Started the hike at the restaurant Hois’n at the eastern side of lake Traunsee. At about 8 o’clock. Almost too late to find a parking spot. Recommendation is to go on a weekday or start even ealier
The summit Traunstein is known for not being an easy hike. Almost each year there are accidents and also fatalities.
So I was taking extra care during my 3 h ascent via the Hernlersteig.
Wx was perfect. Still in the shade in the morning. Then sunshine at the top and way down.
Very sad news from this summit in today news. There was another fatality actually on the route I descended.
A trailrunner slipped and felt 100 m down. His running partner could not help anymore.
Austria news article, in german language (source: news.orf.at)
There is a plan in the Lake District in the UK to start grading ascents in a similar manner to ski runs to try and reinforce to the public the difficult nature of some ascents but of course in mountain regions there will always be casualties.
Indeed a good plan.
In some regions this type of classification is already in place. Similar color code like the skiing slopes.
Blue = easy, Red = advanced, black = difficult.
All the routes to Traunstein are “black”.
But it does not help in cases of overestimation of own skills and endurance.
Only taking time and preparation can help. From my point of view this summit is not a trailrunning summit. But that’s not my call.
Very nice video Joe. It is very cool to me how you can get so much DX from the summit. From my summits here in the southeast US, I have only ever worked Canada. The rest is the US.
Sorry to hear about the fatality. It is a costly reminder to be careful out there.
Thank you for the nice comment. I consider myself very lucky to have a very active SOTA activators scene here in OE and some very dedicated chasers all over Europe.
“Real” DX is rare with band conditions not so great but it happens and is a highlight.
We hope to add more and more South American and Central American countries this year. There will be thousands upon thousand of new summits, the challenge will be encouraging people who do not yet know of SOTA to take part.
There is no limit for “more” extreme. Usually I trust that people have good self awareness but in a competition situation this judgment might be limited. Let’s hope that they take extra care and the organizer is securing relevant sections.
Martin, how was your tour in Ireland ? Can we expect a little report?
The Ireland trip was great, but as far as SOTA is concerned there is not much to report. I tried to activate one summit on 2m FM, did spot myself but not a single qso could be accomplished. I can tell you more about the trip when we manage our first joint activation (hopefully soon)!
I know. I try to get the word out as much as I can. However, I am still amazed at how many hams I run across that have absolutely never heard of SOTA in any way.
Having more chasers and S2S opportunity in south and central america will great! They have some serious hills down there too.