Mt Somers ZL3/CB-387 October 2021

This is a mountain I have had my eye on for a while - quite literally. We have enjoyed holidays at the Mt Somers Domain camping ground over recent years and looked up at this spectacular 1688m peak.

View from the Mt Somers Domain camp

 Feeling that I was now fit enough to tackle it and with a good forecast, we booked in to stay for Labour weekend. Dave ZL3DRN and Julie decided to join us and give their caravan a pre-summer shakedown too.

Saturday morning dawned fine and frosty so we set off around 7am for the Sharplin Falls Reserve end of the track near Staveley. The plan being to complete a traverse of the mountain and come down the other side to the Woolshed Creek carpark. A longer exit but gentler on the knees and an opportunity to see more of the mountain.

17 cars in the carpark upon arrival is not usually a good sign but, as it turned out, only 3 parties (5 people) were headed to the summit.

It's a climb that never really lets up, over Hookey Knob to the summit track junction and then a steep climb up a spur to the ridge and along to the summit. Half a protein bar at the junction and the other half at the 1400m point saw me right to push on to the summit. Plenty of snow along the ridge but the summit was reasonably clear. 

An incredible sense of achievement - my highest summit to date. 

It's a very exposed and harsh environment up here!

Amazing view to the West, Mt Cook ZL3/CB-001 just left of center 

The obligatory panorama!

OK, enough sightseeing, we have a SOTA activation to do! A leisurely setup (as usual, we were early) saw us use the summit structure to support the pole with the 66 foot Doublet atop. The other three summiteers were having their lunch near the trig having already signed the summit book so we weren't in their way.

Dave ZL3DRN operating HF. Summit book is in the "letterbox"

We got the HF gear set up and worked the Christchurch gang on 2m FM with big signals. A nice surprise was a S2S with Ian ZL3GIG on Coopers Knob ZL3/CB-806. We were amazed when he said it was cold and windy there - we had 18 degrees, a light NW breeze and sun!

On to HF and we worked our way up the bands, starting on 60m as usual. Because we were in Hakatere Conservation Park ZLFF-0026, the Australian WWFF gang were keen to chase us resulting in some unfamiliar calls in the log on 20m including a Park to Park with VK2TER/P in VKFF-1331 Jilliby State Conservation Area.

New item for the pack - Cramp Stop!! I had a massive cramp of both legs while sitting on the ground operating - thankfully the electrolyte sachet in my drink bottle had some Magnesium in it. A quick swig and it started to ease. We then changed the operating position to the top of the wooden rail!

The bands were a bit flaky so we packed up HF, had lunch, worked the locals on 2m after UTC rollover and set off on the next part of the adventure - navigating ourselves down off the mountain to the pickup area. There's no track down this way but Dave had prepared a route on the GPS. We shortly discovered a series of cairns along our planned route, great minds think alike! After an uneventful descent, we intercepted the Woolshed Creek Hut Track as planned and headed down to the carpark via the Rhyolite Track, arriving at 4:30pm. 

A big day with 1353m of vertical gain, 14.2km travelled with 5 hours moving time.

ZL3/CB-387 Mount Somers
Height: 1688m ASL
Directions: From Staveley, follow the signs to Sharplin Falls Reserve. Follow the marked track (South Face) to the Summit Junction, turn right and it's a poled route to the top.
Time to summit: 5 hours (DOC). We took 3 hours 20 min (1288m ascent, 5.9km, Average grade 21%)
Summit marker: Trig
Land access permission: Not required, Hakatere Conservation Park
Repeater access: Good into Christchurch area repeaters
Cellphone access: Patchy Vodafone and Skinny 4G/Txt from the summit

Mt Thomas double - ZL3/CB-617 and ZL3/CB-599

 The final week of winter bonus 2021 was looking pretty good weather-wise so Dave ZL3DRN and I both took a weeks leave to make up for time lost in lockdown. We warmed up the legs with a snowy activation of Duvauchelle Peak ZL3/ CB-759 on Monday. Tuesday was looking much better so we attacked a double that I have been eyeing up for some time, two summits on the Mt Thomas forest conservation area Bob's Bivvy track, CB-617 and CB-599

It looked like a series of 4 x 2 hour hikes so do-able in a day but we'd have to start early and keep to schedule.

