Club members Brett Garrett (VE7GM), Eric Kehler (VA7NX), Ralph Webb (VE7OM) and Jim Wilkins (VE7UVL) hiked the grueling start of the Diez Vistas trail from Buntzen Lake to the summit of Farrer Peak. Our adventure took place on March 7, 2015 and once at the designated coordinates of the summit, we set up our radio gear and sought after contacts for the summits on the air program. Our first two contacts were on 2m. Just after we arrived on the summit Eric tuned his hand-held to the standard call-in frequency and immediately heard fellow club member Bill VE7WNO calling for us. He had a strong signal and we enjoyed the QSO. Our second call was from Carolyn VA7CDA, Eric’s wife, who had agreed to look for us around the noon time period.

During this early time we were joined on site by another SOTA activator – Jan  Vozenilek (VA7VJ). Only Brett had met Jan before so it was a pleasant surprise to finally meet another local activator and share in the fun of the pastime. We next set up Brett’s HF antenna and got his radio on the air on 20m. He started on Phone but was having a hard time working the band due to a very active contest. Ralph set up his system a short distance away and started calling out on 40m but was not able to make any contacts. Eventually Brett moved to CW and over the next hour was able to log 7 QSO’s. In the end we had 9 contacts and a successfully activated summit.

The actual hike went quite well though the final section was definitely steep and tiring. The one viewpoint we hiked past had a lovely view towards Vancouver and Burrard Inlet. Ralph and Eric took time to hike to the second viewpoint but it seemed much more distant than expected and we turned back before reaching it. There were quite a number of hikers on the trail, it being a perfect day for hiking and many of them were quite interested in what we were doing.

Eric's trip report can be found here: http://www.scenicart.ca/content/farrer-peak