It was climbed in 2012 (the only time I guess), and based on the video it certainly doesn’t qualify a an easy summit! I am not sure I will see an SOTA expedition to Olavtoppen in my lifetime but you never know, some activators are quite dedicated!
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Now then Mark…
Luxury!!!
I’lll just speak for the UK.
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Our SOTA hills & mountains don’t normally have roads to the summits.
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Our hills and mountains rarely, if ever reach your “mild” winter temperatures - even in our summers.
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You need more than a jumper on some of our summer days. It can cold, wet and windy.
4, In winter (and sometimes in summer), you might be unable to operate as you are in the middle of near hurricane force winds, driving rain, wind. I’ve often turned back, especially in Scotland where sometimes the winter WX is often equivilant to arctic wx conditions. It might also surprise you that walking up a mountain in winter of deep soft snow in bad weather will also mean that not only is the sweat pouring out of every orifice in your body, but the snow or rain is also getting inside your clothing and your orifices. Believe me it would be a luxury to be wrapped in a hot wet steamy blanket. Here it can be like being wrapped in a freezing wet blanket. 
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In winter and in the remoter Scottish hills there are no trails. Not even in the snow. Many places I’ve been climbing in other places in Europe don’t have trails.
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As for insects!! Scottish midges swarm in their millions in warm months and drive both deer and humans to distraction.
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You might also find yourself having to walk a few miles over wet boggy ground. Even to get to a 1 pointer.
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People die on our mountains every winter.
From avalanches, falls on steep snow, exposure from being either ill equiped or simply becoming lost. In a winter storm it is often impossible to see more than a foot or two in front of you. Winter daylight is only a little more than 6 or 7 hours.
By the way, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a snowmobile on the Scottish hills. 
Good luck. Perhaps we could have a handicap system.
Dave
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Firstly, it’s important to note that VK4 is one of the more incomplete VK associations due to mapping issues in the early stages, and the sheer size of the place versus effort to survey the summits. You can see this in some of the names of summits, which really need to be adjusted to match the standard we use.
We have gone back with better mapping on QTopo and added summits in the SE up to about Gympie, and I was going to focus next up to around the Rockhampton area, but I guess we can focus on areas between Cairns and Townsville instead. I can already see at least one summit that would qualify that isn’t listed.
Based on your location on the ACMA database, there’s a couple of summits that are “nearby” (<= 2hrs drive) that could be classed as drive up or almost drive up. The highest is probably VK4/NH-008, Mount Spec, which needs both a name update and a height update, and this is 8 points. It looks like you can drive to Paluma Dam (about 2 hrs), and then walk from there on a MTB trail for a bit over a 1km for not quite 100m of altitude gain.
The second is unlisted and that is 30 minutes away, at Mt Cudmore. I can’t tell if the road to the summit is gated or not because there’s no street view coverage, but assuming it is open (or you can find someone with the key), that’d be a drive-up, albeit only 1 point. That’s one to talk with VK4JAZ about listing.
VK4/NH-006 (8 points) looks like it has 4WD tracks to the top, based on QTopo and a quick look on street view, approx 2 hours 5 minutes from your QTH. There may be questions about access into the Nature Refuge, but there doesn’t appear to be a gate.
VK4/NH-004 (Mount Halifax) is a 10 pointer with a 3km or so walking track that shouldn’t require a machete and a pith helmet to conquer. 1hr 30 from your QTH.
The myth of the drive-up 10 pointer prevails. There are close to 200,000 summits in the program, of which less than 10% are 10 pointers, and probably no more than 2-3% of those 10 pointers are able to be driven right to the top. If you are going to complain about anywhere though, look a bit closer to home, as VK3 probably does better percentage wise than Europe because of the tendency of the state to conflagrate yearly and the need to have well maintained firetrails through a lot of the alpine country. Still need a 4WD and/or a walk for most of them though.