The day dawned crisp and fine and we arrived at the start point - Wooded Gully camping area at 7.30am and were on our way by 7:40am. 3 degrees Celsius on the Garmin. The sector to CB-617 starts off with a walk along the forestry roads then a gut-busting section through the plantation forest with a gradient of 30% for 270 vertical metres... After that it is a very nice track through Beech forest. Lots of windfall trees to negotiate after the recent Nor West storms - some snapped clean in half! We arrived at CB-617 in good time at 9:27 - half an hour before we had alerted. Thanks to our loyal VHF Chasers, we had 4 contacts each in the log, refueled with a snack and were moving again by 9:43. So far so good.

Beginning the descent off CB-617 to the saddle. CB-599 is in the background just to the left of the pinnacle

The drop into the saddle was pretty steep, two stretches of 25% grade - neither of us were looking forward to climbing back up this on the way home!

The well marked track crosses the saddle and then climbs steadily up through bush to Pt 953 where there is a junction

The Bobs Bivvy route is well marked and after another saddle you climb steadily again to the bivvy turnoff, staying on the main track and arrived at ZL3/CB-599 at 11:30, 30 minutes prior to our alert. A very nice summit with some scrubby trees (rare in CB!), a nice sized activation zone and a very sad looking trig

Hams can multi-task! 2m FM in right hand and CW paddle in the left!

We set up on HF and VHF and worked the local Chasers on 2m FM. HF was flat on all bands tried. Only HF contacts to be had were ZL1BQD and ZL1BYZ worked on 60m (plus Bill ZL3NB groundwave on 20m and 17m!). No RBN spots, propagation clearly not good. Had a very pleasant lunch break perched on the trig remnants and were on the trail back at 12:50 (no rollover - we needed to get back to CB-617 to do HF there).

We made pretty good time back to CB-617 despite pacing ourselves carefully - thanks to Dave I am finally learning not to go out like a startled rabbit! The climb back up to the summit was very slow and careful but we made it at 2:26pm. HF and VHF quickly up and running, the bands were in much better shape and we worked several VKs - Dave got a S2S with VK3BCM and I worked Gerard VK2IO for a VKFF to ZLFF park to park.

Bodies were starting to tire so we packed up at 3pm and headed slowly back down to the start point, marveling at how well it had all gone and how far your feet can take you!

Thanks to all the Chasers, some were keeping an eye on us on APRS and were there waiting when we needed them - much appreciated!

Statistics:

Vertical metres gained: 1483 m

Distance travelled: 21.2 km

7 hours hiking

Here's the Google Earth view of the day (thanks Dave for the images)

 

ZL3/CB-527 Dumblane July 2021

 A weekend in Hanmer with Mark ZL3AB and Adele provided the chance to do a joint activation with Mark. When planning the trip we realised that although we started on this SOTA obsession on the same day, 3 years and >200 activations later we hadn't yet operated together on a mountain! Time to fix that!

Saturday dawned fine and frosty - very frosty! We started from the Jacks Pass saddle at -1 Deg C with a stiff breeze - lots of layers needed! A nice track, marked with waratahs but not shown on any maps :-) It was telling that as we sat on the summit, we could see 11 other cars in the carpark, all up Mt Isobel... We only saw two other humans the whole day, just how we like it.

Panorama from a really great summit

Mark has written an excellent Blog on his first activation of this summit - linked off the SOTA Mapping Project page.

He also created a video of our activation, you can watch it here (Youtube).

We made good time to the top and set up my newly built 7 Band EFHW (60/40/30/20/17/15/10) It worked very well and provided over 50 QSOs in the couple of hours we were up there. The KX2 tuner also pulled it in on 12m.

Mark operating in his orange beanie. Hanmer Plain and Waiau River in the background

The weather was great so we stayed for the UTC rollover and worked John ZL3MR on his second summit then headed down to have a beer, watch the Olympic Cycling and reflect on a great day.

View back towards the Southern alps

Getting there: Drive up Clarence Valley Road to the Jacks Pass summit carparking area. Look for the track start on the Western side of the area. It's marked with Waratahs but there is no signage :-) I have uploaded a GPX track to the SOTA Tracks site. Keep right, at the Chatterton River tracks sign, i.e. don't veer left down to the river. Here's a Google Earth view of our track:

Time: it took us an hour to ascend. There are two steep-ish bits but it's a nice walk.

Repeaters: Didn't try any but 705 should be fine - we worked 2m Simplex to Christchurch and 70cm S2S to the Banks Peninsula.

