N7KOM, N7OLE and I have been wanting to get a ski activation in all winter but our stars were not aligned. We attempted W7O/CM-005 a couple weeks earlier and managed to get through the turnstiles on the Summit Express lift when its came to a sudden stop and the lifties started turning everyone out. So when Willamette Pass offered cheap spring ticket deals, we jumped on the opportunity to capture this surprisingly rarely activated summit.
We arrived mid-morning on a Saturday in Early April and tried to discretely package our rigs in fanny packs and chest harnesses because Willamette Pass disallows backpacks on the lifts. See Tim’s video for the full effect.
The Activation zone is on Summit 2, which requires either taking the main Eagle Pack Accelerator lift to the top and either skiing down and taking the Peak 2 triple chair or a short uphill hike. We chose to ski down and take the easy way.
We exited the lift to the south then found a place to setup. There isn’t anyway where you are going to be “alone”. We had many questions and opportunities to spread the gospel of summits on the air and amateur radio. It’s a good idea to go in a pair or a group so while one person operates the second can answer the myriad questions.
We didn’t bother with 2M, as we had once before attempted a 2M and 10M activation and got completely skunked. I setup the KX2 with the K6ARK End Fed Random Wire and started at 40M. Once we qualified the summit on SSB (N7OLE is not CW … yet), I moved on to 10M and 20M CW, collecting only one contact per band. Meanwhile, Tim – N7KOM, pulled out his KH1 and worked a few stations in the background.
The wind started to pickup and the snow started to fall so we packed up and skied down to the truck to offload the rigs and grab some food in the bar before we got back to the runs.
Willamette Pass is a really fun activation if you are a downhill skier/snowboarder. The resort uses a demand pricing model so you can get really smoking deals on tickets if you can buy early or go on off days. We paid $34 per ticket for our April Saturday, not bad considering they also gave us $10 per person credit at the ski shop or restaurant.
When originally planning this activation I was surprised how few activations it has seen, only 2 prior to our troop. Its a relatively easy winter peak and the summer is easily hike able from the resort parking lot. Regardless, if you go, bring HF, VHF proved useless on two separate outings.
W7MTB: Amateur Radio Notes 