Hearty congratulations to Ian, VE6IXD for becoming the first Mountain Goat in Alberta, and only the third in Canada. This milestone was reached on January 13, 2019 on VE6/RA-094 (with the picturesque local name GE69), in fabulous wx, and resulted in a nice pileup of well-wishers. Ian was welcomed to the summit with coffee and snacks by VE6VID (Malen) and VE6LCE (Rich) (and spouse Lynn), and was joined by long-standing sherpa buddy John, friend Eric, and fellow activators VE6JHH, VE6LEW and VE6AGR.
It took a lot of dedication on Ian’s part to join the elite Goat herd: although SOTA in Alberta is wonderful due to the scenery, lack of access restrictions, wildlife-viewing opportunities, etc., it is no soft touch: no such thing as a drive-up summit, generally long approach hikes with considerable elevation gain, challenging Rocky Mountain terrain and wx, hazardous critters, etc. (I have absolutely no desire to get a purposeless thread started here, about who has the toughest SOTA association; I’m just sayin’ … )
In the first five years or so of the VE6 Association, it was mainly held together on the activator side by Ian and the association manager, Walker, VA6MCB. During the last three years, Ian has gradually attracted a small-but-keen group of VE6 activators and chasers, so that SOTA now has a solid profile in the regional amateur radio community.
I’m sure Ian would want to extend his sincere thanks to the chasers, especially the hard-core ones – YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - who made this milestone possible, and that also goes for the rest of us (usually half-frozen) VE6 activators! And we really want to thank Ian for being our mentor and inspiration and Walker VA6MCB for taking on the Association Manager chores. What a great time we’ve had: winter, summer, wind, rain, sun, wildlife (including coyotes, bears, cougars, moose, elk, and VE6VID). Any of you traveling activators out there, if you are planning to pass through Alberta and are looking for an adventure, send us a note …
VE6IXD (right) with 817 and celebratory Scotch