W6/SC-076 – Whitaker Peak

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It took me three attempts to activate Whitaker Peak. The first attempt was 2021. From the fire road, I scaled a near vertical wall and actually made it to the peak, but found the battery I brought was dead! The second time, I mountain biked up to the communications site, but there were so many workers there I couldn’t easily get myself and bike around their trucks to proceed along the ridge. On my third and final attempt, I planned to ride up from Golden State Highway, but the Whitaker Peak fire road gate was open, so I drove through, saving quite a bit of time. Eventually the fire road got too rough, so I parked and rode the MTB to the communications site, locked it up on the fence, and hiked the ridge over to the true summit.

I hiked along a faint use trail over the ridge which was super overgrown. I should bring clippers next time to thin out the trail. Wear long pants unless you like getting mauled by plants. At the top is a small clearing and a benchmark, with a register hidden in a rock pile. While setting up, I had my radio tuned at 144.100 CW without an antenna connected and heard KE6SRN crack through at S9. Easy S2S with SRN, and SRO! Continuing on 2M CW resulted in additional contacts for the 2026 2M challenge. After exhausting chasers, I jumped on 17M for a few more QSOs. By this point it was starting to get hot, so I packed up and headed down the way I came. Glad to finally get this summit activated!

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/SC-076

Total distance: 0.54 mi
Total climbing: 314 ft
Download file: Whitaker.gpx

Date:21/02/2026 |  Summit:W6/SC-076 (Whitaker Peak)

TimeCallsignBandModeDistance (km)Notes
19:44KE6SRN144MHzCW39S2S W6/CT-132 S599 R599
19:57KE6SRO144MHzCW39S2S W6/CT-132 S599 R599
20:00KK6WT144MHzCW48%QRA%DM04NE% S599 R599
20:05NT6E144MHzCW87%QRA%DM03TU% S500 R53N
20:06K1CT144MHzCW241%QRA%DM12JT% S52N R229
20:07W6LEN144MHzCW121%QRA%DM13AQ% S599 R599
20:10K6CPR144MHzCW%QRA%DM04LF S599 R42N
20:25WW7D18MHzCWS58N R56N
20:26WF4I18MHzCWS55N R53N
20:27KD7LX18MHzCWS55N R55N
20:28N5URL18MHzCWS53N R53N
20:29WU7H18MHzCWS57N R55N
20:30KX6I18MHzCWS57N R33N
20:30NU7A18MHzCWS58N R55N
The road up, with my bike in a deep erosion channel
This is not the summit
View of the summit from the communications site.
Benchmark
Previous activators
Summit register. Lots of SOTA folks in there!
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