequencies via APRS (Beacon Status Text), assuming I press all the right buttons. You can check via: http://aprs.fi/info/a/K0MOS-7
Band/Mode/Equipment:
KØYO: Dipole and YAESU FT-817
2m: FM / SSB / CW
17m: SSB / CW
20m:SSB / CW
KØMOS: Buddipole Versatee and Yaesu FT-817 / Tapemeasure 3-el. YAGI for 2m
You can also catch us late afternoon and evenings at our base-camp if it is sunny enough for our solar-panels to re-charge the batteries. Looking forward to the trip and hoping for many contacts. Keep your antennas pointed towards Utah.
73, Mike & Matt
!! 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!
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!
!! 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!
