Was just reading the message about online awards evaluation and was looking at some tables at http://sotadata.org.uk and played a bit with Python/Pandas for data analysis.
There the idea came to me:
What about a Winter goat award for 100/250/500/1000+ season bonus points? Or is “Snow goat” a better name?
It is of course a very long-term award but 3 activators would already qualify for the Winter goat award with 1000+ season bonus points.
Of course a lot more would be qualified for the steps before.
What do you think?
Is it promoting risk taking for winter activations or a good motivation to get us more often out in winter?
The three point bonus heaps the largest ratio of bonus on the lowest qualifying hills - resulting (in the UK), in people doing activations on easy 2-pointers.
The above proposal is basically a target to have clocked up 334 activations in winter time, which is considerably more “promoting risk-taking” than the subtley clever 3 point bonus. This has been widely discussed on here in the past.
Of course it is not to be done in one winter/season.
If this award idea has been discussed in past and not favored we can close the discussion. No problem.
A recent discussion about an easy ten-point summit which is likely a regular occurrence, but I tend to think of nines and tens as the province of the Professional climbers – the likes of Hilary, Norgay, Roskelley and Whitaker. For SOTA the matter remains, safety first, and never get in over your head. (Do any of these carry a two-meter handheld?!!)
What counts as winter? December through March, in the northern hemi?
The December snow line. even if it’s July? The July snow line? Winter is cold, not a phase of the moon.
10 point summits tend to be quite arduous or technical or challenging in W7 land more than some associations. It’s very difficult to get scoring right for an association, never mind between associations where the geography can conspire to make it impossible. We try and there is very often, heated debate in the MT about getting the banding and points correct.
This summer I was able to bag 120pts from 12 activations but the longest walk was about 25mins I think. In 3 weeks I expect to bag about 12pts from 12 activations *IN THE SAME COUNTRY" where I may have 1hr30 walks for 1pt. I could be disheartened about it. Instead I will enjoy the joyous and beautiful countryside and the fact that irrespective of the points, the SOTA chasers will be keen to chase another summit whether it’s the 1st time the summit has been on air or if it’s the 100th time.
Hey - who has nine point summits?? I’m sure you meant eight and ten point summits unless you were referring to 6 point summits with a 3 point winter bonus?
Actually, there are not any Associations with a Winter Bonus. What they have is a Seasonal Bonus. And yes, in many Associations that Seasonal Bonus is due to Winter Conditions.
To clarify that again. I was talking about just taking the existing season bonus. No extra points for winter conditions or what so ever. Also no need to rediscuss how easy or hard a 10 point summit can be.
Just an award if you have 100/250/500/1000 ++ of season bonus. Not more not less.
