Matterhorn HB/VS-006

Congratulations Guys! Great achievement!!
73

Roby

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Out of this World, well out of my World anyway. Magnificent!
For me - G/Northern Pennines this weekend - Just to be safe!
John

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Congratulations Guys ! Top SOTA achievement !

73 !

Ivica

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Wow that’s a story!
Does anyone have news? Did everything work out fine for them?

73 Joe

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Hi Joe
They returned save home!
73 de HB9BIN, Juerg

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Thank you, everyone. Yeah, we came good and save, up and down. Manuel will soon show a short report with a few pictures here.

vy 73 de Matt HB9FVF

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Thanks everyone! We’re back home and had a great time climbing this iconic mountain.

Radio-wise, our activation was not as successful as we would have wished it to be – we only had a few minutes on the summit and were there early in the day with modest radio equipment (KX2, MFJ whip, counterpoise thrown down the south face). Nevertheless, we each got two QSOs, making this a valid activation according to SOTA rules, but we’ll have to obtain our 10 points elsewhere :wink:

We were especially delighted to have an S2S with Jürg @HB9BAB, who made his 1054th activation of Altberg HB/ZH-015 that day – as luck would have it, just at the right time.

Matt and I decided to climb the Matterhorn with mountain guides (a first for both of us – so far we have done all ascents on our own), for safety and as the correct route on the Hörnli ridge is not so easy to find, especially in the dark. Straying off route causes rockfall that endangers other parties. Last year at least 10 people died attempting to climb the Matterhorn.

Both ascent and descent each took 3½ hours and were relatively strenuous, but except for a fierce wind on exposed sections and on the summit, the weather was fine and conditions were quite good given that the season had just started. However, the final ~200 meters below the summit were delicate due to fresh snow from the past few days.

Of note, just as we started our descent, a group below us went the wrong way and dislodged a huge rock, which bounced down the steep slope with impressive speed and only barely missed another group of climbers further down below – it would have certainly been instant QRT for them had it hit them. Maybe it’s good that we played SOTA for a few minutes longer, otherwise we could have been at that particular wrong place at the wrong time?!

@HB9DST What’s next… Well, there’s no denying that SOTA activations on mountains like these are mostly ego trips, and while I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to be on top of Matterhorn, I’m looking forward to activating some more easily reachable summits in the near future, where a proper SOTA activation with at least one hour QRV, decent radio equipment and lots of QSOs is possible :slight_smile:

@DF6MH Good luck with the weather! It really is a nice climb. Hopefully you’ll have more time on the summit for a proper activation :wink:

73,

Manuel HB9DQM and Matt HB9FVF



Climbing in the dark


Sunrise at the Solvay Hut (emergency shelter) at 4000 m


Matt and his mountain guide on the final approach to the summit


At the Swiss summit, 4478 m


Looking back over the Hörnli ridge, Hörnli Hut base camp marked with red circle


Posing on the “photo tower” with a third group on the way back


The start of the route


Mission accomplished

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Congratulations, just great. We are glad you got down safely as well.

73’s
Peter & Sylvia

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Herzlichen Glückwunsch Manuel und Matthias zur fantastischen Leistung!
Vor allem freut es mich das Ihr wieder gesund in Zermatt angekommen seid.
Vielen Dank für die tollen Bilder und vielleicht gibt es ja bald einen Bericht in HB-Radio :wink:

Vy73 GL/GB de Fritz HB9CSA / DL4FDM

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Dear both

Oh, this is great, thanks again for taking us with you. And thanks for being wise and taking a guide. And tacitus to the last line of Fritz . . . use your time for something joyful . . . :wink:

Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ

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@HB9DQM
Hey Manuel. I’d really like to know what the guide said when he saw your radio equipment and antenna. Did you tell him before?
Climbing and activating Matterhorn is a double ego trip :smile: But Matterhorn is really a beautiful mountain and I think hardly every alpinist wants to climb it once in his life. And if you are an alpinist and a radio amateur, so why not activating it …
As you already said, it’s no real fun to do an activation on technically difficult mountains. It’s not always possible and reasonable there to share emotions and concentration with our ham radio hobby. In my case there’s also often a limited amount of understanding from my climbing partners for my second hobby.
If it is really possible for us to climb Matterhorn, I will not do an activation. I’ll bring my UHF handset as always when I’m in the mountains and I will call CQ just If I feel like to do so.

