Russell Range (East) ZL3/CB-731

 Having driven past this summit dozens of times on the way to other activations, we thought it was time we climbed it! Dave ZL3DRN did the research and contacted the farmer to arrange access which was readily granted. Saturday dawned cloudy and generally yuck in the city but got better as we headed further West. 

Access is from the end of Springfield Road and we ran into the farmer moving stock along the road. Just as well Rick wasn't with us when he asked: "did you see a cattle beast on the road?"!

Access gate to the right, summit centre-left. Route along paddock and up gully past the sheds

We parked near the yards and set off. Dave had planned two routes and we chose the slightly longer one to avoid a paddock full of heavily pregnant ewes. They lamb fairly late up here and this is the last week of access until after lambing. I christened Dave's new boots by leading us straight through a bog... It's a nice walk up a gully to the ridge and along to the summit past one falsie. Just a couple of steepish bits to keep you honest... We arrived at the trig nice and early (as is our custom), taking us just on an hour (as predicted by our planning app).

Dave at the top, Torlesse Range in the background

Weather was great, just a very light breeze and plenty of blue sky. The plan was for me to try a contact via the ISS repeater so I stepped back out of the AZ and we made a 2m contact to ensure Dave gets the First Activation credit. As it turned out, the ISS repeater hadn't been turned on after docking of a re-supply rocket so that was a bust.

HF antenna of the day was the faithful 44' doublet, erected roughly North-South with the trig used to support the pole. The feeders ran down to a nice sheltered spot out of the breeze.

Getting the doublet set up. Private summits are great, it's safe to use the trig!

Dave got stuck in on 2m and worked a good pile of stations. I tried 70cm but only worked two so headed to HF. 40m produced plenty of customers around NZ including Summit to Summits with Phil ZL1PSH, John ZL3MR, Warren ZL2AJ and Rick ZL3RIK, Kevin ZL3ABY, Roly ZL1BQD portable in Parks. 20m was fairly quiet but worked Australia and Japan. Moving to 15m  things were better with a couple of contacts into Japan and one to California. 10m produced another couple of JA contacts.

Nice operating spot

The wind came up around 12:30pm as predicted so we packed up and had lunch just down off the summit in a bit of shelter and then headed down to the car. The compulsory coffee stop at Springfield tied the ribbons on a great day on a new summit, definitely one to add to the regular list.

Quarry bottom-left. Car is parked where the road turns sharply to left. City obscured by cloud. 

Getting there: Drive right down Springfield Road to the yards at the end and park out of the way

Permission required: Contact Dave ZL3DRN for details

Time: 1 hour - 2.6km and 440m of vertical gain

Trig Marker: Yes

Cellphone: Spark and Vodafone good, Skinny patchy