I would like to extend my congratulations to Bob, AC1Z for achieving his First 100 Award as well as his Profile of a Mountain Hiker awards! These are significant awards and a tribute to his tenacity which can be said to exceed that of the “Old Man” (Old Man of the Mountain - Wikipedia) who now resides comfortably at lower elevations…
Well done Bob! You were my first transatlantic SSB SOTA QSO, much to my surprise one afternoon, on a windswept summit somewhere.
That prompted me to look up your association rules. The Catamount Survivor Award appeals to my sense of adventure & stupidity. Where’s the nearest airport?
Ok, I just googled the unactivated peak W1/GM-010 1017m, 6 point. The first website I found contained the opening line, “THIS MOUNTAIN IS A BUSHWACK. It has no views.”
It doesn’t even have a name. HP is high point, I assume.
Congrats, Bob,
Always a pleasure to QSO with you, either when you’re activating or chasing.
Keep up the good work!
I’ll be looking forward to many more QSOs to come.
73,
Several of the awards have good back stories in the manual based on local legends:
The New Hampshire Lakes region is the home to several great Indian legends, including the legend of the Smile of the Great Spirit which produced the Winnipesaukee name for the largest lake in the region:
Many moons ago on the northern shore of this beautiful lake there lived a great chief, Wonaton, renowned for his great courage in war, and for the beauty of his fair daughter, Mineola. She had many suitors, but refused them all. One day, Adiwando, the young chief of a hostile tribe to the south, hearing so much of the fair Mineola, paddled across the lake and fearlessly entered the village o f his enemies. Her father happened to be away at the time, and admiring his courage, the rest of the Indians did not harm him. Befo re long, he and the Indian maid were desperately in love with each other. Wonaton, on his return, was exceedingly wroth to fin d the chief of the enemy in his camp and a suitor for the hand of his daughter, that he immediately raised his tomahawk to kill him. Mineola, ru shing in between them, pleaded with her father for the life of her lover, and finally succeeded in reconciling t hem. After the wedding ceremony, the whole tribe accompanied the two in their canoes halfway across the lake. The sky when they started was overcast and the w aters black, but just as they were about to turn and leave them, the sun came out and the waters s parkled around the canoe of Mineola and Adiwando. “This is a good omen,” said Wonaton, "and hereafter these waters shall be called Winnipesaukee, or ‘Smile of the Gr eat Spirit’.
But what I am really looking forward to is the first Coronation of a King of Connecticut! That would be pretty neat.