Last Sunday was my last chance to operate from a SOTA in the Urals for this year, so I accepted RK8A’s invitation to go to the stunningly beautiful Zyuratkul R9U/SO-029.
Zyuratkul National Park (Russian: Зюраткуль (национальный парк)) was established in 1993 in the southern part of Satkinsky Raion (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Urals). The park lies about 30 km south of Satka and 200 km west of Chelyabinsk.Notable features include Zyuratkul lake, a rare mountainous body of water for the Urals 754 m above sea level, with a surface area of 13,2 km2 and a maximum depth of 8 m. Water is slightly mineralised (≈50 mg/L). Because of its clear water and spectacular landscape around, Zyuratkul’ is often called “Ural Ritsa”. Also remarkable is a number of mountain ranges, among them Zyuratkul’ range (8 km in length, rising 1175 m in its highest point).
And that’s where we’re headed. Vladimir picked me up around 8am after having traveled 140kms from another city and we still had almost 2 more hours of road to reach the National Park. The ascent to Mount Zyuratkul from the entrance of the Park would take us along a beautiful 6 kms path to the top, where after 4 kms the path would be complicated by mud, slope and rain that would accompany us all day.
Once up we found a beautiful place but the weather was not going to make it easy for us due to the strong wind, fog and rain that made us feel a thermal sensation of about 5 degrees approximately. Since it didn’t seem like it was going to get better, we quickly set up Vladimir’s station with his brand new TX500 and a GP for 20m. I moved about 100 meters north to avoid interference and started calling on 17m CW.
My position was not at all comfortable, wet, on the ground and with a tremendous wind and cold, but I was not going to throw in the towel. After a few calls and thanks to the good propagation conditions I had good qso rates with many EA friends and a constant flow of contacts exceeding 100 QSO in an hour, but as I could not see Vladimir because of the vegetation, the fog and the rain, I left my station and went to look for him to see if everything was going well, If needed something or I would prefer to pick up already because of the bad weather, and the latter was what we did. When returning to my position to pick up I had an ankle sprain to which I did not give too much importance, we picked up everything and started the descent of the summit carefully due to the slippery terrain with mud and stones, after 6kms we arrived at the car. A couple of hours later when I got home, my right ankle hurt a lot and after the shower I could no longer support it on the floor, my wife’s parents, who had been athletes in their youth, knew perfectly well how to deal with this, they went to the pharmacy to bring bandage and cream, luckily 5 days later I am already recovered, just in time to start the road home (EA8) and be able to take 4 planes with many suitcases and a 4 months baby.
I have to thank @RK8A for his invitation to visit the Zyuratkul Park, which would have been impossible without his help. I want to thank and emphasize the friendship and help of my amateur radio friends in the URALS, specially to RK8A, RX9WT, RA9WJV and R9AB
Thank you for making me feel better than at home, and that has its consequences, and now I threaten to come back next year hihihihi.
Muchas gracias amigos.
