In celebration of Winter Field Day, Stephen KJ5HY and I took a hike up to the second-highest mountain in the Catskills. I’ll share the beta and some promotions down below.
Hunter Mountain in the Winter
The Summit: Hunter Mountain
Hunter Mountain is an 10-point summit in the Catskills Park, close to Kaaterskill HP, of which I’m very fond, and right above the Hunter Mountain Ski Area. While we did see a lot of backcountry skiiers, we decided just to spike-hike it. Probably because we didn’t have backcountry skiis either.
Here’s a good travel guide. We chose the harder of the two routes and paid for it sorely. I would recommend crampons or ice axes or snowshoes but it’s a slog either way - there was snow up to our waist.
Trailhead start
Equipment
Typical gear list. I got set up quickly despite the cold.
Gear Layout
- The N2WU Case-X2
- N2WU Key
- N2WU Mast
- 41/25 foot random wire
- CW Notebook and pen
- APRS-Enabled TM-D72A
- Kahtoola Microspikes
- Every warm layer I could possibly find
Total weight - 10-15 lbs.
Excursion
Rough way up. Enjoy this spotlight of the Colonel’s Chair:
Colonel’s Chair Marker with the COL!
Contacts
I put an early SOTA Alert for about 2hr 30 mins up. We were incredibly late due to the waist-high snow.
We got plenty of contacts thanks to winter field day. Worldwide!
Contact List
| Callsign | Band | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| F4WBN | 20M CW | 1711Z | France |
| DJ5AV | 20M CW | 1720 | Germany |
| KC4WZB | 20M CW | 1722 | Georgia |
| WC0Y | 20M CW | 1722 | Arkansas S2S |
| KU4R | 20M CW | 1722 | North Carolina |
| K9WO | 20M CW | 1722 | Wisconsin |
Spotlight: WFD for Hudson River Radio relay
This activation was a spotlight for Hudson River Radio Relay occurring in June. I made a quick video showing some of the contacts:
Conclusion
Winter Field day was a cold and rough outing. After a rendezvous at nearby Mama’s Boy Burgers, we quickly recovered for the rest of the day.
-N2WU