Hi there,
although I follow this forum quite often I have not contributed much so far, but today I thought I would share with you my last activation, which is quite special to me. I hope you like it!
I am talking about Tête Noire (F/AB-229), a summit located in the magnificent Parc National de la Vanoise (French Alps) or Vanoise National Park.
The Vanoise National Park was the first French national park to be created, in 1963. It lies next to the Italian Gran Paradiso National Park, with which it is twinned, thus forming the largest protected area in Europe. There are also five nature reserves that border the Vanoise National Park.
This activation was special to me because:
- This summit had never been activated
- No summit in the Park had ever been activated
- This activation was planned to be done last year (I went with the family for a hike tour) but a snow storm the night before the activation day prevented me to climb it (it would have delayed a lot the long day hike we had in front of us and it would have make it too risky as I was not equipped for a snow climb)
- I had planned well in advance this activation and, in the end, I couldn’t do it. Too bad.
This year, because we enjoyed a lot the 80 km trail we did last year (6 stages, 4500 m. climb) we decided to repeat it, but to make it different, we would be doing it in the opposite direction, this time counterclock wise, and introducing some stage variations, overall some 100 km long and 6000 m climb.
This would give me the opportunity to try again the activation of Tête Noire the last day of the hike (what a coincidence!! Emoji). This year I took with me a very light set up, as I wanted to keep the backpack weight a the very minimum possible.
The rig I had with me was a QMX (20 to 10 m band, QRPLabs), with a 3.000 mAh LiPo battery supplying 12 V which allowed for a 4.5 watts in the 20m band, a Bamatech key and a whip antenna with interchangeble coils, all well protected and packed in a Pelican case. Total weigh of 1240 gr.
Long story short, we enjoyed the first 6 days of the hike, we were treated with very good weather all these days, the forecast for the last day was good enough with only some minor atmosferic storms in the afternoon although with very strong magntic disturbances in the ionosphere, thus adding a not expected complication for the activation day!!
The last stage of the hike was not very long, we spent the night in the Peclet-Polset refuge (fantastic place with impressive views), we had to climb the Col de Chavière at 2796 m and right from the top, we could already see, laying in front of us, Tête Noire (2.675 m). This summit is probably the easiest summit in the Parc along with Rateau d’Aussois (3.125 m), this one a tad more complicated. All other summits require more serious climbing and are reserved only to experienced and well equiped climbers.
A rapid descent of the Col de Chavière put us in front of Tête Noire, which didn’t seem very challenging but needed careful chosing of the path to the top as no indications appeared in the maps and because of the cliffs and 1.000 m falls in some places. The last part leading to the summit is made of free rocks making a very steep slope that I surrounded to avoid any possible fatal surprise from falling rocks. The climb took me around 45 minutes and once on the top, I quickly deployed the rig. Although I had announced myself in the SOTA alerts, there was mobile coverage and spotted myself in the SOTA page through the SOTLAS web page.
The activation was going to be done in CW on 20m and 15m bands.
I did ask “QRL” a few times at 14.065 MHz, the frequency was apparently free and I started calling CQ SOTA DE F/EA3IKB ON F/AB-229, PSE K. After a few minutes calling with no answers (that was making me think that I might not be able to activate the summit either this year…Emoji) I was relieved to hear a very week signal from Ignacio (EA2BD) replying to my call! That was relieving!! We managed to close the QSO (he told me later he had quickly deployed a wire in the middle of a backyard while he was on vacations, and he was surprised to hear me and being heard!). Summit activated!! Emoji
Now, I wanted the 10 points!! I kept calling CQ and a number of collegues replied including EA7GV (thanks Jose!) and F4WBN, OK1KT, ON7ZM, G3VXJ, M0BKV, DL8DXL, G4TPJ and a S2S with OM1BD/P who was activanting S5/BR-19. 10 QSOs!! That was great enough!!! Thanks a lot to all of you, dear chasers! Without you no activation would be achieved!
I still had to go down 600m to meet up with the family that was already in the Orgère refuge and I decided to called it a day!
I went down through some unchartered area, enjoying magnificent views (and a scorching sun!) and after 1h or so, I safely made it to the refuge, very happy to eventually have activated the first summit in the Vanoise National Park.
See some pictures of the activation attached.
Thanks for reading it!
73, De EA3IKB - Joan
