Motivation
After my activation of Mt. Cerredo in July I was intrigued by the near Mt. Santullan.
The motorway passes quite near and see how it looks from its North East side:
What, is this a SOTA? It’s such a pity to see that extensive human devasting action, changing how the nature was… Maybe that’s the reason why it’s been activated only 4 times to date.
I better go up before that quarry grows making this a flat hole !
Activation date: August 8th 2026
The climb
You can just drive and park in the industrial park Vallegon, at Lat/Lon 43.345066, - 3.237688
Here is the track I followed:
- Trail length: 3,1 km (one way)
- Mountain elevation: 476 m asl
- Elevation gain from the parking: 405 m
- Time from parking to the summit: 2h 15min (with stops for pictures and detours)
The track starts on a wide & flat dirt road.
Soon you’ll see a small farm on the right. Take the deviation left that starts ascending.
After a turn left you see the target summit. It’s great that this side of the mountain is kept intact, free from the quarry.
At one point you leave the wide path gaining height by an ample turn left, then right.
As you approach you keep heading towards the rocky summit. Depending on the angle you distinguish there are several big boulders on top:
When you are close to the rocky last part you see the service track of the quarry. It’s really quite near the mountain top! There are signs of forbidden access:
Some mountaineers have been warned by the workers and guards of the quarry not to step by the service track and they had to leave it immediately. Better to stay away of it!
The last part is the interesting and difficult one. A herd of goats moved away as I approached looking for access. I first tried to go around East but it looked worse and worse as it became steeper:
After some unsuccessful trials to ascend I did a detour and headed left, towards a gap in the middle of the two main heads of the summit.
Right after crossing the gap you just turn right directly up, scrambling with care. It’s not exposed but you better pay attention where you step.
After a final effort you arrive in the summit, filled with thick stones but wider than it looked underneath.
The views over the Cantabrian sea does worth the effort and I was glad you don’t really feel you’re on top of a quarry but on a beautiful elevated spot.
The activation
I think thte summit is wide enough to put an EFHW wire antenna, but again, I carried my short 3 meter vertical loaded antenna, and the FX-4CR transceiver.
I didn’t have much time left for the activation because I had to visit some relatives at midday.
While taking some pictures I switched on VHF just to find @EA2FDI, Héctor, activating EA2/NV-088, and we worked a nice S2S. Hey, that was a nice S2S with handhelds both ways. We even tried 0,5 watts and heard each other really well!
Other two colleagues made their way to my log and @EB2GKK called me for another nice S2S from the near EA1/CT-081.
I then switched to HF and run 14 MHz SSB & CW. To my surprise, I logged @EA2EUS S2S with a good signal just 450 km away.
@SP9MA @DL6CGA, @SV2NCH & @DL6CGA made also their ways S2S.
I closed my brief HF activation and wen t down with 23 QSO total in my log.
Again, I stepped back with care the steep access to the summit and returned by a shortcut straight to the wide path. A last look back to the summit:
All in all, a beautiful mountain, it was worth the effort.
Thanks all and 73, Ignacio
