Going for Montana's biggest peak this Sunday. W7M SF001

I will be attempting Montana’s largest peak this Sunday ( Granite Peak 12,798 feet ). I will be attempting W7M PS005 tomorrow as they share the same trail and W7M PS005 is just short of Granite Peak. It will allow me to recon the trail and create a metric for the effort that will need to be put forth for Granite Peak. I will be doing both of these as one push, light and fast, no camping gear, minimal stopping, and quick pace. Granite Peak will involve some 5th class climbing and down climbing I feel is well within my ability without the use of rope. The loose rock will be somewhat worrisome and once summit is made there is very limited space and high winds I will have to contend with.

I will be bringing Icom IC 705, 5 watt battery, Sota Beams 20M 40M band hopper dipole, 13 foot mast, and of course the go pro. I will have a satellite messaging device to self spot via sms-gateway. I expect granite peak to take around 18-20 hours round trip with radio, 23 mile round trip hike/scramble/climb. I have an alert posted for tomorrows summit and will post one for Monday once I have a better Idea of the timeline. Neither of the two summits have been activated, please chase if possible. Any potential DX stations with good receive for weak signals would be appreciated as well. Wish me luck!

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Good luck Rob! Any CW this trip? Might try for a S2S.

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Thank you! I will try some cw I am sending very well, but head decode is still limited but should be able to at least trade calls and RST.

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Good luck! Sounds like an awesome adventure.

If you are doing some 5th class solo-climbing check out using a Petzl micro-traxion/climbing-rope as a lead self belay system.

It is beyond the scope of a quick how-to-do it here but Petzl has a instruction manual. If used properly it can provide magnitudes improvement on safety. If used improperly it can provide a false sense of security leading to injury/death.

Erik
KE8OKM

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Thanks for the beta, I have used a micro trax before. Not a bad system but for the amount of ground I have to cover and the time frame I have to do it in every ounce counts. My kit is going to be more than minimal, Im going to try and trail run to the climb, then just burn it and get it done. My radio kit will be as simple as simple gets. Icom 705 5 watts power only, no tuner, sota beams dipole, sota beams 13ft mast =] Also I am going to attempt this on Sunday instead of Monday now.

Hope to run into you on the bands, 73 K9ROB.

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Rob, you didn’t mention PS-005, which was alerted for today at 2300. Change of plans?

EL

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I missed a turn early on and never got near the summit. When I realized it the timeline was already lost. Its alright ill go back for it in a few weeks with my wife. It did help me realize how light I am going to need to go as I talked to sever parties who attempted granite peak and failed. Im excited about it, a little nervous, and think it will be a great challenge. N4TS is a good friend and helping me run some propagation simulation for Sunday.