Today’s mission was another Summits On The
Air, activating
W6/CT-003 - Mount San Antonio, AKA Mt. Baldy to people here in SOCAL. I was invited to join Adam Kimmerly and his
mountain rescue team at the hut for an overnight and then the rest of the way to the summit. Adam and I launched from San Diego yesterday afternoon
and hiked up the first two miles to the summit for an overnight at the Sierra
Club San Antonio Ski Hut, then another 2 miles to summit at about noon
today. This trip was a real treat, as
its very difficult to be hosted at the Sierra Club’s hut. As a bonus, the crew fixed a huge dinner and
breakfast. Our full route covered over 4,000 feet of
elevation gain and 10.5 miles of hiking over two days, with 8+ of it done
today. I really enjoyed hanging with the
San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, a great bunch of people that dedicate a lot of
their personal time to volunteer for tough training and then help other people
who are lost or gotten into trouble on the mountain. Yes, volunteer.
(click on picture for larger)
(click on picture for larger)
The interesting thing about this hike is that
it the elevation gain to the summit via the route we took has roughly 1,000
feet of gain per mile. That’s double the
incline of last weeks summit on Tahquitz Peak. We started the trek up to the hut in the
afternoon as it started cooling off and it took less than 2 hours.
The ski hut is very well maintained. It sleeps at least 4 down stairs and has 20
bunks up stairs. Spring water
continuously flows into the kitchen sink and it’s solar powered for lighting, with wood burning stove in the kitchen for cooking and one in the living area for
warmth. It’s the perfect get off-grid, read a book bugout. Although it had some sort
of WiFi hotspot relay on the outside it, I didn’t have cell service and was happy to not be
connected.
The crew cranked out a huge load of taco meat
for dinner, evidently left over from a wedding, and then sat around catching up
and telling stories. I don’t have all the details but Adam has been part of the
crew for almost 13 years so these guys seem like his extended family. I slept on a supplied foam pad in the upper portion of the hut.
It was comfy, and much warmer than I expected. The window on the end of the eves was open
and I don’t think the temperature got below 35. I got to try out a new sleeping bag from REI, since my other bag is really for car camping and my previous backpack bag is beyond its useful life (40+ years old). I was more than comfy.
Breakfast was a massive load of eggs, bacon,
and leftover meat from the night before.
Combine that with tortillas, and an excellent breakfast burrito was born. After cleanup, most of the
crew headed up to the summit. It was a
non-stop uphill grind, gaining almost
another 2,000 feet over the next two miles.
This wouldn’t be bad if we started at sea level but we started at over
8,000’, so it was just a tad more difficult.
I’m generally the last guy up as I stop for a
lot of photos and I was trying out my new GoPro. That's my excuse anyway. We wouldn’t descend the via the same route so
we had to haul everything with us, including trash. After a while I was thinking I should have
opted for the lower powered HF rig to save me 5 lbs. Oh well, live and learn.
Adam probably summited ~15 minutes before me
(it felt like an hour). I heard him on
146.520 calling CQ and he quickly got ~6
contacts on FM, cementing his activation.
He setup his mag-loop antenna and HF and was just firing it up when I
arrived. He got a couple of contacts but
band conditions were a little tough for some reason. I strapped my vertical antenna onto a sign post to save me time and was up and running in about 10
minutes. I first fired up my hand-held on 146.520 FM and netted a 6
contacts. One of them was a German ham
(W6/DL6AP) on another peak, W6/CT-012,
located on Waterman, which 17 miles northwest of me.
Another one of my VHF contacts was in Oceanside, the same guy I talked to last
weekend with a Yaesue digital HT.
Switching to the HF band on the FT-891, I made an additional 16 HF
contacts on 14.310 SSB.
The trek off the mountain was over Devil’s
backbone. This tail takes you over
a couple of ridges, some very narrow single track with a very steep drop offs
and a narrow crossing between two small peaks with a steep drop off on each
side. It was a lot of fun. I think I’m making it sound worse than it
is. It’s well traveled and although
there can be accidents, mainly from people taking selfies, there aren’t many
after the snow melts. (Update: There was a hiker that fell in the area of operations and had to be air-lifted)
The trail wound down to the Mt. Baldi ski area
and from that point, we followed a road down to the parking lot. The road portion was pretty boring and my
foot pads were starting to bark after 8 miles.
On the trip down, Adam hung with me and we lost track of the rest of the
crew. Turns out they stopped at the ski
area bar and then took the lift down.
We met them at the parking lot and headed out
to lunch in town. It was an excellent
adventure and I hope to do another in the future with these guys.
My attempt at a YouTube video (below) is
amateur at best. It's as time consuming
as I thought it would be. I'm still
working out a style to use. It's not
nearly as good as I'd like but I think it's one of those things that you really
need to drive the pre-shoot design, shooting, design lane that you want and
post-processing, in order to improve.
I've been shooting stills for 40+ years and driving a digital dark room
toolset for 30+, so I guess I'll have to be patient. Feedback is welcome. And yes, I do seem to walk funny. It might have to do with the terrain and the fact that I have 35+ lbs on my back.
|
Contacts
Loadout for today:
●
30’ of coax feed line
● 3 L of water (8
lb)
● SOTA Dog (she wanted to stay at home today)
● iPhone with All
Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
● Treking poles
● Sleeping bag and extra food for the extended trip.
REFERENCE
73s,
-- Chris Claborne, N!CLC
No comments:
Post a Comment