W7W/RS-012 Pyramid Peak 8/14/2012

Prologue:  Tuesday, Aug 12, Myself, Ms Pat WT7N, my Bro John KF7MYI, and Chuck AC7QN began a four day backpack trip in Mt Rainier National Park along the Wonderland Trail to the Indian Henry's Hunting Ground and Emerald Ridge areas.  Indian Henry's is a large meadow with four good sized peaks surrounding the meadow outskirts.  Three are SOTA Peaks- which the map shows highlighted in yellow.   Hey, you are right if this sounds familiar. 

Chapter 2:  It's Wednesday AM and us four hikers are off to the meadow in search of SOTA peaks.  I opted to activate Pyramid Pk and Ms Pat and Bro John want to give the hike a try also.  Chuck has opted for Iron Mtn.  Pyramid is on the far east side of the meadow and Iron (right next to Copper Mtn) are in the middle of the meadow.  After a quick lunch and safety meeting at Mirror Lakes we split up.

Pyramid Peak looms across the meadow.  Part of Iron Mtn can be seen on the R side of the foto.

The WX is very pleasant with a high ceiling and no direct sunlight.  The temp is 60-65 deg- great hiking conditions.  As we hike across the vast meadow we are surrounded by gorgeous wildflowers and relentless BUGs.  We are all wearing our mosquito bug hats... which for me distorts my depth perception. 

After about an hour of walking, it's 1330 LT.  Time to make handy talkie radio contact with Chuck AC7QN somewhere on Iron Mtn.  Chuck reports that he had a too difficult time going up and is heading back to our campsite at Devils Dream.  Also, on frequency is Casey WW7CH at the National Park radio shop.  Casey plans to be in communications with us on 146.52 as well as watch my APRS tracks on aprs.fi.  

KR7W Makes 2 meter contact on 146.52 per the safety meeting discussion.  My elevation is about 6100 ft.

Fish Pole mast is guyed 1/3 the way up.  44 ft doublet extends N-S with mason string tied to rocks.  If there is any directionality - it would be E-W.

1430 LT, we are on the summit.  Wow! what a climb.  What a view!  At 1451 LT the HF Station is OTA.  There are no trees on this summit.  Just some goat trimmed grass, sort of like a lumpy lawn.  Rocks provide decorations and means to hold the fish pole guy lines down to the earth... as well as secure the ends of the 44 ft doublet Inverted Vee.  The only thing that wudda made this place better would be lawn chairs.

Nice soft rocks and grass- actually it was pretty comfy.  Fish pole mast is on R.  D72 APRS HT is next to KR7W's  R elbow.

I figured that we had at least a three hour walk back to our campsite... so I set a "Let's start putting it away" time of 1530 LT.  I went directly to 20 meters because of its success with the previous activation.  Eleven 20M CW QSOs and six 2M Qs were made.  A lot of the 2M Qs were made while we were tearing the HF antenna farm down.  It's always amazing to me that there are lots of folks monitoring 146.52... and I am glad that they do.  

The hike down the steep scree slope and the rest of the way to the meadow went pretty quickly.  Myself and Bro John slipped on the steep muddy trail a few times.  Once in the vast meadow the trip was a long slog.  For some variety we decided to stop at the Ranger Station Patrol Cabin in the meadow to check it out.  Volunteer BC Ranger Phil was on duty and he showed us around the cabin.  He mentioned that the WX report suddenly changed and that a low pressure front would be visiting us with rain for a few days. 

Here's the Patrol Cabin / Ranger Station.  My Bro John chats with VIP BC Ranger Phil. 

Check out the high snow level entrance door.  Phil says that there was 6 ft of snow here this June.

The next day was Thursday- the day we were scheduled to hike out of Devils Dream Camp to Somewhere.  The plan was for us to hike across Emerald Ridge (the most scenic part of the Wonderland Trail, IMHO) and to South Puyallup Camp to spend the night.  OR  We could hike back to the car.  The best choice for everyone was to hike to the car.  The skies were rain free whilst we packed everything up... but as soon as we beat feet the 6 miles to Longmire we caught rain most of the way.  

Here's our campsite at Devils Dream Camp the day after the trip to Pyramid Pk.  Ranger Phil was right about the WX change... as it rained on us all night.  

Epilog:  My apologies to the Chasers who followed my APRS tracks which had the wrong status message- which said that I was heading back to the TH instead of to W7W/RS-012.  Of course, Thanks to the Chasers for being there to help make this somewhat difficult activation successful.  Last thing:  Sorry Phil that I didn't operate on 40M this time- as there was a lot to do in a short time and I just didn't think of it.   

