Exposed Summit

A bit of research showed several gems waiting to be Activated, while the high country is still buried in deep, unstable snow.  Tibbetts Mountain is a 4 point SOTA Summit, of a modest 4,115 feet elevation.  It has a fantastic vantage point, overlooking the beautiful Wenatchee River Valley, the City of Wenatchee, and several towns lying along SR 2, the major east / west highway connecting western and eastern Washington State.  We opted for the more reasonable north approach, which is mainly a very steep forest service road, with about 1/4 mile of easy off road clim

We finally got to Activate Old Pass Hill, after snowshoeing by it a number of times before.  Old Pass Hill is a 4 point SOTA Summit of 4,885 feet elevation.  In winter, the route is mostly avalanche free, and so is a semi popoluar snowshoe trip.  A nice spring day, right before a change in weather, yielded a mostly sunny early morning, with increasing wind and clouds later in the mid day.  The temperature at departure from the TH was 37 degrees, and the snow was firm enough to hike on without snowshoes.  On the return trip, it had warmed up en

On a family vacation to the Lake Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, I was fortunate enough to Activate 4 peaks in 3 days.  This is a description of the Monument Peak Activation.  Monument Peak is a 10,067 foot / 3,068 meter high, 8 Point SOTA Summit, which is the apex of Heavenly Ski Resort.  It has been activated in winter, via ski lifts and skis, and in summer via trails.  This was my second time ascending the peak, the first being in 2009, well before I got into SOTA." src="file:///C:/Users/Mark

Second Time Was A Charm!  Almost exactly 2 years since my last ski trip / Activation attempt of Lone Mountain, Montana, I returned and was successful this time ...barely.  Winter Activations at this altitude (11,166 feet, 3,403 Meters), are certainly not trivial matters, even if Ski Tram access is available.  Lone Mountain is the apex of Big Sky Ski Resort, in Big Sky Montana.  See: http://bigskyresort.com/ for general information, and

On November 11, 2016 I was making a blitz trip from Boise down to City of Rocks to activate it in the ARRL’s National Parks on the Air program. I had always wanted to run up to Mt. Harrison and had just enough time in my schedule to do so. I had read W7IMC’s short summary of his 2013 trip, as found on the SOTA Summit Summary. A paved drive up to a 6 pointer! In Idaho! Hard to believe and it is likely the only one of its kind. Sure enough that is what it is.

Tiffany Mountain’s 8242 foot summit classifies it as a 10 point SOTA summit. With only a few exceptions, 10 point summits in the W7W association are technical climbs, or exposed Class 3 or 4 scrambles.  Tiffany Mountain offers a well maintained and well graded trail to the summit. Starting with a gentle climb along a sparsely treed ridge, the trail gradually makes it way to a large grassy meadow about 1.5 miles into the hike. From the meadows, the wide rocky topped summit is viewed.

Please see this detailed blog on the first activation of Mount Rainier by Doug-W1DMH.

http://w1dmh.blogspot.com/2014/06/rainier-w7wrs-001-sota.html#comment-form

This is a fine hike that many should try at some point - it's 4.4 RT miles and 800 feet of gain for the 'short' version described here, with a summit pinnacle that makes for a fun scramble if you feel the need to get to the tippy top. 

UPDATE February 2021 - The "Three Corner Rock Trail" is closed - however, the directions below don't use that trail. It's much longer: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/three-corner-rock-trail. 

 Crater Peak is a small 7263’ shield volcanic summit that is located a few miles south of the lake.

The trailhead can be accessed at the Vidae Falls picnic area that is about 3 miles east of the Park Headquarters.  Drive back into the picnic area and find a place to park.  The trail begins here. The trail is about 2.7 miles each way with about a 600’ net elevation increase.  The first two miles are moderately strenuous, but the altitude over this segment gently rolls along without any big ascents.  You keep wondering where the mountain is. 

As part of our annual summer trips Paula, N6VGW and myself (WA6ARA) try to go different routes and have fun along the way. As part of our 2014 excursion we stopped by Crater Lake in Oregon for a few days. While there we did a a couple of Summits On The Air, or SOTAs. These were Wizard Island and Mt Scott. While Mt Scott has been activated often, Wizard Island had never been activated. Wizard Island, is in the middle of Crater Lake so you can’t walk there, it is a boat trip and reservations are usually needed. So Paula and I paid the boat fee and headed off to Wizard Island.