Unfortunately the holidays with my family are over!
I stayed in a hotel near the sea in Cattolica, the weather was perfect. Since I’m not a beach bum, I organized some trekking. the week before I had contacted IK6BAK Eliseo for some info about summits in the neighborhood. He had activated many summits in I/MC area. we organized a day together to activate three summits: monte Acuto, monte Catria and monte Alto. Eliseo gave me many precious info: some summits in this area don’t have a path reaching the top, there are some areas very wild and there are wild boars, wolves and territorial shepherd dogs that could be a huge problem for my dog Zac.
In order to avoid the inconvenience, I chose frequented summits.
09/09/2022
The first free afternoon I activated monte Simoncello I/MC-038, I learnt on www.vienormali.it the info for reaching the summit. I used a climbing harness with daisy chain for the last steps. There was a strong wind, I worked some qso in cw and I climbed down. I drove to cippo di Carpegna, at 9th hairpin turn I parked the car and I walked along the restricted traffic road all the way to 22th hairpin turn, the road is constantly slope about 12 degree. This road was the training road for Pantani, “the Pirate”, a great cyclist that shaped cycling history and ended tragically. On the hairpin turns’ wall there are written his famous expressions: “the Carpegna is enough for me” or " we just hear only our own breath",
on the top there is a memorial to Pirate,very touching.
I left the road to the path and I reached the flat top, a great field with many cows. the activation of I/MC-022 monte Carpegna was quick due to a threatening cows.
10/09/2022
The second day dedicated at sota I chose two easy summits, the first was monte San Paolo I/MC-078, the Google navigator sent me in a narrow dirt road, in a point I drove the car with two wheels off the ground.
I activated the summit with a few difficult because of QRM come from repeaters installed on the top.
The second summit monte Altavelio I/MC-119, it was easy, I installed a wire in a park near the church.
There are a lot of summits in proximity but I was in delayed for the dinner.
11/09/2022
The meet with Eliseo @IK6BAK.
Sunday morning, I woke up at 5:30 local time at 6:00 I started to drive in directions to Eliseo Qth, He given me a point in Google maps and I passed the point in Google navigator… but something was wrong. Unexpectedly after an half hour I wasn’t in highway but on mountain road. The last hundreds meters I drove on a very rough dirt road and ended in a plowed field. I called Eliseo saying that something was wrong… I sent my position via WhatsApp to him. I was at 5km from his house… I was in a dirt road for tractor, the 4x4 saved me from nuisance. Eliseo drove me to the right road and I reached his house. He offered me a coffe and a croissant and after we started to Monte Acuto I/MC-012. We parked the car near rifugio Cupa delle Cotaline and climbed up along the track. The weather was very cloudy, at the top the visibility was very limited due to fog.
We started to activate with due different stations at some meters distance. In few minutes the wind blew away the clouds.
The top of monte Acuto
I worked also in vhf with kx3 2watts and srh770s, I managed a log one station in FM at 100km north and some stations in SSB from Lazio qrb abt 130km . After about one hour of activation we decided to climb the second summit Monte Catria I/MC-306, a few km sud of Monte Acuto. We parked the car near the pass, we walked for about 30min and we reached the top, the sky was clear and the panorama was wonderful.
The top of monte Catria
Panorama from monte Catria
We installed one antenna and we worked one per times, after about one hour we climbed down and we reached the last summit of day, monte Alto I/MC-031, we parked the car a few meter from the top, in about 15 minute we reached the top and we activate in HF 20 and 30 cw. I called also in 2mt without results.
We passed in Qrt. The day concluded with 3 new one for me, one never activated and 16 points. It was a great day!
Many thanks to Eliseo IK6BAK for his exquisite hospitality and all chasers
73
iw2obx Roberto