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Maybe an ‘honour roll’ of first activations per user to join the other such ‘honour rolls’ on sotadata would resolve this recurring question?
I know for well-established regions this would be a very static list, but it would give those in new regions another field to test themselves in.
That said, I’m an interested party as (if my SQL is correct) the ZL list looks something like:
| Callsign | First Activations |
|---|---|
| ZL4NVW | 148 |
| ZL2AJ | 105 |
| ZL4RA | 48 |
| ZL2ATH | 34 |
| ZL3AB | 27 |
| ZL3CC | 20 |
| ZL3GA | 17 |
| ZL3MR | 15 |
| ZL2JML | 14 |
| ZL1SKL | 13 |
| ZL1BYZ | 12 |
| ZL4DVG | 11 |
| ZL3DRN | 10 |
| ZL2STR | 6 |
| ZL2UCX | 4 |
| ZL3GIG | 4 |
| VK3ARR | 4 |
| ZL1CNB | 4 |
| ZL4FZ | 3 |
| HB9DQM | 3 |
| ZL4TZ | 3 |
| ZL2KGF | 3 |
| ZL2RMC | 3 |
| ZL2SAR | 3 |
| … | … |
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You are probably correct there Romain.
The 3Y0I Polish led DXpedition to Bouvet had two members who were considering activating the summit, if they had time, as they would have access from their chosen campsite on the glacier.
Unfortunately, 3Y0I was one of the two (the other 3Y0Z) who got close to the island in recent years but had to give up due to major damage problems on their ships.
Let’s hope the current 3Y0J Norwegian/US team have more success (but they are not planning to activate Olavtoppen).
POTA has allocated a number of LA-2524 for the Island and it has been in IOTA for a long time as AN-002.
To track the progress of the yacht this team are using - go to 3Y0J Bouvet 2023 (garmin.com)
They are making good process between the Falklands and South Georgia at the time of writing this.
73 Ed.
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And why should this summit only get 10 points?
As a largely ‘ex’ mountaineer/climber with many ‘un-notable’ ascents to my credit it has so far as I’m aware, escaped the ability of the mountaineering community to come up with grading system for the difficulty of reaching the summits of different hills and mountains. - with the notable exception of those summits which require a degree of rock or ice climbing ability, and/or approaches requiring difficult approaches across glaciers.
To ‘grade’ every SOTA summit, would in my opinion be impossible for the very reason Mark/VK4MFX gave in his post. There are so many variables to take into account it would take an enormous amount of time and effort to achieve any agreement.
At the end of the day SOTA is meant to be a an enjoyable hobby and an interesting personal challenge.
Dave
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Very true! I spent some time working on this problem and narrowed it down to five parameters, but could not get past the fact that at least three of them were a matter of opinion rather than measurement.
Considerable thought and debate went into the start of SOTA. By accepting a degree of “fuzziness” in the rules a program was devised that has proved quite applicable world-wide although there were some tweaks to the rules later, such as the addition of the summer bonus. Yes, it was devised in the UK by people accustomed to UK conditions, but this was a strength rather than a weakness because of the wide variety of landforms and weather conditions found in the UK. For instance the old weather observatory recorded 261 days of full gale force winds per year on the summit of Ben Nevis, and it is a little known fact that the UK has more tornadoes per given area than any other country in the world, including the USA!
Many outdoor activities court danger. Dealing with that danger is part of the fun! See the GR part 3.7.4 “Activators must be competant to undertake their proposed Expedition and must carry suitable equipment, taking account of the terrain, weather conditions etc.” It all comes down to personal responsibility, assessing risks for yourself, taking advice.
Bonus points for regions of Associations are allocated at the outset after consultation between the AM’s team and the MT, they are tailored to the needs of the Association but they are not set in stone and if experience in any region shows that a change should be made, it will be made.
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SOTA is well protected from being considered legally liable. But the activator could still be seriously injured or worse, chasing 3 extra points.
