This was my third time attempting to activate Frazier Mountain, but this time I found success. The first time I wanted to drive to the top, but my small commuter car with low profile tires was not the correct vehicle for the task. I returned 6 months later with a mountain bike, but deep snow stopped me a few miles up the road. This time, I drove the commuter car a mile or so up Frazier Mountain Road until it got too rocky, parked on the edge of the road and hiked the rest of the way, which was a bit further than I thought! At the top, I pulled out my HT and immediately heard N6JZT for a quick S2S. After, I used 23cm for one microwave QSO, which I believe was just over 100km, my furthest. I then worked 40m, 30m, and 20m CW for additional contacts. I wanted to activate a few other summits in the area, so I packed everything down and headed down to the car.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/CC-003

Date:07/07/2022 | Summit:W6/CC-003 (Frazier Mountain

This was the last summit of four I activated on a solo camping trip in Lone Pine, and my third climb of the day.  At this point, the temperature was quite warm, and the wind was starting to get a bit unruly.  I parked the car right off Movie Road and started hiking up to the summit.  Once there I used the EFHW, which was tough to wrangle in the wind.  The golf umbrella I used for shade was useless in these conditions.  Worked 20,30, 40M CW and got back down to the car as quickly as I could.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/IN-048

Date:08/04/2022 | Summit:W6/IN-048 (5213)

This was my first summit in a series of four while solo camping in Lone Pine.  I had just drove up from Los Angeles, found a place to camp, setup my tent, relaxed a bit, then headed over to W6/IN-046, also known as “Rattlesnake Hill”.  There was no apparent trail to the summit, so I parked my car in a small clearing and just headed up the mountain, watching out for rattle snakes on my way.  Once the steep part was out of the way I picked up what looked like a use-trail and followed it up the the geographical summit.  Used a vertical and worked 20M.  One contact on 2M with a local who told me to watch out for snakes.  When heading down, I picked up on a much better trail.  I’ll take this way up next time.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/IN-045

Date:07/04/2022 | Summit:W6/IN-045 (5396)

Use-Trail

This was my second summit of four on a solo camping trip in Lone Pine.  After waking up at Portuguese Joe campground, I packed up my tent and made a quick breakfast before pointing my commuter car down movie road to the trailhead.  This was an easy drive in my small car.  One could take a 4×4 all the way to the top, but it gets kinda sketchy in a couple spots.  At the top I used an EFHW and worked through a pileup on 40M, then over to 30M.  One S2S up to San Francisco.  2.5 miles of hiking and a bit over 1K elevation.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SS-449

Date:08/04/2022 | Summit:W6/SS-449 (5200)

This was my third summit of four on a solo camping trip in Lone Pine.  The hike up was a relatively short cross country jaunt, less than a mile, but just under 1K elevation gain so kinda steep.  Up top I used a tri-band vertical; not much room for a end fed.  Worked 20,30,40M CW for about 30 minutes before packing down and heading to W6/IN-048

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SS-636

Date:08/04/2022 | Summit:W6/SS-636 (Alabama Hills)