Last friday Marcial had to go to Arrasate (Gipuzkoa) and we decided to make some SOTA. As Marcial would have the morning busy, meanwhile I would activate Anporreta EA2/SS-045 and later, on the afternoon we would make together the new Kortaburu EA2/SS-061, also close to Arrasate.
That’s the way we did it. At 07:15 am Marcial left me on the road at Kanpazar, just on the start of one of the paths to Anporreta. He followed his trip to Arrasate while I started hiking, and enjoying the dawn. On my back I could see the Udalaitz waking up on the sunshine.
The path I chose (2,7km) starts quite easy. At the beginning, being on the north face of the mountain temp was cold and some puddles were frozen. The last kilometer, however, it turned to be quite abandoned, with fallen trees and a lot of brambles, which did it pretty difficult to hike. Luckily, somebody has left some white plastic markers on the trees, so I could find the final route to the summit.
The sun was already brighting, and despite the low temperature, being no wind, the summit seemed comfortable for so early activation. Just after arriving, I tried some calls on 145 FM without success. I had to be down to Arrasate al 12:00 UT to meet Marcial, so I set up the light HF equipment: HB-1B, 4Ah LiPo, 6m pole and Norcal Doublet.
After doing some HF CW during 1 hour, and not being sure about how long (time) could be the 5,5km descent, I packed all and started the way to Arrasate.
The new one was very much cared, wide and with well traced. So it was very easy to follow. On my front I could also see Aralar mendiak, impressive mountain group south. There was also Iñaki EB2GKK, at Sarastarri EA2/SS-057 and while walking we did chase him. This was not S2S, as I have left the AZ, but a good chat anyway.
After almost two hours, I arrived to Arrasate at 11 UT. I had to meet Marcial at 12 UT, so I used that time to eat something, and buy some meal (sandwiches, chocolate, and other delicatessen).
While being up at Anporreta, I contacted Pedro EA2CKX, who lives at Oñati, just 7 km away from Arrasate, so we agreed to have a meeting after joining Marcial in our way to the second summit of the day. As I meet Marcial, we called Pedro, and at 12:30 we were on Oñati knowing one of the best EA2 chasers. We had some talk about, SOTA, antennas, radios, etc. and then we followed our route to Kortaburu new EA2/SS-061, just 2-3 km away. Before starting the hike, we had some food and water, then, the second hike started (the first one for Marcial).
This one is shorter but also steeper, 1,3 km path to arrive to the new referenced summit. On the final meters, I could feel the previus summit (I need to make more exercise and less smoking if I want to afford more than one summit a day!)
Once at the summit, we set up antennas and rigs and again to the “work”. I did only CW (the HB-1B pays its small weight having no SSB) while Marcial did both SSB and CW. Almost at the end of the activation we managed to contact Antonio EC2AG/P who was also activating Montaño EA2/BI-066.
That was all, back to the car and to home, it is no usual to make these friday activations, and these last times, on such a good weather!
Thanks again to all chasers!
more pictures and data at: EA2CW: EA2/SS-045 Anporreta and EA2/SS-061 Kortaburu (new)
