This was a fun activation of Mt. Hood. I decided to splurge on weight and bring the FT-817 and Buddipole (no coils) for 6m and 2m SSB. Once I got the antenna up, I found a number of chasers waiting on 50.125, so I'm glad I brought equipment for 6m. The mast was supported by shoving it into the hard snow on the summit.
Unicorn Peak was a short easy climb compared to the Little T attempt the day before. It's about a 6 mile round trip with 2500 ft of elevation gain. We were on snow most of the way.
Little Tahoma is a 11,138 ft summit on the east flank of Mt. Rainier. The route requires crossing the Frying Pan and Whitman glaciers.
Tuesday last week, with the help, support, and expertise of friends and an experienced mountaineering guide, I summited Mount Hood for my first time, and activated Mount Hood for its first time in SOTA. The climb began under a crystal clear starry sky around 00:37 on Tuesday, 11 June 2013, heading up the snowcat-groomed climber’s trail from Wy'East Day Lodge at Timberline Lodge. At midnight, I had met my guide, Rodney Sofich, at the Climber's Register just inside the day lodge to discuss what I was about to undertake.
Wolf Mtn is located southeast of Oakridge. It is a radio comm site with numerous VHF antennas (+ other transmitters) on one tower to the west. The other east tower is an ATT celltower (good coverage!). The access roads are good and 2wd passable with some careful driving especially on FS2316 which is narrow in places.
A beautiful Fire Lookout on Huckleberry Mtn with great vistas of the Three Sisters. Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy before the lookout becomes active for the summer.
Getting There
After the long Iambic adventure I was looking for something easy and short. I choose Mount Wow, and read a lot of trip reports about the mountain. I had three choices to get onto the top. On the west ridge, from south following the old national park border trail, or from east using the Alan lake trail, which is also abandoned. At the end I decided to try it from west. This one is the shortest and most likely the easiest too.
Just south of downtown Issaquah is Squak Mountain. It's a Washington State Park and so access is straightforward. From the north trailhead it's 2.3 miles one way on a maze of trails where it's a good idea to check the trail map carefully as there are several junctions on the way to the summit and one unsigned (very short) trail link.
Along this trail I observed the largest spruce trees I've seen in Oregon - the trail is nearly a perfect picture of the Oregon coastal rain forest. That being said, there are no expansive views, no place for your antenna, and no place to sit...but it is an nice hike on the Oregon coast and close to Highway 101.
Note that there is another Idaho "Squaw Butte-W7I/SR-089" and that this "Squaw Butte" is also the name given to the long ridge just to the east of this two-pointer. However, the ridge and it's associated peak, "Squaw Butte South" doesn't have the required prominence for SOTA. But hey, the real peak is only a few miles away.
Directions to the "trailhead" seemed a little tricky for an out of towner - I've started them below from ID-44 - W State Street where you make the turn north on ID-16. See this for more information and other routes: www.summitpost.org/squaw-butte/275284