Hightop Mountain, Virginia

Hightop Mountain (W4V/SH-006) was a new summit for me. I originally hadn’t planned on doing six summits in a day, especially with the short winter daylight. However, thanks to the summits being close together in the park I was able to start this activation as the sun was setting. Looking at the map the hike didn’t look too bad. However after doing five other summits, I quickly realized how tired I really was.

Summit Information:

Summit Name: Hightop Mtn, (W4V/SH-006)

Location: Front Royal, VA

Latitude/Longitude: 38.3363,-78.5518

Date: January 7th, 2021

Parking: Free

Points: 8 + 3 (Winter Bonus)

County: Greene County

Grid: FM08ri

Weather: Sunny, 26 degrees

Permit: Yes, $20 Entrance fee

Full Trip Planning Guide

Difficulty

Views

Solitude

On a Scale of 1 to 5

After a longer climb than I expected, I found the summit which had a really nice clearing and what looked like remains of a tower. This would be an excellent spot for an overnight activation.

Thanks to my local VHF friends, I made quick work in getting my contacts. As I was leaving the summit I started losing light. Good thing I brought my headlamp. On my way down I considered doing one more summit (in the dark) which I had activated before, but considering I still had a two hour drive ahead of me, I decided to head home. Six SOTA activations were enough for one day.