Death Valley

Figured you were on a southern migration....

Bloody gorgeous shot man. Incredible.

Knocked out a few more summits on the DV NPS 200 list yesterday on the eastern border of the park.  In order counterclockwise: Weird Schwaub, Snail Mountain, Old man Mountain.  



I was running out of daylight and water so I couldn't hit Sexton benchmark as originally planned.  I'll have to come back for that one.

On top of Peak 5969 (aka Weird Schwaub) looking towards the rest of the route.  I have no idea why the NPS calls it Weird Schwaub. It's not remotely like Schwaub in character or appearance.



The hardest part of the hike was going down the cliff edge on the left in order to drop back into the valley.  There were a couple spots that required extreme care.

Snail mountain was absolutely covered in ancient fossils.




This is the biggest one I saw.  I finally put on work gloves as my hands were getting torn up by the limestone/dolomite.




Old Man Mountain has some impressive cliffs on the south side.  Photo taken from the summit of Snail.



I started at 8 AM and with 4 liters of water but I should have started earlier and with more water so I could have bagged Sexton benchmark too.  Day ended up at 10 hours, 16.5 miles, 6700 feet of gain.

Epic man. Nice one. Surprised you couldn't get closer to the mountains to start.

I've had that area on my to-do list for a bit but haven't gotten there.

Amazing views. Very curious about "Weird" Schwaub naming as well.

Wow, that's some spectacular effort. Loving the photos too, as I will likely never get out that way.

Holy cow, that's a trek. I don't think I've ever seen a TR from that forsaken sliver of the park. A lot of the limestone/dolomite outcrops and surfaces are so old and so stable that the primary erosion is from rain dissolving the calcite. Rainwater has a typical pH of 5-5.5, so is acidic and etches the rock surfaces. Really chews up the hands, as you've seen!

(2023-10-25, 10:17 AM)Beardilocks Wrote: [ -> ]Epic man.  Nice one.  Surprised you couldn't get closer to the mountains to start. 

Weird Schwaub is more easily accessed from the end of Echo canyon road but of course that's not an option right now.  There are some faint roads closer to Sexton benchmark that I'll explore when I go back, but either way I would have to make a loop to grab them all without waiting.

Tomorrow I'm heading up Scotty's castle road to the park border for some more remote peaks. There's no easier access even if all roads were open.  Should be easier hiking though, in much cooler weather.

Nice! Definitely report on that.

There is a canyoneering route down Snail Canyon, or something like that, in that area. I've not managed to get there but it is in that area and I'm guessing related to Snail Mtn - which I never knew by that name.

Damn you are cranking out the miles and elevation! Good job! Loved the pix.

(2023-10-23, 07:04 PM)netllama Wrote: [ -> ]hey, comp.os.linux was cool in the 90s !

Well I was thinking of rec.backcountry and it was probably in the 80s!

Imagine a bunch of nerd work out a backpack to Arc Dome. They meet at a hot springs (Spencer, IIRC) in the middle of nowhere in the long valley just east of the range. Well we all survived and had fun. Afterwards a bunch of us drove south down the valley to gee a geologic feature. The long dirt road of course when through the only ranch out there, and as it was the first day of hunting season, the kids were out selling lemonade (they could probably see traffic coming for miles, and there was not much!) so we stopped and chatted with some of the parents. They said "You don't look like hunters!" We started to try to explain about the internet, but they were all over it "Well of course we have modems and all, we are in the middle of nowhere, how do we keep track of anything"

Fun trip.