Mt Evans and Mt Herbert - 3rd July 2021

 Mt Evans ZL3/CB-770 is a summit I have wanted to do for a while. When I first tried a couple of years ago, M. Bovis was in the area so it was off-limits. It's best accessed from the Purau Port Levy Road saddle but you need to cross three different farms so three phone calls are required. Dave ZL3DRN pioneered this one last year so had the contacts and set it up for us. A fine and frosty Canterbury morning dawned and we were off! We set off from The Monument Carpark at the Purau Saddle at 9am and were on summit early (as is our habit!) at 10:20am.

The trig has had a tough time - pretty exposed up here...

It's not a terribly long or steep climb however there is no track so route-finding skills are needed. There are a few fences to cross too and the terrain means that this is trickier than normal - there's no flat land on the other side! A reasonably steep shale slide needs to be navigated close to the summit. it would be very tricky in wet/icy conditions and isn't readily skirted.

Dave ZL3DRN picking his way down the shale

The shale generator at the top - impressive!

We set up the 66' doublet and KX2 and soon had it activated with local contacts on 2m including S2S with Mark ZL3AB on Flag Peak ZL3/CB-737 and on HF, Matt ZL4NVG on Sugar Loaf ZL3/CB-394. Best DX was YC1ME on 20m. 

Conditions weren't all that pleasant with a cold easterly breeze and low cloud so we made the call to pack up and activate Mt Herbert as well. We hustled back to car (just on an hour) and headed for the Western Valley Road saddle (via Port Levy) to test the alternate route up (and down) Mt Herbert ZL3/CB-678. Western Valley Road is a steep, single lane road but good fun in the new SOTAwagon :-) The DOC signs at the carpark say 2 1/2 hours to the summit but we were up there in an hour and 30 mins. It's a nice walk and well marked.

It was absolutely calm on the summit - amazing for a mid-winter day. 2m was productive with Mark ZL3AB on his second summit, Lavericks ZL3/CB-757 and the other loyal locals. Again we set up the 66' (broadside) doublet oriented North-South so the main 20m lobes were aimed at VK and the USA. 60m produced Chris ZL4RA (who now has a permanent antenna set up at home) and, as I found out a bit later, his mum ZL4WJ with her first CW contact for years! Awesome! YC1ME called again on 20m (he is becoming a regular Chaser) and then I had a wee pile-up of ZLs and VKs. I knew there was a weak station under there so cleared the pile, called QRZ? and up popped Jean VE2JCW! My first Canadian from a summit, happy dance ensued! 

Dave took over the radio and was promptly called by an N2 station but severe QSB meant they were unable to complete. The higher bands are waking up folks!

The views sure are great from here, it's the highest summit on Banks Peninsula

Looking down on the Sugarloaf TV/FM tower, Christchurch city and across to the Southern Alps

Happy with our haul, we packed up and headed down to the car, arriving about 5:10pm. Didn't need the headlamp but it was a close run thing! The late afternoon light on the regenerating Totara was spectacular:

What a great day - good company, two nice summits, lots of calories burned and some really pleasing contacts. I really like the doublet, it's a very effective antenna if you have the space.

For Mt Evans farmer contact details - email Dave ZL3DRN

Otawa ZL1/BP-208

We were back in the Bay of Plenty visiting family and I took the chance to activate another of the local summits. The weather was fine with rising winds and rain predicted for the afternoon so made an early start for the 1 hour drive from Whakatane to Te Puke. The start of the track is easy to find - just a few minutes drive from Te Puke up a very well maintained shingle road - Quarry Road. in fact it was absolutely pristine, I followed the grader up the hill!

 There's a nice car parking area up off the road and ample DOC signage. 

At the top of Quarry Road - turn hard left here to find the car-park

 

Car-park is well off the road and roomy.

Track start - it's definitely not 3 hours and 6.1km to the top though!!

The summit is reached via an easement across farmland and then into lowland native forest with a gentle 500m climb to the summit but spread over 5km so very easy (8%). The track is well marked but has some confusing forking options (not shown on topo map), I found taking the left fork each time worked out OK (up and down)

View of Te Puke from near the summit (yellow cloth on tree). Mt Edgecumbe ZL1/BP-132 in the distance

 Arriving at the summit there's a trig on it's side, wearing a sock! The area is bush-clad so I set my pole up bungeed to the trig and ran the wire back into a sheltered operating spot.

You can just see the sock on top of the trig, keeping it warm!

I fired up the KX2 and soon found Roly ZL1BQD at his lakeside activation on 40m with a good signal for my first S2L. Being a weekday, contacts were a little tougher than usual but I managed 8 before the forecast rain and wind arrived and I had to pack up and hurry down. Thanks to the Chasers for being there.

