CQ WW WPX is the largest contest in the world so the bands will be busy.
14.300-.14.350 is marked SSB in all the bandplans I can see and none say “no contest traffic”
You’ve got 17/12m and if 10 is open then so is 12.
And you have the option to switch to CW or DATA modes to escape contest traffic. The more modes you can use the more options you have to choose from. Even if you don’t know CW yet you can get capable enough to operate at only 10-12wpm and then you can go out and use it to complete QSOs on events like this when your primary mode is compromised or affected. And even if you don’t like using it compared to actually using SSB and talking to people you still have it to fall back on.
Setting up big competitive contest stations requires lots of money to buy the equipment and install it, it requires people to be active for 24/48 hrs which means there’s a big time cost and many people have little time to do what they want. So these people only do it because there are enough stations calling the contesters. i.e. the bands are crammed because lots of people want to take part in the contests.
That’s why you need an alternate mode to use when these things get in the way. But I do understand it can be annoying when the bands are open for what you want to do and there’s even more contest stations audible!
17m vertical… if you have a 20m 1/4wave GP, just fit links in the radiator and radials, it’s the least effort way. You may want to consider 15m links as well. We are probably on the decline of this solar cycle now but 15m will be good for a while to come even if 10/12 are less usable.
And you did get a VK S2S QSO 