First Activation of Crossman Peak, Mohave County, Arizona.

First SOTA Activation of Tamarack Peak, Washoe County, Nevada - Ace Number 3.

First SOTA Activation of Mount Houghton, Washoe County, Nevada - Ace Number 2.

Great outing on sunny and warm day (80F at 2:00 PM).  With Loren Chotzen, Dexter the Labrador and Max the Husky.

This was a fun activation of Mt. Hood. I decided to splurge on weight and bring the FT-817 and Buddipole (no coils) for 6m and 2m SSB. Once I got the antenna up, I found a number of chasers waiting on 50.125, so I'm glad I brought equipment for 6m. The mast was supported by shoving it into the hard snow on the summit.

It was a beautiful day, all the way around.  Kelly Butte is a great hike, a bit steep and exposed on the beginning switchbacks, but with wildflowers this time of year, and open views from the fire lookout.

Rainier filled the view to the south, and Seattle was visible through the foothills.  Mt. Stuart, Glacier Peak and the "backside" of the southern Snoqualmie pass summits made a nice panorama.

In conjunction with the Colorado 14er Event on Aug  4th (see http://www.14er.org/ for more info), the SOTA Rocky Mountain Rendezvous the first week of August, and the ARRL UHF Contest weekend, the W7 Associations are encouraging local Activators to participate from their favorite W7 summit the weekend of Aug 3-4th! 

Unicorn Peak was a short easy climb compared to the Little T attempt the day before. It's about a 6 mile round trip with 2500 ft of elevation gain. We were on snow most of the way.

Little Tahoma is a 11,138 ft summit on the east flank of Mt. Rainier. The route requires crossing the Frying Pan and Whitman glaciers.

Rattlesnake Mtn is part of King County's "Big Backyard" series of  hikes.  There is a trail head at the northwest end of the mountain at Snoqualmie Point and at the southeast end at Rattlesnake Lake.  Walking from TH to TH is about 11 miles.  We took the RS Lake route which is 4.3 miles and gains ~2500 ft to the summit.