Sunrise at Mt Hotham (photo: my daughter)
I had an opportunity to spend 5 days at Mt Hotham in the middle of June thanks to my daughter doing her school work experience with Mt Hotham ski patrol. Originally, I was expecting to be hiking as there’s rarely much snow that early in the year. However, this year there was a substantial early fall the day before we headed up.
Snow in Harrietville! (Photo: my daughter)
In fact there was so much that it was snowing in Hariettville and we had to fit chains at the bottom of the mountain!
I had plenty of time and planned to activate a number of summits during the week. The first opportunity to head out came on Tuesday when I teamed up with Brian VK3BCM to attempt Mt Phipps and Mt Birregun which are both 4WD drive-up summits. Unfortunately due to the substantial snow fall, the road to these summits proved impassable.
Operating at Mt Livingstone (photo: Brian)
We back tracked and headed up instead to Mt Livingstone for an easy 11 point activation. We managed 15 contacts across 80 and 40m bands.
As you can see, there was no sign of snow here, the summit being only an 8 pointer.
Despite only achieving one 8 point summit, we had a fun day – thanks for the company Brian!
On Wednesday, the weather was almost perfect, so I decided to make the trek out to Mt Tabletop. This is a 5km hike in summer and snow shoe in winter. The conditions were almost perfect with full snow cover the whole way, even down to the floor of the valley that separates the mountain from the surrounding plains. The snow had what’s known as a “breakable crust”. This is a condition where a hard icy layer forms on top of soft snow. It’s quite thin and every step you break through into the softer snow beneath which makes walking a bit harder than in fresh snow. The trip took about 2 hours each way and includes significant descent and ascent (see my previous write up of this summit here for the track and elevation details).
I set up the station on the edge of the escarpment which has great views to the east. After a quick bite of lunch in the sunshine, I spotted (good mobile coverage here from Dinner Plain) and soon had 12 contacts in the log on 20 and 40m. The photos below will give you an idea of what it was like – there was an amazing amount of snow for mid June!
The weather also turned out to be excellent on Friday, but with a bit more wind. I decided to attempt Mt Loch and Mt Hotham. I’ve done these now many times, so knew the drill well. I skied out to Mt Loch around the edge of the resort past the still-closed Orchard ski area and climbed steadily upward across the snow plain to the summit. There was a brisk breeze which made the activation a little harder than the previous few times. I needed to use my Bothy bag to stay warm, but the wind was strong enough that it made quite a racket with the flapping.
I also had some problems with what I think was wind generated static on the antenna which made hearing some of the chasers difficult. I had few local chasers, but a good selection of chasers from other states and NZ on 40m.
I didn’t hang around long as it was quite cold with the strong wind. I thought I’d take a short-cut back as I was on alpine touring skis. The plan was to ski down one of the main runs (Spargo’s for those that know Hotham) to the Heavenly Valley chair and then ride it up which takes you very close to the Loch car park and a short walk up to the summit of Mt Hotham.
What I hadn’t counted on was that Spargo’s was covered in breakable crust which is very hard to ski (essentially impossible for me with a backpack full of radio gear). Spargo’s is also a steep black run and so I ended up having to side-step all the way down which was exhausting. In retrospect, a better plan would have been to remove my skis, attach them to my pack and walk down despite the fairly deep snow.
By the time I got to the lift, I decided to call it a day given that I could pick up the summit of Hotham easily on my next trip.
Here’s a gallery of photos from the trip out to Mt Loch – the views are always great in winter.
The summit cairn with my lightweight squid pole holding up the antenna
I had hoped to activate five summits during this week, but as often happens, things didn’t go quite to plan. However, nearly 40 points for the week wasn’t too bad.
Hello David
I always enjoy reading of your radio adventures and of your trekking in the Victorian High country. Your photos are great and I admire your fortitude. I was interested in your comment about the wind on the antenna and static build up. I understand that this can damage a transceiver, especially the front end. I am not sure how you should deal with it. Discharging the antenna to ground from time to time might help. Others reading your blog may make some comments. Thanks for the post.
John D, VK5BJE/VK5PF
Thanks John. On the static, I’m not entirely sure that this was the problem as the antenna us an EFHW which uses a matching transformer that is DC coupled to ground, so there shouldn’t actually be differential static voltages on the input. However, there may still be an effect as the rig itself was not grounded. If I think of it next time, I’ll try grounding the rig to see if that makes any difference.