Rocky Mountain Rendezvous

I was fortunate to attend the SOTA Rocky Mountain Rendezvous that occurred from July 31 - Aug. 3 in Buena Vista, CO. This year's Rendezvous was a no-host affair with informal gathering of SOTA Activators. Participants consisted of  locals, visitors in rented cabins, campers, etc.... It was a great time. The group that I was a part of rented a house about 12 miles outside of Buena Vista and little did we know there were two SOTA peaks within a 5 minute drive to the base of the mountains. Staying in the rented vacation home were Fred KT5X (aka WS0TA), Guy N7UN (ask NS0TA), John K1JD, Doc K7SO, Alan NM5S, Curtis KC5CW, my grandsons Reid KF5GYE and Boogie KF5GYD (both General Class), my XYL Cris KC5HZQ and myself.. Camping, about 5 minutes away at the base of Kaufman Ridge, was Steve, WG0AT along with Acorn and Barley.

We had a Dutch cookout on Friday night which attracted all the finest people including, Bryan N0BCB w/XYL and friends,Walt W0CP w/XYL,  Dave NN5K w/XYL. Seems like some others, but these are who I can remember. We had a great time grilling burgers, steaks, brats, etc... and swapping SOTA stories.

The RMR coincided with the 14er event put together by Bob K0NR, who stopped by the SOTA house on Saturday night along with his XYL Joyce, K0JJW. The event is an annual event (ham14er.org) which encourages hams to actuvate one of the 14,000 ft. summits in Colorado. As a SOTA chaser and activator, it is a cool event with lots of activity on both HF and VHF.

While in Colorado I was able to active 3 Summits, Kaufman Ridge (10,700 ft. ASL) W0C/SP-081, Horseshoe Mountain (13,900 ft. ASL) W0C/SR-064 and Mt. Sherman (14,034 ft. ASL) W0C/SR-061.

My grandsons and I were fortunate to be able to climb Kaufman Ridge with Steve, WG0AT and he two SOTA Goats, Barley and Acorn. We had a great hike and my grandsons loved interfacing with the goats. Steve did a video of our climb and it can be found at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcWGh7Wl3Gw

                                                               KF5GYE (Reid), Barley and Acorn on Kaufman Ridge

                                                          K1JD and AD5A on Mt.Sherman, 14,034 ft.

                                                             KF5GYD (Boogie) on Horseshoe Mt. (13,900 ft. ASL)

                                                      Panorama from Horseshoe Mt. (13,900)

It was a great trip and something all SOTA activators should consider doing.