Flickr photos with captions can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157635145237964/


Happy Trails to You... Until we meet again.... on 14.061.

Rich kr7w

W7W/RS-033 Mt Ararat

Prologue:  Tuesday, Aug 12, Myself, Ms Pat WT7N, my Bro John KF7MYI, and Chuck AC7QN began a four day backpack trip in Mt Rainier National Park along the Wonderland Trail to the Indian Henry's Hunting Ground and Emerald Ridge areas.  Indian Henry's is a large meadow with four good sized peaks surrounding the meadow outskirts.  Three are SOTA Peaks- which the map shows highlighted in yellow.

Chapter 1:  Pat and I arrived early (about 2 PM) at Devils Dream back country campground and claimed our site by setting up our tent.  At 3 PM we agreed to head up the trail 1.1 miles to Indian Henry's meadow which is the beginning of the ascent to the top of Mt Ararat.  Garmin showed the climb to be about 800 ft elev gain in 3/4 mile.  My plan was to walk the Kautz Creek Trail until the apex was reached and then head up Ararat.  Why walk through brush when there is a trail some of the way?  Turns out that the route up Ararat from there was up a rocky face.  So we retreated back down the trail to a less steep approach according to Garmin.

Mt Ararat viewed about 3/4 mile east of the base.  The rock face with drop off can be seen in the center near the top.

Back in the  the 80's I'd trekked to the top of Ararat twice.  One of those outings I camped on the summit for two days to explore, to find the Ark, see flying saucers at night and hear and feel large ice chunks fall from the nearby glaciers.  Back then it seemed like an easy trek down/up to fetch water... but I can tell ya 30 years later that those trees have grown taller, the brush is thicker, and the slope is way steeper.  We headed up a rocky gully.  When that gully ran out we were in a sloping meadow, then another gully and it repeats until we reached the vast flat topped summit where a small plane could land.  The highest point looked to be 1/8 mile to the west... but Garmin said we were on the summit +/- 10 ft.

I figured out that a few folks musta been following my APRS tracks because as soon as I circled the the top of a small knoll to find a comfy spot... I began to receive calls on 146.52.  The fish pole mast was strapped to a snag tree, the 44 ft doublet was hung in an inverted Vee fashion, and radio set up in the shade.  OTA at 0004 UTC the next day.

The mosquitoes and biting flies were extra pesky and contributed to my Morse being extra sloppy.  

On each band I spotted myself via APRS to call sign-SOTA.  Only one Q on 40M- with Phil NS7P- who is always in my log, it seems. 4 Qs on 30M. When I got to 20M, I sent dah-dit-dah-dit-dah on 14.061, I was greeted with a cacophony of callsigns- pretty amazing.  15 Qs on 20M CW were made and many more that could be made but I had to shut down in order to have enough time for me and Pat to safely retreat down to the meadow and back to camp.

I decided to follow the 80's route down- due east- with the patrol cabin in sight- which took us to a rocky face with a drop off.  Uphill was needed and zig-zag to the south then down a series of gullies and in 45 minutes we were back to the meadow and the trail back to camp.  

Back in the meadow the National Park Service patrol cabin can be seen.  Some years this meadow can have 6 ft of snow in it in June.  This view of Mt Rainier shows the Tahoma glaciers.  

Thanks to the Ionosphere gods who made for low noise - high E layer propagation radio contacts during our outing.  Thanks to the chasers who waited until late in the day to make contact.  I am sorry we couldn't stay there longer and make more QSOs.

Flickr fotos with comments can be seen here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157635130064235/


Best Regards,
Rich kr7w

I Was 34 Years Old Again - SOTA Activation of Silver King Mtn - W7W/RS-010

Sunday, Aug 4, 2013, Myself, my partner and hiking companion Pat WT7N, and Chuck AC7QN head off to Mt Rainier National Park (WA State) with full backpacks for an overnighter in the BackCountry.  The main goal was physical conditioning with a full pack to prepare for 'the big hike' the following week- a shake down outing of sorts.  Where we were going to camp was based on BC campsite availability within the White River Wilderness area of the Park.  I had 3 BC choices, where two offered SOTA peak access.  With SOTA possibilities... we took our radio equipment.

This annotated trail map shows route to the Upper Lake and camp and marked route to the Silver King summit.  Silver King Mtn is part of a ridge that contains 3 other prominent (non SOTA) peaks.  This ridge forms the west slopes of the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort (Forest Service Land).  Another way to get to the summit is via the ski resort direction as Mark K7MAS did- see below.

