The trip down was uneventful, easy driving leaving home at 0600 and arriving at 0800. I parked the van, plugged in and John and I set off.
The thick fog that had stretched all the way from Christchurch dissipated as soon as we entered the Ashburton Gorge revealing fine weather. The start of the Mt Barrosa track is named Blowing Point and so it was! Given the season and strong wind, I packed my big over-jacket as well all the usual layers (and was glad of it later!).
The track is well marked (poled route) and well used. A cool feature is that the track is littered with scraps of gemstones, the mountain used to be covered in geodes but sadly most have been removed. It's a steep-ish but well routed track and should be suitable for most activators.
I arrived at the summit in good time and set up in very windy conditions:
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| 6m telescoping pole in the wind... |
There is a fence-line running right across the summit so plenty of pole support options. I set up the 2m/70cm jpole but managed no contacts to Christchurch and I couldn't trigger any of the CHC repeaters. There is a sheltered spot only 1m from the summit marker pole so I hunkered down there and fired up on HF.
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| Operating site with the summit marker just above my poles. Mt Somers CB-387 on the right |
I used my go-to antenna - 20m of wire, endfed with a 49:1 unun arranged as an inverted vee. It's an EFHW on 40m, full wave on 20m, 1 1/2 wave on 15m and plays very well. The KX2 tuner pulls it in easily on the WARC bands and 60m.
60m certainly showed it's value as an NVIS band, I worked Bill ZL3NB and Rick ZL3RIK just 115km away with big signals and also Roly ZL1BQD some 800km away! 40m was interesting too, just after the UTC rollover Gerard VK2IO and Peter VK3PF called with very strong signals, far better than they had been on 20m earlier.
BD7JNA called me several times on 17m but never responded to a signal report.
The wind kept rising and the forecast weather was rolling in so I packed up about 0030z and headed down, stripping layers off as I reached warmer levels with less wind.
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| Display of Agates at the summit - traces on the track too |
The descent was uneventful and we headed to the traditional coffee break and debrief with John and Anne at the Mt Somers General Store, a quaint shop with lots of essential supplies, retro art and knick knacks.
This is a really nice summit - definitely adding it to my annual list.
Getting there: Take the Ashburton Gorge road from Mt Somers and keep an eye out on the right for the parking area and DOC signage. It's about 1.5km past the DOC sign advising that you're in the Hakatere Conservation area. If you get to the Blowing Point one-lane bridge, you've gone too far!
Ascent time: DOC says 2.5 hours, it took me 1.75 hours with one stop (plus a few pauses!). It's 3.5km and the grade is 24.5%. Vertical gain of 830m
Descent: 1 hour - walking poles strongly recommended.
Cell coverage: Good, 4G with Spark/Skinny at the summit
Repeaters: None of the Canterbury ones accessible
