Indeed, I made Steve aware of the information Martin @DF3MC posted on the summit page for EA8/FU-005. Steve @G1INK made his own decision to delete the activation.
Similarly, the recent EA activators are being made aware of the current emergency rules in Spain. You are doing this Guru. Like with Steve, at this initial point, it will be their decision whether to log/keep the activations in the Database.
Since any activation in Spain would not be valid under our present GR (read the preamble to 3.7) no official announcement is necessary. The only place where such an announcement could be made is this reflector, and I think this thread is sufficient to draw the attention of chasers - activators will already know from the local news outlets.
Yes, but I’m not a member of the SOTA MT.
The SOTA MT declaring invalid the SOTA activations in Spain in this special period of time due to this Royal Decree banning any displacements other than the few exceptions already informed, would help preserving the World’s health.
I won’t insist anymore. My request and wish has been clearly transmitted and received.
EDIT: The previous post from Brian (which just crossed with this one) stating that, under the current situation, any activation in Spain would not be valid under our present GR (read the preamble to 3.7) is highly satisfying to me. Thank you!
Let me post it here with the key phrases underlined.
73,
Guru
If the risk of an accident means you shouldn’t go, then what is the point of allowing people to go for a walk in the first place. The potential for an accident is always there, even in the local park. The Austrian policy of allowing recreational walking is sensible and balanced. If everyone keeps their distance then there is no danger of infection; don’t take unnecessary risks and drive carefully; simple. If anyone is making life hard for hospitals, it’s the people who have caused a national shortage of surgical masks by insisting on wearing one, even though hand-washing probably does far more to prevent infection.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
well i think there is a huge difference between going for a walk (in the park/forest) and hiking in the mountains. if you have an accident in the mountains it’s way harder for rescuers to transport you to the hospital. in alpine regions there is often no/poor mobile phone service, so you may not be able to contact anyone. and for alpine search & rescue a lot of people and equipment is needed (alpine rescuers, helicopters, …)
of course it can happen that you brake your leg during a walk in the park … but then you should have mobile phone reception and your accident only “blocks” one emergency car and 2-3 rescuers for a limited time.
at the moment everyone should reduce his/her risk of having an accident and being admitted to a hospital to a minimum!
my plan for today was to climb a mountain as well, but due to the current situation the only option i had was to cancel it. and it will stay like this for a longer period of time! and be sure … i don’t like it!!!
73 martin, oe5reo
Good decision 
Thank you for your nice comment.
The information I had was that the shutdown comes to effect from monday morning 8AM on. Of course I will follow this rule.
It seems that I was not the only one being confused about the start of the ban in the media. On the way up to Roque del Conde I met several hikers.
Why this agression?
73 Chris HB9CYV
Dear Chris,
I had access to the draft of the Royal Decree while it was still being discussed by the Conseil of Ministers and it’s true that the draft expressed the displacement restrictions would start on Monday at 8h00 AM. That is what the newspapers informed on Saturday and I posted it on this Reflector.
But, apparently this point changed during the internal discussions held by the Government and the final version published in the Official Bulletin (BOE = Boletín Oficial del Estado) stated that everything, including the movement restrictions, would apply immediately after the publication of the Royal Decree.
It was immediately echoed by all the media.
The situation is very delicate and we all need to comply with the isolation and the basic higienic rules in order to preserve ourselves from being infected, as this would put many others at risk.
I didn’t mean any agression to you or anybody. I just wanted to highlight what I was seeing on SOTAwatch, with you and Dani EA5M activating SOTA, in order to discourage any other potential activator and making cristal clear to everyone that activating SOTA was not permitted under the current rules in Spain.
I hope we will soon win the battle against this virus and will be back into the mountains for more SOTA fun!
73,
Guru
The current situation in Austria, according to the press, seems to be:
Total fatalities: 3
Serious or critical cases: 1
Number of beds in intensive care in Niederösterreich yet to be filled: over 400
Whilst your actions are, of course, very laudable, by your own argument, no one could possibly have been endangered by your having an accident today, since we are still well within capacity for treating serious cases.
As for the probability of someone having an accident, from what I can gather, after 16 years of SOTA and 322119 activations, there is only one instance I know of where an activator had to be evacuated by helicopter or mountain rescue. By all means enlarge this list, but I will be surprised if you get the probability anywhere under 75,000 to 1. If locking myself in prison would cure Coronavirus I would be banging on the door right now. Unfortunately, I think there are only three things that decide who lives and dies in this situation:
Lack of surgical masks.
Lack of oxygen.
Lack of ventilators.
I don’t like to be at odds with my esteemed SOTA colleagues, but I fear we are not on the same page with respect to this issue.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
ISTR there was a death on a mountain in GW in the early days of SOTA.
