Mini reports

[Brice]

"Should be easier hiking though..."
                 -Me. Idiot. From a post 3 days ago.

Went up to the end of Scotty's castle road to knock out more of the NPS list.  What I thought was going to be easy hiking ended up being very difficult.  I found myself racing the sunset for the third time this week.  And this time, unlike the other two times, I hadn't thought to bring my headlamp.  Oops.



These peaks are northwest of Grapevine peak.  My initial plan was to hike in a clockwise direction, but what would become a theme of the day, I changed those plans upon encountering the terrain.  The T89 ridgeline was incredibly rugged in appearance.  A slew of rock spires and pinnacles which looked either impassable or at the very least, slow to cross.  I didn't want to climb down that ridgeline late in the day since it might prove impossible so I decided to go counter-clockwise instead and find out sooner rather than later.

The hike started off well enough by dropping into the canyon floor.  One of the light colored hillsides had a bunch of crystals eroding out.



Once in the canyon I thought it would be best to hike to the saddle between 7960 and 8460, then ascend from there, even though that would require some backtracking.  I should have done that.  But at some point I decided to try the ridgeline anyway.  I know from experience that things often look worse from a distance than they are.  That was not the case this time.  This photo is from just below the summit showing an example of what things were like.  There was a lot of uncomfortable exposed climbing.




I think it took me close to 5 hours to get to the first summit.  View from T89 looking towards Bighorn Gorge, Mesquite springs campground,  Ubehebe Crater.




Moving from T89 to 8460 was easy.  The summit logs on each peak indicate they get climbed less than once per year.  Most of the names were park employees.  I'd like to know what, if any, is the standard route for these peaks.  This is from the 8460 summit, looking south towards Grapevine peak (left).



The way down from 8460 was just as hard as going up.  I had a choice between two gullies. The first one led to a dryfall I couldn't climb down so I had to climb back up and try the next gully over.  That one I managed to get down, but only barely.  Once I got to the saddle I could look back and see I should have taken neither gully and instead climbed down the outside face of 8460.

I raced up and over 7960 and then assessed the daylight situation.  It was 3:30 PM.  The ridge I planned to take back to the canyon floor looked clear of obstacles.  I decided I could hustle to 7990 and get back to where I was currently standing in 1 hour.  That would leave me about 1.5 hrs before sunset to get back to the car.  Plus maybe another 30 minutes of usable twilight.  Turns out I needed every minute of that.

The trip to and from 7990 went smoothly.  The ridgeline down to the canyon floor worked well.  Most of what was left should be an easy walk down a wash.

Crap.



I first tried to bypass on the left, then succeeded on the right.  Every minute mattered.  Immediately after the brush was another dryfall which I could not climb down.  I had to bypass on the north or south wall.  I chose south.  I chose poorly.  I ended up having to go all the way back up to the top of the ridge before the cliffs could be crossed.  I could see from my vantage that the north side likely would have worked out better.

I butt skied down a steep gravelly slope back to the canyon floor, and jogged the rest of the way back, arriving at 6:45 PM.  The nearly full moon helping to prolong the light.  Many mistakes were made this day, but it all worked out OK in the end.