Tough day (Saturday)… Decided to combine WFD and some SOTA so I made an armchair plan to activate W3 / SV-012 that had never been activated and then W3 / SV-010. After the major snow storms last w/e I was prepared for the snow… I bought some gaiters!
SV-012 is located in State Gameland 73. I was able to drive into the state park using T605… it was fairly ICY and still had lots of snow from our last storm. Once Parked I set out W. and up… I bush-wacked up to the ridge. It’s not so often in PA that you get such a nice view… its mostly forest…
Heading S.W … it was easy grade along the wide ridge, but treacherous with rocks and mini-crevasse under the snow… glad I had my walking poles. After about 0.5 miles I was in the activation zone and set up a Basha / shelter from the wind.
Using a link Dipole at around 6ft height, I logged about 20 contacts on 20M and 40M SSB…
Next mountain was a 30mins drive away.
W3/SV-010 (not what I expected)… completed in the Summer by another activator, was described along the lines of a “pleasant walk up a wide track to a flat mountain-top”. Well, I found it tough going… 8" of soft snow and already a bit tired from early exertions… it was a bit of a death march… it took me almost 2hrs in accent… ~1.8Miles and just over 1000ft in accent.
Once on top I quickly rigged the radio, with the link dipole at about 2ft height across some bushes, I made 7 QSO’s and packed up… getting cold and only 45mins to darkness.
The decent took 1hr exactly… headlight was necessary and my legs were cramping up! I arrived back at my car in darkness.
I really worked for those 22points today, looking back on it now… That’s about the hardest day out I’ve had in about 15yrs!