Sunday was a great day to head up one of Washington’s beautiful glaciated volcanoes, Mount Baker, W7W/WH-001. This mountain is only activated an average of 2 or 3 times a year as it requires technical glacier travel skills, but it is an excellent mountain for those who do have the ability!
I made my way up via the Easton route this past Saturday and Sunday, and upon reaching the summit block I turned on my HT and clipped it to my harness while we went to the high point to celebrate and take pictures before starting my activation.
As soon as I walked onto the summit, I heard the question that I’m sure a lot of us are familiar with, “are you a ham radio operator?” To my surprise though, the person asking was holding an HT! At nearly the same moment as me, Vlad, OM1AL also reached the summit. We exchanged greetings right as the person I was waiting for, Kyle KK7LHY started his activation of another major W7W volcano, Glacier Peak. Vlad and I both got our V2V (volcano 2 volcano) and another W7W VHF S2S before he continued with a very productive VHF activation and I got out my KH1 to activate the mountain on HF for the first time.
Despite a lack of views due to wildfire smoke it was a great day to be on the mountain and what a wonderful coincidence to run into a fellow SOTA’er on top!
