Whoops. 
Insufficient propulsion? 
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Hay caramba! That’s a VERY risky scenario. An accidental release in an enclosed space would likely incapacitate all people, including the pilot… Then it’s game over 
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I urge anyone buying or using bear spray to learn about it, and follow all safety procedures. It is seriously strong stuff.
Stay safe!
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Thanks a lot to all of you for your valuable feedback!
Very interesting recipe with detailed instructions. I didn’t know all the ingredients, but I found them online at local shops. I’ll bake it after I’m back from Canada, eh!
About the bear spray:
I think you’ve all convinced me to buy a can of bear spray after all. I also checked some maps showing the distribution of black and grizzly bears in BC and Alberta. Since I’ll first be travelling across the prairies (Calgary–Drumheller–Edmonton) and will probably activate VE6/CM-002 along the way, I can wait until Edmonton to buy a can, where we’ll be meeting some friends. After that, we’ll head into the Rockies, and my next summit, weather permitting, will be VE6/JS-310 above Abraham Lake.
About the bear bells:
After reading up on them and watching a few videos, I think I’ll leave them at home. I’ve also heard and read the “dinner bell” jokes, but I think they’re simply not loud enough to be heard in a noisy environment (wind, a nearby river, etc.). And to be honest, I don’t really want to listen to that high-pitched ringing all day long.
Another rather funny story I heard is that it’s not a good idea to use a whistle in an area where there are marmots. Not because of the marmots, but because of the bears that hunt them! 
Thanks again for all your input, and I hope to hear you on the bands!
73 Stephan
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In the UK self raising flour does not contain salt.
Here’s the original recipe:
And in the UK bear spray is highly illegal. Even possessing it is a serious criminal offence with a maximum sentence of 10 years. But we don’t have bears.
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The subject of English author Michael Rosen’s successful book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” features locations from England and Wales suggesting otherwise.
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So your grasp on reality is as dubious as your taste in music.
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I was hoping to catch a big one 
You are correct. I searched online and found to my surprise that in the UK, Commonwealth countries (except Canada), and Europe, salt is not added to self-rising flour, while in Canada/US it is. Who knew!? I read that: “Salt is added to self-rising flour to enhance the overall flavor, tighten the gluten structure for a better texture, and regulate the fermentation process of the leavening agents.” (Highlights from online).
If one goes down that rabbit hole there is interesting chemistry. One function of salt is to regulate the rate of CO2 production from acids reacting with the baking soda. For “non-salt” countries, salt added elsewhere in a recipe can serve this reaction-governing function. Fascinating - at its underpinnings, cooking is just applied physics and chemistry (hmm…I guess radio and electronics are too!). 
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We call it self-raising flour (with an extra a) so that perhaps signals the difference. UK plain and self-raising flour is made from domestic wheat which is low protein. (Our bread flour is mostly imported, often from Canada). In the US they have all purpose flour which is not really a thing here. It probably has higher protein and so is not so good for cakes (I think they have cake flour for that). It also seems that the world’s richest country can’t afford scales and so all their recipes use cups which seems bizarre to us.
So converting recipes from the other side of the pond is a minefield.
I don’t know how this applies to Canada. I just know you are better at spelling and use sensible measurement units. And you have a king.
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Wow! Martin, that food looks spectacular. I want to go there! Gaming Charterhouse - Wikipedia
This could open up a whole new thread of “Best Après-/P Dining” 
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It´s a great SOTA region with lots of good to very good restaurants. lifts and gondolas up some easy to earn summits and a bunch of 4 to 6 pointers, too.
https://oe1iah.at/ has a list of his summits with what he calls “RHC” points, which rates the easy accessibility to a nice restaurant. You see, we Austrians like to combine good SOTA with good food,….
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Archaological evidence suggests that bears died out in the UK not long after the last Roman legions b------d off to play “who’s next to be caesar!” although for years after they were imported from Europe for the sport of bear baiting.
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An excellent region, for sure. I looked at the link but could not find “RHC”. Curious, what does it mean? Maybe I can transliterate it to the Vancouver Island setting. Mouth is watering already…
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Landgasthof LANG in Gottsdorf, great Place to dine AND sleep, only minutes from Höhenberg, DM/BM-290
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Superb mouth-watering photos! Very enticing. Could be a whole new subgenre - “Cul”-RP - mixing culinery delights with /P QRP radio.
Hi Stphan
Hope your Canadian trip was successful and enjoyable. Update on 99% Brownie recipe - I added 1 shot of espresso to the egg/sugar mix. Even better! 99.5%? For chocolate lovers, these brownies are a treat. Even better on a summit
Scott VA7SNJ
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Hi Scott,
Thanks! I had a wonderful time in Canada and activated 10 summits in VE6 and VE7 that I will probably never complete 
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For each summit, I uploaded some pictures to SOTLAS, sometimes with a few notes.
And, to answer your private message: I found a cheap canister of bear spray at the Elk Island National Park Visitor Centre, a few miles east of Edmonton (see below).
Since I had this deterrent with me and always made plenty of noise, I never actually saw a bear, but I saw plenty of evidence that they had been around…
I communicated with Paul @VE6MPM and met Malen @VE6VID, who has a 4x4 and drove us up to a summit, where we did a joint activation. He told us lots of interesting stories…
We had to deal with quite a lot of smoke from the wildfires and keep an eye on the situation. In fact, we were lucky once, as an important road we had just passed was closed a few hours later.
I will definitely try your improved brownie recipe, and I think the espresso shot will give it some extra oomph! 
73, Stephan
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I worked on a scout camp in the Adirondack mountains, near tupper lake back in 2002 and 2003 and one year we had black bears on site. As staff we got used to them, big and powerful but left you alone but the scouts who only stayed for a week never did. It was amazing to see the speed of a 300+lb bear just literally run up a vertical tree trunk and the claw marks it left! It was also amazing to see how so many of the camp staff,all Americans, didn’t know that black bears can climb trees, and that 1 inch plywood box isn’t bear proof and leaving Mcdonalds rubbish in your truck over night resulted in you not having any windows left after the bear had walked through them. Someone had a great picture of a black bear that year of it sitting in the back of an old camp 70’s station wagon with its arm out the window . I went round with the ranger one night with his night vision goggles and saw a black bear slumped asleep over a branch up a tall tree, directly above one of the staff members tents
one Staff member also left a remains of a pizza in his tent, he woke up to a bear having a sniff inside his tent, he didn’t move a muscle and the bear left and he quickly learnt not to leave food lieing around I was in a wood cabin that year not a tent so felt a lot safer. Although at the dining hall all the fly screens around every window one night got destroyed by the bear.
Scouts confidence at night that year was directly proportionate to how big their torch beam was . At night a black bear was a lot more scary proposition to come across
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