Winter bonus 2017/18

New Years morning on Burnhope Seat G/NP-003. A great way of clearing the head!

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G3TQQ Dave on G/NP-003 Burnhope Seat 11 March 2018

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MM0FMF Minch Moor GM/SS-133, below 0C

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Nice thread!

I also get a major part of my SOTA opportunities in winter due to skitouring.

Best memory this year was the three-summits activation of the popular “Rotwand Reib’n”, with a total of 3 * (8+ 3) = 33 points in a single day in perfect solitude, spanning

  • Rotwand - DL/MF-058,
  • Auerspitze - DL/MF-056, and
  • Hochmiesing - DL/MF-057.

73 de Martin, DK3IT

IMG_2283

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Fantastic Colin! Managed 1-1/2 stone myself so far… Got to do something now Gerald’s in racing snake mode again :smile:

73 de Paul G4MD

Dear all

Just a glimpse at our winter holidays in February 2018 in Eastern Allgäu, Southern Germany. We had roughly 2 hours of sunshine in that week, and this only by taking a chair lift to be above the fog.

Best story was visiting Edelsberg, DL/AL-161, being for the third time on snowshoes, in the fog at -10 °C – just see below.

This winter bonus was well deserved in my opinion, hi. And we decided to come back once in the warm period of the year to see the beauty of this place at better sight - unfortunately without bonus points then, hi!

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

Well guessed? A bench and a sign post nearby the gondola from Nesselwang. :hushed:

On our way to the summit. It was that much peaceful!

At Edelsberg summit – DL/HB9DIZ/p preparing the activation at -10 °C with APRS2SOTA. :sunglasses:

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I did quite a few activations during the current bonus season. And took a lot of photos, of course. Still, I could not find any of the photos of me, doing my usual activator’s stuff, very inspiring and interesting. And worthy of publishing at this respected and highly-selective site :smiley:

Therefore, I turn to the Heavens above us, which never fail to surprise and astonish us. Here are some examples of what I’ve found over there…


Seaside Sunset: Bringing Peace to the World / Taken on December 30th, 2017 / Expedition to 9A/DH-054


Just One Shade of Grey / Taken on March 3rd, 2018 / Expedition to E7/BO-030


The Skies Above Sarajevo (the whole City of Sarajevo is just a small white spot in the middle of the picture) / Taken on March 15th, 2018 / Expedition to E7/BO-011 and E7/BO-013


Twilight Above the Good Waters Saddle / Taken on January 29th, 2018 / Expedition to E7/BO-003


Snow Blue(s) / Taken on January 24th, 2018 / Expedition to E7/BO-023

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Winter in DL Alps is big fun!

More winter photos (and others) is on my homepage:
www.dj2mx.com

–… …-- and CU soon
Mario DJ2MX

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With a temperature of +1 deg.C at the start point of my hike and graupeling, I decided to abandon after having hiked about 100m vertical under graupel and finding the summit I was heading to completely inmersed in cloud.
Perhaps, I would have been able to get to the summit and carry out a quick activation in the fog under graupel but this wouldn’t have been a pleasant activation and I decided to give up.
There will be a future chance for sure.
73,

Guru

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The older one gets - well what’d ya know a certain flautist roaming the hills:

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(;>J

Slip an anvil in his pack.

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'fraid he’s got wise to that one. I’m hoping he’ll accept that I gave him the diving boots because they’re very waterproof :wink:

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I’m not very well travelled but I did have a trip to Austria with the Scouts in summer 1990, I was 11 at the time. We climbed some mountains, I think the name was Lechtal Alps, I get the feeling that they’re in the same general geographical area, just over the border. In any case, the terrain looks very similar. We were definitely very near the German border as I can remember going to an open air swimming pool in Germany one day :slightly_smiling_face:

As it was summer time, the mountains didn’t have snow and I remember that one of the slopes had a dry toboggan course. Unfortunately I crashed my toboggan (no fault of my own) and I grazed my left elbow severely. I still have the scar to this day! I have fond memories of the trip despite my injury.

73, Colin

After todays activations being cancelled due to bad WX, I’ve lost my last good chance to grab 6 winter bonus points. I may try it again tomorrow, but the WX forecast is even worse, so it’s going to be very, very unlikely.
At least, let me show you a few pics I took during my short time in the mountains this morning.

Well, I didn’t make it and these are the only 2 landscape pics I took.


The bad weather was coming from behind me when I took this picture.


This 4 pointer I’ve never activated before doesn’t look too hard to tackle. Maybe next time…

73,

Guru

Nice looking area Guru.

That’s the kind of weather we get here in Scotland in the middle of May! I was hiking over a few summits and camped overnight on Shalloch on Minnoch GM/SS-048 last May and awoke at 5.30am to everything being frozen solid and my bottle of water was just an bottle of solid ice. Not cold enough to freeze the peat bogs though! :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

73 Neil

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Hi,

Managed 57 winter bonus points so far this season. Should have been 60 points but failed to raise a 4th contact on boxing day 26th December 2017, GM/WS-292 (Ben Shieldaig). Short day plus the late start didn’t help!

Best day, so far, was on 4th February 2018 when we skied over to GM/ES-005 (Beinn Mheadhoin).

Have just arrived in Switzerland so potential for a few more bonus points by end of March.

Ciao

MM0YCJ

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On my recent trip to Gran Canaria the wx for winter bonus was a mere 24C:

73

Victor GI4ONL

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Phew!

Hope you had the right gear with you - shorts, plenty of cool drink etc.

I’m not good in the heat.

73, Colin

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Hi Colin, no shorts as experience has shown the vegetation can be quite sharp and has been known to draw blood therefore really lightweight walking trousers and I usually carry around 2 litres of water in a hydration bladder in the rucksack. I haven’t ran out of water yet but have been close on a few occasions :cold_sweat:

73 Victor

Hi,
I managed 57 winter bonus points, a few 6 points and the other of 4 points.

Mt. Legnoncino I/LO-178 with my friend Massimo and my dog Zac

Mt. Palanzone I/LO-320 I will remeber this activation because it was freezing cold and I’d forgotten my gloove at home…

73 de Roberto IW2OBX

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