What I’d really love to do would be an overnight stay on a 4000 m peak and having several hours in the tent doing as many QSOs as you want to do. That would require perfect weather without any risk for thunderstorms and low winds and of course the willingness to carry all the stuff up the mountain. Anybody interested? :slight_smile:

73 de Martin - DF6MH

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WoW! Congrats!
Horly Edge is a great Alpine experience.

This is a new chapter on the Sota program, difficult summits. I am glad to ear everything went well.

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Hi Mathias and Manuel,

Congratulations and good job.

73"
HB9IIO
Daniel

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Hello Martin,

Yes, we briefed our guides before, and they were quite interested in what we were doing. Some other people on the summit stopped to see what was going on as well, but we were so absorbed in trying to get a few contacts in the few minutes that we had that we barely noticed them – and we even forgot to take a picture of us with the radio! :grimacing:

I think I’ll pass on the overnight 4000+ stay :see_no_evil:

73, Manuel HB9DQM

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Congrats on the achievement. I’m hoping to bag this one day as a finisher to the Walkers Haute Route sometime in the future!

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We even have a 30m replica in Disneyland California.

image

It’s a lot easier to get up!!

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And each and every one of you can have your own replica to enjoy:
Toblerone

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[quote=“HB9DST, post:24, topic:20652”]
And each and every one of you can have your own replica to enjoy:
Toblerone
[/quote] and its cheaper than visiting Disneyland which is about a quizzilion dollars to get in nowadays

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On Saturday I also stood on top of Matterhorn. My partner and me up- and down climbed the mountain also via the Hörnli Ridge. Conditions were not so easy as there was some fresh snow resulting from the bad weather on friday and we had to climb nearly the whole ridge with crampons. It is really a long climb in not so easy terrain but we did a good job and got up and down safely without putting us or others into danger.
I have to say that I did not really like the climb via the Hörnli ridge. It is a never ending tortuous maneuvering in precarious terrain without a lot of climbing fun. For me Matterhorn is one of the mountains I do not have to climb a second time.

On top I called CQ on 2m and was very happy to have a short QSO with @HB9NBG and @HB9FZC who were on tour for a SOTA activation. Thanks a lot Carine and René for this nice surprise!

I called CQ some more times but without any success. Matterhorn does not seem to be a very good VHF mountain as there are so many high mountains around which block off the populated areas where all the chasers sit :slight_smile:

Anyhow, it was a cool thing to climb and to stand on top of Matterhorn! My partner made a short video on top which I want to share:
Link to video

73 de Martin - DF6MH

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Hallo Martin
Noch einmal herzliche Gratulation zum Matterhorn! Carine und ich waren gerade im Schlussaufstieg zum Ochsen, HB/BE-114, als wir Dich rufen gehört hatten “CQ vom Matterhorn…” - wir hatten zuerst unseren Ohren nicht getraut :grinning::grinning: Vielen Dank jedenfalls fürs QSO - schade, dass Dir sonst niemand geantwortet hat :roll_eyes::face_with_raised_eyebrow: Wir hatten Dich noch einmal gerufen 10min später, als wir oben angekommen waren, aber da warst Du verständlicherweise wohl schon wieder auf dem Abstieg… Wir waren übrigens zwischen dem 8.Juli und gestern insgesamt 21 Tage auf SOTA-Tour, und ich habe soeben einen detaillierten Bericht mit grosser Fotoslideshow auf unsere Homepage veröffentlicht: https://www.lutz-electronics.ch/news/grossartige-sota-sommeraktivitaeten-2019/ .

Carine und ich haben schon 2 QSL-Karten für unsere QSO’s ausgefüllt und wollten sie per Post an Dich senden, aber wir finden leider keine Postadresse :roll_eyes: Schick uns doch bitte eine kurze Mail mit Deiner Adresse, dann können wir die QSL-Karten abschicken…

vy 73 de René, HB9NBG + 73/88 de Carine, HB9FZC