Month: September 2025

Mount Saint Helens

The summit that started it all. When 2024 began I had no knowledge of SOTA and only a vague familiarity (but zero interest in) ham radio. For whatever reason, YouTube began to feed me some video about ham radio and a volcano. I vehemently ignored it, perhaps even clicking the “not interested” option, but the algorithm persisted.

Finally I gave in and my eyes went wide with curiosity—there was a guy scree-surfing on top of a windy Mount Saint Helens with a handheld radio talking to someone else [turns out] on another summit. I didn’t know what I was watching, but I knew that I wanted in on it.

About 16 months later and here I am leaving the Climber’s Bivuoac trailhead with three partners, a ham radio license and a rough plan.

The ascent up Saint Helens can be broken into 3 segments: the forested trail, the boulder field, and the sand/ash climb. With headlamps and snacks, we started right at 5:30AM hoping to reach the boulder field before sunrise.

Route-finding is not a problem, with tall wooden poles marking the way up. We kept a consistent pace up with only a couple of short breaks to occasionally take in the view and swap out clothing layers.

It took us a bit under four hours to reach to the top where we had to then hike along the edge to get up to the true summit.

Using my Anytone 878 and a Smiley 2M whip, I made 11 FM contacts and easily activated my first volcano. We sat down to eat our sandwiches and just look out at the other mountains, feeling lucky on this incredibly clear day.

Finally, it was time to head back down. We had a bit of a drive ahead to our hotel in Hood River… and the beers & burgers at Pfriem Brewing were already sounding pretty damn good.

Blue Mountains: Misery Peak W7W/WE-003 & Garfield County H.P. W7W/WE-002

This is a bit of a scouting mission as I’d only been to the Blue Mountains a couple of times and those were the pre-summit hunting days. Two relatively easy looking targets: Mount Misery W7W/WE-003 and the Garfield County High Point W7W/WE-002.

Happy to report that the Umatilla National Forest roads were surprisingly wide a smooth, making the long drive to get into the business bearable. As you get closer to the summits, the road does begin to narrow and roughen, but nothing notable.

Garfield County High Point was first up and was a relatively easy trail hike from the parking area below. The activation zone was wide open with some nice views, especially to the south-east.

After that clean activation, I made my back to the car and then relocated a bit closer to Mount Misery. There was a nice pullout along the otherwise narrow section of road just below the summit. The hike up was steep with no trail, but straightforward.

I spent a fair amount of time looking south towards unactivated Prominencians Peak W7W/WE-013 and Halsey Butte W7W/WE-010. Both have been on my radar for quite some time and although I didn’t make it out this year, I’m hoping for a 2026 attempt. The terrain looked to be super rough and overgrown—it’ll probably be a pretty difficult and long day for each.