Mountain Goat Summit Revisited

A little less than a year ago I summited a mountain, known in SOTA terms as 9431 (it's elevation ASL) with a designator of W5N/PW-019, which put me over 1,000 Activator points and thus qualified me for the Mountain Goat award. This award is one of the most satisfying awards I've achieved in ham radio, including #1 Honor Roll. I did the summit that day with a couple of friends of mine, Fred KT5X (aka WS0TA) and John, K1JD. Both are also mentors to me as I learned the SOTA trade so to speak.

So, nearly a year later, the three of us returned to the same summit. Like the previous ascent we would need snowshoes to get to the top. The hike is a little more than 3 miles round trip and climbs 1,100 vertical feet. The hike starts in Black Canyon with a steady ascent to the shoulder, and then two different steep pitches to the top. The drifts on the summit were significant with our snowshoes sinking 1-2 feet into the snow. There were patches facing the south were the snow had completely melted, however most of the final ascent is on the north side of the mountain.

Below is a brief video of my set-up on the summit. I have configured my 3 band MTR (17m, 20m and 30m) so that I can hold it in my hand. As you will see in the video, the battery and paddle are attached to the radio and I use the back of the radio to hold my log. Very compact and very efficient. I certainly can't claim this as an original design since I coped it from Fred, KT5X. My antenna is a linked EFHW into an 81:1 transformer. The actual link connection design was inspired from Frank, K0JQZ.

http://youtu.be/50G1i-kvqRc

Below is my log:

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
17:31z	W7RV	10MHz	CW
17:31z	K0LAF	10MHz	CW
17:32z	K6JMP	10MHz	CW
17:33z	W7USA	10MHz	CW
17:34z	K7JFD	10MHz	CW
17:34z	AK5SD	10MHz	CW
17:35z	NU7Y	10MHz	CW
17:35z	NG6R	10MHz	CW
17:36z	ND7PA	10MHz	CW
17:36z	N7LP	10MHz	CW
17:38z	K1LB	10MHz	CW
17:41z	W4AMW	10MHz	CW
17:41z	K0HNC	10MHz	CW
17:42z	KG3W	10MHz	CW
17:47z	K6EL	14MHz	CW
17:48z	AE9F	14MHz	CW
17:48z	KG3W	14MHz	CW
17:49z	NA4SO	14MHz	CW
17:51z	N9KW	14MHz	CW
17:51z	NK6A	14MHz	CW