Hi Chris,
Good topic. I often wonder about these things as but some parts could open a completely new can of worms.
As I only activate Unique summits to myself then I am running out of summits close to home. Close to home I mean 100km which I have nearly done them all. 100km does not sound far but where I live it can take 2½ or more to get drive there.
I will happily drive 4 hours or 250km to a parking spot. The longer the drive the longer I want to walk or walk to more summits. As for operating time I will operate 1½ to 2½ hours depending on if multiple summits are being done on the same day. But sometimes I only operate or 30 minutes.
You could not put all this into an equation but I might have a go at it. Here is a bit of info from one of my trips a few years ago which covered 5 mountains (4 SOTA summits)…
Distance driven: 260 miles
Distance walked: 17.5km (without the extra bit at the end)
Elevation Gain/Loss: 1757m, -1475m
Time taken: 10 hours 5 minutes (walk)
QSO’s: 31
Points earned: 36
Read about it here Ben Lawers GM/CS-001 | 2M0NCM 'n' Cat's Oot n aboot (with photos) or here Activation of The Lawers Quad (without photos)
I have also walked over some terrible terrain for 17km + to activate and only gain 1 point - it was the hills I wanted to bag, the radio just happened to come along.
Hill walking is my main part of getting out - taking the radio is a bonus but I do enjoy SOTA but I do a lot of hill/mountain walking that I don’t have a radio with me. If I do a short activation then chasing is like fishing - if you are not there at the right time to cast a line then you miss the fish.