ACØPR, ham radio blog: All Time New One SOTA W7U/IR-009 nicknamed "Parowan Perch"

I made a list of potential never-before-activated summits I might want to try. If I haven't done them at this point (after 5 years in), it's because they have extra challenges I haven't wanted to tackle. This was one that wasn't overly far and had good potential. I had scouted a route a few years back--that route was not viable, water run-off had altered the ATV route to where it couldn't be taken. I finally looked into again and found a better way.

In the area:

In the town of Parowan there's an access road that's easy to find. Right out of the city is BLM land and there's a road that follows the terrain and leads to the base of the summit (about 600' vertical below it). The road very quickly becomes more of an OHV trail. There were parts that were very rough. I used the ATV to get as far as I could. I was worried I wouldn't get close enough to have time to do it before the heat came in.

It's five miles to the base and of course the farther you go the less elevation you have to cover hiking.
The route was bad enough that I had to walk my ATV in a part--and I can go in some pretty bad spots. I got about 4 miles in when a combination of bad road and deadfall across the route had me stow the ATV and start hiking, leaving me with about a mile on the trail and a little less than that off trail to the top.

The hike along the trail was very nice. Gentle slope, almost completely shaded in the morning, not a lot of places to go the wrong way (it's along a gully, you honestly can't get turned around). I made decent time along the trail. At the base there's not a great place to start the climb up. It's all fairly steep and there's plenty of bushwhacking opportunity. I made my way up trying to gain as much elevation quickly while also traversing to the western ridgeline.

At least it was manzanita bush and not scrub oak which is taller and tougher to get through. As I got a little higher and closer to the western part of the ridge, things opened up enough that I could just navigate past and make some good progress. I was tired by the time I reached the top. It was beautiful though and it felt great.

On the air:

I had a little trouble with getting the mast up and stable, so that took a few minutes longer. Also, my tripod for filming and photos broke on the summit. Things like that happen. I finally setup and spotted myself. I wasn't going to stay on long--it took me longer than expected to reach the summit, and it was going to get hot and I still had a long way to get back.

As per my usual SOP, I started on 20m. I spotted that this was an "ATNO" and got calls immediately. in three minutes I had officially activated the summit. I reached NY my second call, and then got France as my number six. I had a little run of 11 in ten minutes. Called again, no answer, so moved to 40m.

On 40m I also got numerous calls at once (this is on a Monday, not a holiday). Had another run of 12 quickly included three Summit to Summit contacts. A total of 23 in exactly 23 minutes (that includes the time needed to switch my links to change bands). One final call, nothing heard, and shut it down.

I used some new gear--got a new, smaller pack, much smaller clipboard, and tried out a new battery

(1,500 mAh and about half the size of my usual one). All worked well. In the end I took a few pics, packed up, texted out, ate two packs of fruit snacks for quick energy and headed back.

It was getting hot, but going downhill helps. Made it to the ATV fine--it's a good sight. Then the road back of course was just as rough, although at times going down on an ATV is harder than going up--a few sketchy parts, but then seeing that pickup at the end was another wonderful thing. A good, successful day!

Video of the activation

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
16:22	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
16:24	WB2FUV	14MHz	CW
16:25	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
16:25	W9MRH	14MHz	CW
16:26	WW7D	14MHz	CW
16:27	F4WBN	14MHz	CW
16:27	K0LAF	14MHz	CW
16:28	N4TIZ	14MHz	CW
16:28	K6MW	14MHz	CW
16:31	W6TDX	14MHz	CW
16:32	K7III	14MHz	CW
16:37	WB6POT	7MHz	CW
16:37	WA6KYR	7MHz	CW
16:38	W6DT	7MHz	CW
16:38	K7GT	7MHz	CW
16:39	W7UM	7MHz	CW	S2S W0C/FR-019
16:41	K6EL	7MHz	CW	S2S W6/NC-423
16:42	KX0R	7MHz	CW	S2S W0C/FR-019
16:43	W6TDX	7MHz	CW
16:43	WA6MTZ	7MHz	CW
16:44	NM5S	7MHz	CW
16:44	NG7A	7MHz	CW
16:45	K6LDQ	7MHz	CW