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Your concerns are well founded. But that is no different to the winter bonus summits that require alpine gear, avalanche awareness, gear & skills, etc. Quite easy to kill yourself chasing winter bonus points on summits that would be a metaphorical and literal walk in the park in summer.
Company encountered on Taylor Range - note the gear
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Hi Andrew,
The mappers of summits can’t mother all activators. You can’t make rules that prevent stupidity.
For some peaks having a bonus is, well a bonus. Banning activations because you might slip and twist an ankle or worse is taking mothering too far.
Some of the summits in northern VK ought to have two summer bonus periods imo. Every peak located between the Tropic and the Equator experiences two summer heat peaks. Well if they are very close to the Tropic it’s just extended. A little thought about the midday position of the Sun will reveal it passes overhead going south and then again overhead going back towards the Equator.
This produces two hot periods. It’s quite pronounced for places within 500 km of the Equator.
However the MT ruled against two bonus periods and limited the duration meaning there are times outside the bonus period when it is just as hard to activate these peaks as inside the bonus period.
I have only done one activation of a peak with decent snow cover. I sidestepped up the main summit slope then made the final approach along a narrow exposed ridge which warned against falling off as death was likely. I made two contacts. No points. No bonus points. I’m now too old to try again.
I dips me lid to those who scale the Matterhorn and other biggies in Winter. You deserve the bonus
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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Agreed. But nowhere above has anyone suggested banning activations, or suggesting that a twisted ankle was the risk. The only suggestion was that offering a bonus for activations in exceptionally hot weather may not be wise if it encourages activations in the hottest times of summer, due to the additional risks from the hot weather.
However I have reconsidered my position and now I think it is no different in danger from winter activations where ice axes and snow shoes etc may be necessary and navigation is difficult due to snow cover over natural landmarks etc. .
I mentioned reading of lost tourists or adventurers finding they did not have enough food, water or fuel for the trip they undertook. The same can be said of winter activations and we do read of people getting lost in the high country for various reasons and being found in the spring thaw.
So I acknowledge that summer bonus periods are OK and I will say nothing more about it.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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I’ll just mention that the fundamental difference between the summer and winter bonuses is that in winter the higher you go, the more inhospitable the conditions become, whereas in summer the low level conditions are more inhospitable, because it gets cooler by one degree for every hundred metres that you ascend. In winter the bonus is for being on the summit, in summer it is for getting to the summit!
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I think that using the notion of seasonal bonus more widely might be a good way to go for the southern hemisphere. For Europe and North America, I really think the current approach is working very well.
And I would like to stress again that points in SOTA are a means to design an inspiring social activity, same as rules in a good board game; they are not meant to or are able to objectify achievements or provide anybody an authoritative rank in the herd.
„It‘s all in your mind, John“ (from the famous Beatles movie) 
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73 de Martin, DK3IT
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This! 
The 3 point bonus applies whether the summit is 2 points or 10 points. Since there are only so many activations I can do during the bonus period it encourages me to get out during winter but to do the easier lower hills and leave the harder hills until summer. So I think it is extremely well designed.
Here in the UK you get idiots like that all year round who don’t seem to realise that the top of a hill is very different to the valley and they haven’t brought map/warm clothes/water.
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What we intended is for the winter bonus to apply to higher (more harsh) peaks, not two-pointers, if that’s what you meant.
Elliott, K6EL
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In G the winter bonus does apply to two-pointers. The reasoning was explained here by @M1EYP in a reply to someone. It’s to encourage activators to continue to activate in winter but not to give them an incentive to only do hard, and hence possibly dangerous, summits.
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Really? It’s only for 6 pointers and above in EI.
While I can’t speak specifically on the decision process in EI, the bonus is height based, not points band based (some Associations have WB starting in middle of a band) and usually is set at the height where weather implications come into play (eg, usual snow line)
(Waves hands vaguely)
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