The weather on Saturday was quite nice. I follow the ski tracks to the Tahkokuru lean-to shelter. After that no track anymore. The slope is not very steep. I do hear how the snow plate breaks under my weight, but the forces of gravity are not strong enough to produce an avalanche here in more or less flat terrain. Arrival to the Kesänki 535 m at 12:10. I put up the dipole and start from 18086 kHz as planned. Thanks to G4SSH and DL6KVA for spotting. When I arrive to the summit it is the local sun rise time. After the setup and first QSOs it already the sun set time. The day is about one hour long. The light does not disappear suddenly however and in practice there is light from about 10:00 to 14:00.
On Sunday I decide to do Ylläs, since this ski resort summit is quite safe even in adverse weather conditions. The visibility becomes bad above 550 m. The wind is blowing powder snow and you can see to about 50 m. During operation I have already small layer of new powder on my transceiver. Thanks to G4SSH for spotting. I did not QSY to lower bands from 17 m, so the Nordic SOTA chasers maybe did not copy me at all during the activation.
The Ylläs is also the first summit to be activated from the new OH association back in 2008. On May 1 2008 I struggled three hours to get the needed 4 QSOs. The propagation was almost impossible on that day.
Radio: ATS3B, 8xAA lithium, link dipole 40-15m/7m up, VX7R, OT1+ smt tracker
Map: Pallas-Ylläs 1:50 000
Photos: f5vgl | Flickr
APRS: aprs.fi - live APRS map