29 July 2017, SOTA activity from YO/EC-380 "Runcu Boului"

Essential summit info for activators

Target summit: 6 pointer YO/EC-380 "Runcu Boului" - http://www.sota.org.uk/Summit/YO/EC-380
Our Route: From Paltinu we drove on a gravel road up the mountain within "striking" distance. For me, with a broken leg and crutches, that's a few hundred meters. Check the map.
GPS Track: ​http://www.wandermap.net/en/route/3531616-runcu-boului-yoec-380/
(download the track by clicking on "Export GPS data").
GSM coverage: Exceptional. There are several GSM antenna towers on the top, which can give you some QRM. In 14 MHz was OKish, even though "there were noises coming from the darkness, strange, like a whisper".
Summit conditions: Open, grassy, with some scattered trees and hay-barn-thingies. Not much shade nor wind cover.
Other info: Safe from bears and apparently there's not much grazing either. Easily accessible by car with some careful driving required.

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Activity report

Being one of the easiest SOTA peaks and given my broken ankle, we thought of it as my get-back-in-the-game summit. That's a bit optimistic, since I'm a long way from being recovered and probably another 4 months or more from my first un-aided summit (which will be an easy one, no doubt). Moreover, soon I'm getting under the knife again, so this was my last chance for a summit in the immediate future. It turns out I was lucky: the grass was freshly mown and so my crutches didn't get stuck at every step. The distance from the car to the top was around 450 meters, which I covered in reasonable time. 

Radio-wise it was pretty chaotic, with the IOTA contest going on and the people who kept mistaken our SOTA activation for a IOTA contest station. We bagged a few contacts each (I got 9, Andrei got 12), all in 14 MHz, and call it a day. Back home my foot was swollen and ached, but I was satisfied.