Straightforward climb worth 4 SOTA points, not much room at the summit
This is a brief account of my SOTA activation of this summit, with a few tips that may help aspiring activators! Brief update for 2026 below.
The Summit is accessible from the village of Roque with plenty pf parking available (Main road is the TF565).
From the village I walked along the minor road Westwards until I found the access path between two houses. It is not signposted, but I was guided by the picture on DF6XP's very useful report of this activation. The house has been spruced up a bit since DF6XP's picture in 2017 - Access is to the left where the white car is.
From here the summit is visible but the footpath is not clear - I ended up making my haphazard way to the top, zig zagging and clambering over rocks. It is not too challenging, just needs a little persistence! The terrain is rocky and covered with prickly pear cactus, so I was glad I had my long trousers on.
The summit's peak is very narrow/pointed and only accessible by rock climbers, but there is a useful flat ledge just below that is suitable for activation. The hill sides either side of the ledge are steep, so there was no ground space to anchor my inverted V elements. I did try extending my Sotapole, but was concerned it could roll off the hill if too clumsy! I was careful to keep hold of water bottles, connectors etc for fear they would cascade down the hill!
I found suitable rocks to string my Dipole between and propped it up in the middle as high as I dared.
I dropped an SMS message to EA8/GM6ZAK who was holidaying on the island and we had a quick chat on 2m and 70cm FM to get the activation off to a start. I decided to just try 20m SSB, and after a self spot managed a further 10 unique QSOs.
Happy with the morning's activation I descended the summit, trying (and broadly failing) to plot an easy route down.
Just one final activation the following week: TF019 Rojar
Update 2026:
I returned to activate this summit again, and this time tried to follow the route on SOTL.as closely. The path is reasonably easy to follow, but again I did find myself straying and needing to course-correct! At the end of the day, just keep walking upwards!
Next activation in 2026: TF-010 >>
No comments:
Post a Comment