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.
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
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
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!
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
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.
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
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.
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)
G, GW, GM, GI and EI all have 500m as the threshold for the winter bonus. But these map to 2 points in Great Britain, 4 in Northern Ireland and 6 in Ireland. But this also means that a 300m summit is 1 point in the UK but 2 points in Ireland and a 400m summit is 1 point in GB, 2 in NI and 4 in Ireland.
Thankfully I’m just a simple activator!
Thanks MT
ok, thanks for the explanation.
