W7Y/TT-149 - Munger Mountain FEBRUARY 13, 2022 3.9 MILES, 2300’ CLIMB / DECENT 2.5 Hours to climb up, 30 minutes down.
I activated Munger Mountain, W7Y/TT-149, last summer. While climbing the peak, I thought it would be a good backcountry ski touring area in the winter. We finally got some sunny, 30 degree weather so I decided to activate it again in winter and ski up and down too. Skiing up and down a mountain, even with terrible snow, is much easier than hiking it, especially if there’s no real trail.
It was a perfect, calm, sunny day and I had the mountain to myself. I had drawn a route on Caltopo.com and then looked at it on Google Earth: all looked good. But when I got near the trailhead, I saw that the road was closed in winter. To get to my planned route, I would have to ski down the road at least 2 miles. I looked at the maps on Gaia GPS on my phone and saw there was another ridge, much closer, that would take me to the summit. Turns out, it was a blessing in disguise. It was a much better ski route and I was able to ski down the ridge without doing any climbing.
Below is a video I made of the trip. It was a very successful activation, but I had to QRT early because the 15-20mph wind made my fingers numb pretty fast. I would have loved to try 40m and 30m, but my fingers were too cold. I made 22 QSOs, with one DX. And thanks to all the chasers. Always a big thrill to have a pileup on top of a mountain.
If you’re curious what’s it’s like to ski up and down and mountain, I made a video of the trip.