Sunday morning - a bright day with sunny spells. Worth a try to activate Bruchberg (DM/NS-113, 927 m) and Achtermann (DM/NS-002, 925 m) and get some nice views of the Harz, one of the two northernmost mountain areas in DL with its highest summit Brocken peaking at 1142 m asl.
On my drive I passed one specific spot on the autobahn where you can see Brocken for a few seconds from a distance of ~40 km. At least you can at good weather. And when I was passing this spot the summit really showed up! I could clearly spot the unique buildings on the top, which are relics from passed times: a radio observatory of the people’s army of the former GDR and a massive radio tower. In the Harz the weather may change at any time. Hoping it would last I began speeding a bit not to miss a view.
Most of the trail to the top of Bruchberg (we actually call it Wolfswarte) you hike in a ditch. In summer the ditch is usually dry and in the end of march you’ll need gum trousers due to snowmelt. And in winter? There wasn’t enough snow in the ditch as I hoped, so the trail up the bend was an icy one.
After passing the hardest icy stage…
… easy going on snow up to the summit.
On the summit it was dry, bright and -5 C. With the wind at 30 - 40 kph it felt even colder.
I answered MI0TMW’s call on 17 m and we had a nice qso. After spotting myself another 16 qso were made.
Just at the end of my operation I bumped into Armin, DJ4ET. Up to that time I didn’t know him and I wondered why this guy just came to me, didn’t ask anything about radio and put his rucksack besides mine. Armin just wanted to hike up the Bruchberg and didn’t intend to activate it, though he had his vhf/uhf handy with him. We had a pleasant chat and he helped me to pack my things (tnx!) before we made the way down together.
View of Altenau
Another view of Altenau
View from Achtermann to Brocken (DM/SA-001, top in the clouds)
There are two trails leading up to Achtermann. I chose the shorter and steeper one, though I knew, again, this trail is in a ditch. Thanks to the walking poles I got even the steepest part easily up, but this stage convinced me better to take the other way down, as breaking legs while falling down steep and icy slopes is none of my favourites.
Trail? What trail?
On Achtermann quite the same wx and radio conditions as on Bruchberg.
11 qso’s on 17 m. Just when North America began to getting up, I was freezing and left.
Wurmberg (DM/NS-001) and two unknown ladies.
Ahoi,
Pom
Edit: added summit links