This is a really nice summit and should be on your to-do list when visiting BOP.

Getting there:

Google Maps - search for "Otawa Trig Carpark" or

Take Quarry Road from Te Puke towards the foothills. It will change to shingle as you climb. About 2 km along the shingle road you'll come to the crest with DOC signage and a nice car-park.

Repeaters: all BOP repeaters accessible

Permission: None required - easement onto DOC Otawa Scenic Reserve

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes to the summit, 5.3 km climbing 500m

Cell coverage: 4G Spark/Skinny

ZL3/CB-729 Knowles Top 22 May 2020

 This hill near Glentui is one I had been looking at doing for a while but I was focusing on the wrong side! John ZL3MR found the route up through the Ashley Gorge and it's a beaut! David ZL3DRN joined me and we set off on a cold, crisp autumn morning, arriving at the Ashley Gorge bridge about 8.45am. There's no parking on the North Side where the track starts however there is a reserve area in the camping ground on the South side. Follow the signs and walk back across the bridge to the track start.

Head up the Ashley Loop track (take the Right hand fork) and you'll soon come to another sign for the Waterfall Track. Take this one and climb steadily on a well marked and formed track noting the abundance of birdsong - no doubt due to lots of pest traps. You'll soon reach a lookout point with a bench seat dedicated to Neil Judson and a sign pointing to places of interest. 

Depart the track here, turning Left  uphill behind the seat to an unmarked but clear trail straight up the spur. There are clearings and short sections of bush to negotiate but you can't go wrong if you stay on the ridge crest. It's pretty steep (33%) so take your time up this bit and enjoy the views regularly!

 Once you reach the bush-line, you'll find the entrance to a track (unmarked but clear) at the very end of the last clearing which takes you right to the top of the ridge. You'll crest the ridge and descend for about 1 minute and then find a junction where you turn right to head to the summit. There's a pile of old fencing wire on the ground at the junction. If someone removes the wire in the future, the track is clear enough. My GPX file is uploaded to the SOTA Tracks section. Waypoints shown below.

Ridge junction point with fencing wire on the ground. Turn Right here (out of shot).

 From here it's an easy walk to the summit sidling around the ridge. Soon you'll emerge from the bush to a large, tussock covered summit with ample operating areas to pick from. You should be able to find shelter from just about any breeze up here. The views are amazing.

View towards Christchurch with the Ashley River in the foreground

Looking North, Mt Thomas and CB-617 in the foreground and Mt Grey CB-673 in the distance

We set up a 57' foot endfed wire (inverted vee style) with a 17' counterpoise and a VK6YSF UNUN (uses a very economical L01238 toroid from Jaycar). It tuned very easily with the KX2 tuner on all bands and worked very well - good signals on the lower bands and contacts to Indonesia on 20m. I also had an Italian station call me but we couldn't complete. 40 contacts in my log.

57' wire on 6m Tactical Mini pole showing trig and vast AZ

 Summit to Summit contacts with Mark ZL3AB (Big Ben Range ZL3/CB-857) on 2m and 60m were much appreciated and capped off my 100th SOTA activation nicely. Thanks Mark!

This is a really nice summit and definitely on my annual list. The AZ is huge so if you wanted to try 160m SOTA, this would be a good one!

 

Getting there: Drive to the Ashley Gorge Bridge, turn into the camping ground on the South side of the bridge and turn right to head down to the reserve area. Park under the trees and follow the signs to walk back up to the road, cross the bridge (footpath) and the track starts as you exit the bridge on the North side. It is well signposted.

Permission : None needed, Conservation land all the way

Cell coverage: Good on Spark/Skinny (4G)

Time: John's estimate of 2 hours +- is a good one

Repeaters: All Canterbury repeaters and easy 2m simplex to Nth and mid Canterbury

Notes: Steep and slippery heading up/down the spur - walking poles needed and a reasonable level of fitness

Waypoints:

Lookout: S43° 13.453' E172° 14.313'

Track junction: S43° 13.110' E172° 13.852'

Track Entry/Exit point to/from summit: S43° 12.771' E172° 14.669'

 

 

Mt Barrosa ZL3/CB-499 10th May 2021

Having plenty of leave to use due to the pandemic and with Francie in Wellington on a course, I decided to take the caravan down to Mt Somers Domain Camping ground for a few days of SOTA fun in the Ashburton Lakes area. John ZL3MR and Anne were passing through too so activations were arranged - I would do Mt Barrosa and John Mt Guy. 

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:

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.

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.

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