Wind Mountain is a popular summit on the Washington side of the Columbia river gorge near Carson WA with wonderful views of the river and Mt. St. Helens I was a little worried about access given the recent snowstorms the area has had, but decided to take the chance. The trail was pretty icy, and for lack of crampons I found myself relying heavily on my trekking poles with ice tips.
Yesterday morning I climbed Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) for a sunrise SOTA. I think this was my 6th ascent of Hood. Conditions on the mountain change daily & weekly. This was one of the more difficult ascents & descents.
My friends and I left the climbers lot at Timberline just before 2am. We took our time and made the top of Palmer around 3:40am. After a quick breakfast we continued up the mountain on good solid snow. We were hit with sulfur from Devils Kitchen throughout the hike up.
Patterson Mountain is an established hike, with quite a few resources providing the details. WA7JNJ's previous trip report should provide plenty of information for fair weather activations, so I'll focus here on my experience doing this hike in January.
McClellan Butte had been on my list the last year or so as challenging hike, due to the last section required to get within the activation zone. I've watched the video below multiple times, and it provides helpful trail and summit information...along with an alternate parking/hiking to shorten length. The video also captures the summit scramble and views from the summit.
It was a nippy but dry day when KJ7UIZ and I headed out to activate several summits along the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge. We arrived at Beacon Rock State Park. It has two parking areas along Hwy 14, one across the road from the park service office, and one just to the east that flanks the rock climbing walls and has a restroom. Bring your hand warmers, as the water is COOOOOLD!!!
Parking pass (single day) is available at the eastern lot or purchase the yearly Discover Pass. The trailhead is roughly right in-between the two parking lots.
We didn't make it up to the summit for this one. The road was posted closed for the season. We drove as far as we could up to the summit but it rapidly got nasty and we decided to turn around. Will have to try again in the spring.
On a overcast Friday morning, I headed out to Beacon Rock State Park to activate this summit. I was accompanied by KJ7UIP and we parked at the trailhead parking lot. There are 2 parking lots off highway 14, the eastern one having the restrooms.
I was able to activate Prune Hill this past Friday morning along with KJ7UIP. Google had accurate directions to Dorothy Fox Park which is inside the activation zone. The park was a bit soggy from all the rain but we found a convenient tree to lean a fiberglass mast against w/ a J-pole for 2m.
Got 6 QSO in short order. Thanks again to all our chasers!!!
We then headed up the gorge to activate Beacon Rock (W7W/LC-163).
Wickiup Mountain is a summit on the edge of Astoria's Bear Creek Watershed, from which they draw their water, as well as an active radio site. As such, access from the south is gated, and road access from the north stops just shy of the summit. What followed is one of the thickest, roughest bushwhacks, mile for mile, of my SOTA career, but it was nice to tick this one off the list. If you route find a little better than I do, you might have a better time, and if you hit it earlier in the year, the die-back of the brush might benefit you.
I completed the first-ever activation of Wapato Peak today (Peak 3380). Wapato Peak has no official name in the SOTA database, but several sources mention this one so it's the name that I will use.
There is no established trail, but the hike is fairly easy, with only ~800 feet of elevation gain and a 1.5-2 mile round trip. It is steep at times, but I found it manageable with trekking poles and ordinary hiking boots even with an inch of snow on the ground.