For our fourth activation on this beautiful island we set our sights on this lovely 10-pointer, largely due to the ready availability of (early) parking and the prospect of well-made paths to the summit. It did not disappoint.
Leaving Costa Adeje at 05:45 we drove for 45 minutes exclusively uphill, with the temperature dropping from 19℃ at the start to just 3℃ at the lunar plateau with Teide beckoning on the horizon. Thankfully a few moments later we were back to 10℃ but without having lost any altitude - pretty weird. Parking was at the Mirador de las Narices del Teide and we were surprised to find several cars already there at this crazy hour.
The ascent took just over an hour, with the last 10 minutes on a smaller dead-end path which served only the summit. My trusty SOTA pole was quickly strapped to a large boulder (glad I brought two cam-lock straps and the pipe lagging!) and the EFHW deployed to a willing pine. Phone signal wasn’t great but I managed to self-spot after three or four attempts, with the requisite 4 QSOs in the bag shortly afterwards. Sadly no dice to VK today despite being given an opportunity to break into an existing QSO by @GM1DSK - thanks Steve!
Instead of looping back down the same way we decided to carry on with the original trail and make a clockwise loop back to the car, but this sapped our resources and we abandoned plans for an afternoon activation in favour over lunch and sangria.
Cheers for reading - you can download tracks here if interested.
Can’t recommend hiring a motorbike strongly enough, it’s a great way to get around the island. I rented from this place, that I found much better than the people I went to the last time I was in Tenerife.
As I was paragliding as well, I stayed in Adeje like you. However, if I was going during summer and only doing SOTA and motorbiking, I would look seriously at a village called Vilaflor:
It’s right on the edge of the coronal forest and much quieter and rural than the main tourist centres. It’s also in one of the main wine producing regions, so lots of bodegas to visit. It’s quite high up, so quite chilly at this time of year. A tandem flight is also highly recommended, there are some amazing take-off places. A fly down to Puerto de la Cruz from Izana is a once in lifetime experience:
Great pics @OE6FEG Matt! But these days I stick to 4 wheels when I’m away from home, unless I’ve ridden my own bike there and have all my own gear, which just isn’t practical with our tiny luggage allowance. Plus we live 200m from the TT circuit, so you can probably imagine what I think of foreign speed limits.
We’re here with a family group of 10 otherwise I think we’d have stayed north instead of the Costa. Not really a big fan of this environment but when everybody wants to do different things each day it’s easier to stick to the tourist zone. But we will definitely be back, and I’m grateful for the recommendation. In fact we may take a drive out to Vilaflor today - , it’s raining this morning, my father in law loves his wine, and his 80th birthday was the original reason behind this trip.
OK on the tandem flight. I’ve been watching those guys up there all week and think I’m getting that itch again. Have you had the chance to from the Brevent in Chamonix? Utterly bonkers.
Ouch, sorry to hear that @MM0EFI Fraser. We’ll be back on Friday too. This trip has reinvigorated my appetite for SOTA and it’ll be interesting to see if local weather will put me off reactivating GD when I get back. The lure of S2S contacts is particularly attractive…
I paid for extra luggage and took my own motorcycle gear, although in the end I took far more things than I needed. I haven’t flown Chamonix, but the solo tour of Mont Blanc is high on my list. It’s a case of being in the right place at the right time for that.
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