Death Valley

"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.

Eeek. jeeebus, that sounds kinda borderline scary. Did you have any plan if you ran out of light (and the moonlight wasn't helping)?

Photos looked goregous (as usual) though.

Great trip report. I remember another forum member, years ago back in the old DVnet days, talking about wanting to hike T89 and 8460, but unfortunately he was never able to. I'm very glad to see someone finally did that hike.

(2023-10-27, 04:34 PM)netllama Wrote: [ -> ]Eeek.  jeeebus, that sounds kinda borderline scary.  Did you have any plan if you ran out of light (and the moonlight wasn't helping)?

Photos looked goregous (as usual) though.

It was borderline scary during the final dryfall bypass because I didn't know how long it would take or what path I would be forced onto. There were a lot of expletives unleashed at the canyon walls during that time.   My goal was to make sure I was done with all serious scrambling before I lost the daylight, and I knew from sat photos that the canyon widened past the dryfall.

I did have a spare battery for my phone so I could have used the camera LED for light as long as one hand could be free. I've never tried that.  I don't know how effective it would be.

A bit scary of a hike. I'd be stressed too. You get that last obstacle and you're really sweating getting off it before dark. Downclimbing with a phone in hand would be tough. You should really just always leave your headlamp in your pack, no matter what. It's worth the weight for the few times you need it. But I don't need to tell you that. A pretty lonely area up there, I've not heard of anyone hitting those peaks! I bet you were beat at the end of the day. Thanks much for the post!

Damn. Just one of those days where it's not clicking into place. Not one or two parts harder than expected but they just keep stacking up.

I don't mind hiking out the last leg in the dark in the desert, but dryfall bypasses in the dark would be extremely stressful.

Keep learning, keep evolving. These kinds of days are truly 'what doesn't kill me...'

Had some business to take care of around Furnace this week in the form of Monte Blanco and Blue Mountain.  I really didn't know the best way to get to Blue Mountain but I knew from my previous ascent of Borax benchmark that the whole area has very complicated topography.  If there were to be somewhere in Death Valley referred to as "the maze," this area would be a contender for the title.

I planned to go up and over Monte Blanco, over Borax again, then onwards to Blue Mountain.  I knew from other reports that I could return via a loose dirt slope into Corkscrew canyon, something I wouldn't have imagined possible given what I know of the area.

The first time I went up Borax, I went in with no information, no satellite images, nothing.  From the top of Monte Blanco I can now see why it gave me so much trouble.  The hundred gully NE face of Borax.



On the way to Blue, I went up Peak 2820.  Here's a photo of Blue Mountain from its summit.  Its color washed out in the direct morning light.




Peak 2820 has a nice band of colors along its side.  Borax Benchmark's SW face on the left side of the photo.



Interesting summit register on Blue Mountain.



Including myself, there were only 10 entries in total.  This is the second entry



And finally a photo from the summit of Blue Mountain.  There's something interesting down there in the valley.  Hmm....

Paging @DVD

Nice pix, thanks! Once you get up past the BM, that area is so gnarly. It was thanks to Kauri that I went up to the BM the first time, and got to look at Blue. I obsessed over it a bit in the old forum which is probably what triggered DVD to head over, good job for him. It is getting a bit of a reputation now so probably will see more visitors, but hopefully not enough to leave a lasting use trail.

Took a break from peakbagging to explore a canyon last week.  This is across from Ryan camp.  A couple of the surrounding canyons and ridgelines are used to drop into canyons on the other side of the range (e.g. natural bridge canyon) but as far as I can tell there aren't any regular visitors to this one.



The area intrigues me because of the many colors and complex forks.  I had to go up or around a ton of dryfalls, but I got to all my intended targets with one exception.  I wanted to get to the area just beyond here.  I know I could have climbed up the dryfall that stopped me, but the downclimb was going to be scary and I decided it wasn't worth the risk.  Dang.



Nothing too spectacular found on this exploration.  One of the last sections I went into had some nice color though.