25 NOVEMBER 2020 W6/CC-002
I’ve skied to this summit far more often than I have hiked it. It is fun terrain for cross country skis and at 8,848′ it has snow much the winter, on average. My first trip to this summit was on June 9th, 1974 – just before graduating from Palisades High School. I climbed Mt. Ritter in the Sierra Nevada a week later.
The hike is a pleasant 1.69 miles with about 600′ of elevation gain through a shady forest. Simply park at the end of Mt. Pinos road in the Chula Vista Campground parking lot and follow the main dirt road up from there. The activation zone is quite large and I recommend the west side near the Condor Viewing Area
I made all my contacts on 2m, including a summit-to-summit with Brian WA6JFK and Scott WA9STI over on Frazier Mountain. Here’s a helpful note for 2m operation: there is a club frequency, 146.550, that a lot of people out to the north use. Jim KA6QLQ out in Bakersfield told me about this. I also worked Pete W6SV up in Walker Basin up by Lake Isabella on this frequency.
The Hundred Peaks Section climbing guide for Mount Pinos.
More information about the Summits on the Air program.
KG6MZS 
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