This weeks Thursday has been a day off and fortunately the weather forecast predicted an inviting day with plenty of sun in the morning and only a small risk for thunderstorm in the late afternoon.
The destination for this days hiking tour was found quickly: A crossing of the so called “Zahmer Kaiser” (i.e. “gentle emperor”) mountain range. A beautiful small mountain range with a max. height of 2001m ASL directly north to the impressive mountain range of “Wilder Kaiser” (i.e. “wild / ferocious emperor”).
At the end of this crossing a new SOTA reference OE/TL-020 “Vordere Kesselschneid” (2001m ASL) waited for its first activation. But in order to arrive at this summit first a couple of other summits had to be crossed.
I started my hiking tour in the beautiful small city of Kufstein located in the valley of the river Inn, nearby the Austrian-German border at a height of just below 500m ASL.
The first section started immediately with rather steep stairs with nearly 300 steps. Uuuugh 
After having got this stairs behind me a, at first flat and then rather steep, forest road lead me up to the huts “Ritzau Alm” and “Vorderkaiserfeldenhütte”. From the last hut I had already a nice view to my first summit “Naunspitze”:
With its height of 1633m ASL the Naunspitze is unfortunately no SOTA summit, but nevertheless, hikers will be rewarded with a terrific view down to the valley of “Inn”:
The next summit I had to cross after the “Naunspitze” was the summit of “Petersköpfl”. Its summit cross is located at a height of 1745m ASL:
After these two summits, which were decorated with summit crosses, a number of summits without summit crosses had to be passed: “Einserkogel” (1924m ASL), “Zwölferkogel”, “Elferkogel”. The next photo looks back to the “Zwölferkogel” and the “Einserkogel”.
My last “Non-SOTA” summit on this tour was the summit of “Pyramidenspitze” (1997m ASL) a former SOTA summit, which has been deleted in favour of the new SOTA reference for the “Vordere Kesselschneid”. Nevertheless, the Pyramidenspitze is the most well known and therefore most frequently visited summit in this mountains:
From the top of the Pyramidenspitze, I finally had my todays destination in sight:
The summit of “Vordere Kesselschneid”. With its 2001m ASL the highest summit in this mountain region.
Despite being the highest mountain, it is a rather unimpressive summit that doesn’t get visited too often.
By looking at the snowy path up to the top of this mountain, it was clear to me that for a longer time nobody took the effort of hiking up to the top. The following photo has been taken after climbing down again and it shows my single trace in the snow:
Finally, after six non-SOTA summits, I arrived at the sole SOTA reference on this mountain ridge. From the Vordere Kesselschneid I had a nice view back to the Pyramidenspitze with its steep cliffs to the east:
I quickly set up my dipole antenna nearby the pile of stones that marked the top of this summit.
From this position I had a splendid view down to the valley of Inn and all surrounding mountain ranges:
The following SOTA activation has been surprisingly pleasant. I didn’t expect such good HF conditions but with 24 contacts on the 30m band and additional 13 contacts on the 20m band I cannot complain 
Two summit-to-summit contacts with Heinz, HB9BCB, on HB/FR-019 and Jochen, DL4KCA, on DM/RP completed the list of QSOs.
With my last photo I want to cope with two present myths:
- Who is telling that summer has already arrived here in Central Europe
- Why should I peek into Dayton, when I already know that the smallest full-featured HF SOTA radio on the planet is already playing well here on the Austrian summits
Thanks for all calls and for spotting me on SOTA watch.
73 Stephan, DM1LE
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