An early morning start was needed to get us up to Mt Bryan – the highest summit in the Mt Lofty Ranges.   This is a summit that is only available during the winter month’s as the Heysen trail, which leads up to the summit is closed during the summer fire-ban season from 15 November – 30 April

We planned to be on the summit at 23:00UTC, so we could take advantage of the Day Roll-Over and hopefully secure a few more contacts.

Weather was looking up, it had been a pretty clear night, but in the 5 minutes we were putting the gear into the car low clouds started rolling in from the South – not a great sign.

After a 2 hour drive we arrived at Mt Bryan and then headed the 17km up Mt Bryan Road East, arriving at the Heysen trail for the hike to the summit just after 7am to be greeted my a magnificent sunrise!

It was a little ominous to look up and not be able to see the summit as it was covered in clouds.

Somewhere up in the clouds is the summit that we were on the way to.

Yes, somewhere in the cloud there is a summit.

Just below the cloud-line on the way to the summit.

We made it up to the top and signed the visitors book, then found somewhere out of the wind to set up ,and were on air on 40m at about 23:15

There was a summit in the clouds!

Yes, the hike up the hill is a comfortable 1hr 15 minutes from the road, with about a 4kg pack, radio, battery, drink, antenna, squid pole and chair.

We used the fence post just down between the peak with the old trig point and the memorial cairn on it to attach the squid pole – as it was the only point in the activation zone that was a little bit out of the wind!

When it is cold and damp, I was very glad to have brought a chair and not been sitting on the ground!

We were in the cloud and managed 25 contacts before the day rolled over.  Just before day roll-over a very fine rain started that was getting right thru everything.

A further 14 contacts were made before we pulled the plug at just after 00:15 and packed up.

A few more photos on the summit before we made our way back down the trail – where the wind had picked up and the rain was just blasting thru!

The stone chair

The remains of the original trig point

Back at the car in just under an hour from leaving the summit, we headed back and stopped by the Burra Bakery for a pie on the way home.

13/06/14 worked the following stations:

VK5LY, VK5NIG, VK5PAS, VK5AKH/m, VK2YW, VK3PF/q, VK2IO, VK2DAG, VK1MA, VK6MB, VK3DET, VK5WG, VK1DI, VK3AMB, VK2KTT, VK3FMOL, VK5FIVE, VK3FQSO, VK5FMIC, VK5ZM/p, VK2TWR, VK3BYD, VK5CZ, VK5QI, VK5FGRY/p

And after the day rolled over, worked the following on the 14/06/14

VK6MB, VK5FGRY/p, VK1MA, VK2TWR, VK2IO, VK5LY, VK5WG, VK3PF/q, VK3WE/q, VK3AMB, VK5NIG, VK3FQSO, VK5PAS, VK2LAX

A big thanks for everyone that called in making the hike to the summit worth the effort!