What a beautiful day for an activation!

My family and I were taking one last summer trip before the kids headed back to school. Ever since our planned summer 2020 trip to Switzerland was canceled due to the pandemic, my wife Debbie and I have been dying to reschedule. We ended up basing ourselves in Interlaken for a week of exploring. Since our daughters are 7 and 5, we focused on family-friendly activities. This Tuesday morning, we set out for Lauterbrunnen and Mürren.

Public transit in Interlaken made getting around effortless. From Lauterbrunnen, a cable car takes you up the mountain valley, followed by a short, scenic train ride into the car-free town of Mürren.

I had researched accessible summits ahead of time, and today’s target—Schilthorn—was just a 17-minute cable car ride from Mürren. While my wife and daughters headed to the ‘Flower Park’ playground on Allmendhubel Ridge, I made my way toward the summit.

Upon arrival, I discovered the cable car to Schilthorn cost 91 CHF (about $112 USD). Oof! The main draw at the top, aside from the high elevation, is Piz Gloria—a fancy 360-degree revolving restaurant. A cool feature, but I was here for the QSOs!

I snapped a few landscape photos on my Canon R5 from the sightseeing platform. Two stairways led off the platform onto the summit ridgeline toward neighboring peaks—definitely a route for next time.

After ensuring I was within the activation zone, I set up on some rocks facing north. My first 2m FM contact was a Summit-to-Summit (S2S) with HB9JAY on a summit named “Güpfi” (HB/OW-014).

Next, I switched to my KH1 on 20m. Christian (F4WBN), a very active chaser, called me based on my spot before I even had a chance to call CQ! A huge DX pileup quickly formed. As a newer CW operator, it was a bit stressful, but absolute blast.

During the activation, a couple stopped to chat. It turned out to be local Swiss ham Reinhart (HB9RKS), who mentioned he was hard of hearing and mostly operated FT8 and FT4. I jokingly asked if he could take over the key for me, but he laughed and declined my plea for help! A few other curious onlookers stopped to ask what I was doing. They disrupted my flow a bit, but I didn’t mind—it just reminded me that I really need to print some SOTA info cards to hand out.

It was a delightful activation overall. Between the DX pileups and the spectacular scenery, it’s a summit I’d love to return to.