There is little point in wearing masks, apparently they are ineffective and what little benefit there is from wearing them only lasts for 20 minutes.
i totally agree …
My understanding is that the masks are to stop YOUR bugs getting out to someone else - NOT to protect you. The bug enters via contact, usually from the hands being wiped on the face or eyes. (hence the importance of washing hands more regularly that you would normally do).
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor - this is information gleaned from what has been published in the press.
It is still very laudable to wear a mask to protect others, especially as you don’t know if you are infected in the first 1-2 weeks.
Ed.
the austrian alpine club now officially urges people to avoid all kind of activities in the mountains
Hi Martin,
I can see where avoiding taking medical resources away from fighting the COVID-19 infections (or rather caring for and isolating those with it) must be the first priority, hence any summit activations of difficult to reach summits, should probably be put off to later in the year. Here in Germany however Hill walking is being specifically promoted as a good thing to do while we have all the restrictions in place to stop even small meetings of people to reduce the contamination from COVID-19.
Fresh air, very, very low chance of infection and getting out of the house are all very positive actions from both a physical and psychological point of view.
This artical from the Main Post seems to summarise it very well:
https://www.mainpost.de/ueberregional/journal/frauen_familie_senioren/Einsamkeit-und-frische-Luft-Corona-sichere-Wochenend-Aktivitaeten-in-Unterfranken;art498,10421490
All being well I will be out on two more summits tomorrow but these are certainly not dangerous ones, rather ones that are accessed along tracks., so I wont be any more likely to need a doctor than if I stayed at home.
For many people actions to avoid “cabin fever” will become important over the next few weeks as many will go into different levels of “lock-down”.
This applies not only in Europe - here’s a similar article from Hong Kong:
73 Ed.
The risk I see with going to easy mountains is they will likely be crowded, particularly at the summit trig point, where hikers, usually get together, have a sandwich, conversation and often share, drinks, fruits, etc. This is high risk practice and should be avoided.
Also, while hiking, we often have gates to open and close, which may be touched by many hands (potentially infectious ones) and this is something to avoid, as well as touching summit crosses, or trig points.
I think allowing people to freely go into the mountains is an error. If one takes his car to go to a local hill base in order to do some hiking, he may find that he needs to go to the gas station for petrol and this will unnecessarily put him in contact with other people or forcing him to touch things that many others have touched before. He may find that the pressure in some of his car tires is low and once he is at the gas station, going to the air hose to inflate his car tires will make him touch somethings many people have been touching before. He can also have a car accident and that will put him innecessarily in touch with several other people. Police, toll truck man, other drivers potentially involved in the accident, etc… During the hike, he may have an accident and need help from others, but he may also find other people having any type of accident and needing his help, this putting him again uncessesarily at risk of being too close to some other people.
Dozens of situations may arise putting us and others at risk.
Staying at home is the safest way to pass this crisis.
Please, stay home and reduce to a negligible minimum any contact with other people and with touching things that others may have touched before you. Of course, wash your hands everytime you touch anything coming from somebody elses hands or touched by somebody else before you. Do not touch your mouth, nose, eyes if you haven’t washed your hands with soap and water. Mascs are useless and it’s ridiculous seeing dozens of people walking in the streets wearing masks. Mascs are for the sanitary people at work, not for the people walking in the street.
Thanks for your comprehension and solidarity.
73,
Guru
Here is some simple advice:
Please obey local restrictions now and over the months to come.
Hummmm… So… I should be the last French activator… So Here we have the right to go for sport activity but ALONE… Yeap I was on these summits, but alone from alone for sure…People are in town all in the same park, that is the WRONG way !!! Now I’m back home and here where the Cows are more present than human where is the risk… Yeah in Town, shop and so on… Just WASH Firmly your hands… So hiking lonely a summit is not defending here while it is for your personnal and lonely sport activity !!!… But Surely I Don’t have any summit near the confination house… So I wouldn’t do some for long time but it doesn’t offende me if someone doing his personnal exercices alone kike a summit near is house ! So Take Care Everybody !!!
Not the ones I am going to tomorrow - on one, I have never met anyone there on the three times that I have activated it. On the other I think I met one person there three years ago.
Andy put it correctly - Obey local rules and guidance. This is not the same in all countries. From what has been written here, it’s very clearly stated in Spain and Austria that one shouldn’t go hill walking, whereas in Bavaria/Germany hill walking at the moment is recommended, not banned. If Bavaria goes into full-lockdown in the next few weeks this will of course change.
I have to say that Guru’s points about possible catching of the disease when getting Petrol or maintaining the car in some way (air in tyres etc.) made me think. I hadn’t thought about that and given that (at least in Germany) all Petrol stations are staying open, it’s time to wear the throw away plastic gloves that are supplied there for when filling up with Diesel when touching any of the equipment at the petrol station.
73 Ed.
Equipment touched making purchases includes devices touched in the process of making payment. Door handles, payment facilities. Tap and go type payment cards are useful and minimise contact between customer and staff, in all necessary purchasing. Cash is the less desirable option.
