My extended DV stay

[MojaveGeek]

Little Corkscrew. From the saddle with Corkscrew, to get out to the Little Corkscrew ridge, there is a nice use trail on the right / west side of the ridge, which gets you past a steep bit of nastiness, and then out where you can easily gain the main ridge and take your pick of which point is the actual high point (I'm not sure). You have to look a bit to find the start of the trail - it actually drops a few 10s of feet from the saddle before contouring - but trust your instinct because it gets better. If you try to follow the ridge line it's pretty rough, and people I know who have traversed on the left / east side say it is passable but rugged; I thought it was pretty ugly and might not have gone all the way up had we not found the use trail on the west side.

From that saddle there is a good trail which angles down and south on the east side of the ridge, and passes through a little notch (very short class 3, otherwise class 1). From there you can turn left and work your way back around to the trail which you may have come up (as it is the most direct route to the main summit). OR, you can turn right, contour over to the spring area (lots of sheep evidence there) and then pick up a very clear trail going down (it's a bit hard to see in the midst of the spring vegetation, but then becomes quite clear). This will head down and also ends up being a pretty direct route to where you probably parked.

From the spring you could also go straight on a game trail for a long ridge walk and end up at the main wash near Hell's Gate - that's pretty long at that point, especially if you got there by first summitting Corkscrew.

When I first climbed Corkscrew there was a can of Bud in the register box. It's far from my favorite beer, but I will admit that it was not there when I left.

And thanks for pointing out Ron's list, John - it's much more manageable.

[Brice]

Thanks for the tips. All I know at this point is I won't be climbing corkscrew via the same route that I did last time. I'll work out the rest of the details along the way 😀

[John Morrow]

A list of 99 major peaks here:

https://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=50182

Just passed the halfway mark on that list today. But Beardilocks succesfully wooed an NPS ranger into giving up the list of ~200 they consider "worthy." So now I'm all set for a while.  Gonna re-do corkscrew tomorrow to check off "little corkscrew" that's on the same ridge and on the new list!

I'd like to see that NPS list.

[TacoLand]

Me too ..... if you can share privately that would be greatly appreciated.

[Brice]

John and Taco check your forum messages for a link. It comes with the NPS disclaimer that some peaks on the list may not be legal to climb, some may be "unclimbable", and some are outside the park.

[Brice]

I took a "rest" day after the Tucki bridge hike and went up Death Valley Buttes.  Because of the road closure I had to start from the information kiosk.  Daylight pass road is still closed but from what I could see, it's in great shape at least until it enters Mud canyon.



Today I went to bag Little corkscrew.  Things are really starting to green up.



View of Little Corkscrew on the left side.  I hiked straight up to the rock band then contoured around to below the saddle.



It took a couple tries to figure out the best way to reach the high point in the center of the photo, but I managed.



Another look back at Little Corkscrew as I was on my way to the main summit.



Having taken a non-standard route and being first to the summit that day, I didn't see anybody else.  But there were 4 or 5 cars parked at the Corkscrew sign as I drove by on the way out of the park.  A few curves later, a guy is parked in the middle of the road with his door wide open, taking a photo of who knows what.  And then just to underscore the fact that it's a holiday weekend, I saw another guy on the side of the road trying to feed some burros near the Rhyolite junction.  Sigh...

[DeathValleyDazed]

Wow, loving your vivid photos of Corkscrew Peak. Did you have clear view of Mount Whitney way off to the West? Death Valley Buttes is so well worth the time.

[Brice]

Wow, loving your vivid photos of Corkscrew Peak. Did you have clear view of Mount Whitney way off to the West? Death Valley Buttes is so well worth the time.

I'm not sure Whitney is visible until you get on top of, or west of the panamint range. Telescope is too tall.

[MojaveGeek]

Looks like the route you took up was the way I was talking about coming down in my previous post. I was on trail most of the way - not official trail, of course. Did you try to go right up the ridge from the Little Corkscrew / Corkscrew saddle, or go around on the right side at the base of the cliffs to eventually pick up the other trail through the gap in the cliffs? (the ones that make it look like a corkscrew).

You can see Whitney from Corkscrew. From Thimble as well. Even from Little Corkscrew. It doesn't really stand out that well, at that distance. I've matched up my photos with the topo maps, and it also shows up in the "simulated view" on caltopo (especially since they added "imagery" views in addition to wireframe, that is a wonderful tool)

[Brice]

I went straight up the ridge and rejoined the main trail at the arch, which is just before the summit.