We ended up receiving our first choice of BC camps, Upper Crystal Lake.   This area offers close access to Silver King Mtn, W7W/RS-010.  Note:  This peak is called Crystal Mtn in the SOTA database- but on most maps it is labeled Silver King.

Lugging myself and pack up the trail I reflected on the fact that we backpacked to this same camp with QRP radios on the first Sunday in August for the last 5 or more years... and even before I was aware of the SOTA program I've wanted to summit Silver King Mtn.  Originally- I had hoped to be the first to active W7W/RS-010, but Mark K7MAS beat me to it a few weeks earlier.

Upper Crystal Lake is a spectacular place to visit.  The lake is in a partial bowl surrounded by rocky features and alpine forest.  This year the snow melted sooner than past and 25 days with no rain the lake level was lower than I've seen before.  Never the less- the scenery is always spectacular.

Upper Crystal Lk with Crystal Pk on the left.  Our campsite is at the far end (looking west)

Looking east from our campsite area.  The sun is beginning to set.  Almost always there was a breeze to keep bugs away and provide some cooling in the 70 deg sun.  Back at 380 ft the temp was 87 deg, sorta warm for Tacoma / Seattle.  

A bit up hill and south of our BC camp... the summit can be easily seen.  Our route up is to the left of a gray rock pile see under the 'r' of the annotation.  The route down was through the tree'd slope on the right side.

KR7W's 18 ft fish pole strapped to old snag tree on the R to support a 44 ft doublet + TV twin lead + balun.  The radio is placed in the shade to prevent overheating and shutdown (as has happened in the past).  Sorry- it's rude of me to have my back to the camera.   Behind the trees is AC7QN operating 2M FM.

The next morning after acclimating to the elevation change (380 to 5800 ft) while sleeping-and after breakfast with mountain brewed coffee... we hit the trail to BC Ranger Ammie's (who we met on the trail and chatted with) suggested route to the summit.  The Ammie route took us back down the trail (-150 ft) to a clear spot and then up the slope.  

Nearly two hours later and ~1300 ft gain we are on the summit.  See crayon marks of the route on the trail map above.

Normally before I leave home I would post an Alert on Sotawatch but for this trip I didn't know exactly where in the Nat Park we'd end up... so no alert.  On the summit I had my HF station set up at 1915 UTC and went through the usual bands listening and calling CQ.  No luck on 40 or 30 Meters but a CQ SOTA on 14.061 netted 10 QSOs.  I asked Chaser NR 1 , K1JD in NM to spot me and 9 more CW QSOs were made until the band faded.  

Chuck AC7QN took over my radio and called CQ on 14.343 SSB with no luck.  Just goes to show that posting an alert helps to get SOTA QSOs.

On my last 3 or 4 higher elevation summits... I've noticed a lot of chatter on 146.520 FM and it was the same here at 7012 ft.  While I was operating on 20M CW, Chuck was calling on six-five-two and quickly made 5 contacts.  While Chuck as operating SSB I then went to 2M netted 5 QSOs, some Qs with different hams... and one S2S with Derrek K3XD on Granite Mtn to the north.  I've noticed that new hams seemed to be tickled to make contact with another (seemingly) far away ham on 2 meters- especially if either or both hams are using HTs.

KR7W operates 2M FM on six-five-two using Kenwood D72A APRS HT connected to coaxial dipole made from sched 20 PVC and mobile radio whip antenna.  Tipping the antenna sometimes reduced multi-path interference- most likely reflecting off of Mt Rainier. It seems unnecessary to elevate a 2M antenna already at 7012 ft with Line O Site to everywhere... but in this case it did help make contact with N7KRE on Camano Island.  Now, construction details of this antenna can be found at the end of this blog entry.

Whilst on the summit looking south I could see boot track heading off towards the Pacific Crest Trail.  We followed this path down the ridge and ended up on the original route I had formulated before BC Ranger Ammie's suggestion.  More fotos with captions can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kr7w-sota/sets/72157634987462853/

Coax Dipole antenna details can be found here:http://kr7w.blogspot.com/


Epilog:  The Title of this blog entry begins, "I Was 34 Years Old Again - SOTA Activation......"  A long time ago when I got into mountaineering and backpacking... I developed a penchant for boulder and steep slope climbing.  I enjoy the puzzle of which boulder to hop to or which tree on the steep slope to bushwack through.  This SOTA outing provided me the opportunity re-live that passion from 30 years ago but, of course, at a slower old goat's pace.

Best Regards,
Rich kr7w