Death Valley

I took advantage of the opening of Emigrant road and went up to Aguereberry point for some peakbagging activities.

A nice piece of purple glass found near the Eureka mine.  Old glass contains manganese which oxidizes and turns purple when exposed to UV light for a long time.



Pete's peak (left) and tetracoccus ridge is blocking much of the valley view.



Tetracoccus ridge named for the critically endangered endemic shrub that grows on its slopes (tetracoccus ilicifolius).  Apparently there are fewer than 10 occurances of this plant!  I saw two on my hike.  Once I got onto the ridge, the view was excellent. Artist's pallete drive exit is center.

Interesting. I had no idea regarding the use of manganese in glass.

I also didn't know that peak was called Pete's Peak. I made it down to the saddle a few years ago (02/2018), then I looked up and couldn't figure out a safe way up from there. Tips?

(2024-03-14, 01:40 PM)edward Wrote: [ -> ]Interesting. I had no idea regarding the use of manganese in glass.

I also didn't know that peak was called Pete's Peak. I made it down to the saddle a few years ago (02/2018), then I looked up and couldn't figure out a safe way up from there. Tips?

Veer right.  There's lots of loose material to deal with and so the footing isn't good, but I don't think I had to put down more than one hand to steady myself.

Wow. The lake looks amazing from up there.

Coincidentally I think I was right below you in Trail Canyon at the time. Haha. Dual road openings on different sides of the Panamints sent us to nearly the same place, minus a couple thousand feet.

(2024-03-14, 03:13 PM)Beardilocks Wrote: [ -> ]Wow.  The lake looks amazing from up there. 

Coincidentally I think I was right below you in Trail Canyon at the time.  Haha.  Dual road openings on different sides of the Panamints sent us to nearly the same place, minus a couple thousand feet.

I was aware of that while I was up there.  Considered texting you to get out your binoculars  

My crew mutinied when I tried to get us up there last year. It's pretty rugged. I wanted to run the ridge out to the view but the wall up is a bit imposing. The highpoint on the crest to the north is a worthy class 1+ walkup. Actually a spot that I really like. Did you hit up other places up there? We'll likely go up later in the week. I found a really really sweet viewpoint out past the Tucki Mine (I think that is its name? at the end of that road) last year, very peaceful The views from that side are super!

(2024-03-16, 08:40 PM)MojaveGeek Wrote: [ -> ]My crew mutinied when I tried to get us up there last year.  It's pretty rugged.  I wanted to run the ridge out to the view but the wall up is a bit imposing.  The highpoint on the crest to the north is a worthy class 1+ walkup.  Actually a spot that I really like.  Did you hit up other places up there?  We'll likely go up later in the week.  I found a really really sweet viewpoint out past the Tucki Mine (I think that is its name? at the end of that road) last year, very peaceful  The views from that side are super!

I hit 5 high points that day, all accessed via Aguereberry road, but the only other worth mentioning is Peak 7204 because it has 1000 ft of prominence and somehow escaped the NPS list of 200.  There's one other 1k+ prominence peak (out of 50 inside DV) that also isn't on the NPS list near Pleasant canyon.  It was a nice hike, though unremarkable.  I had plans for other climbs around Emigrant road but had to bail on those plans temporarily.  I'll be letting the new snow melt this week before going back.

I finished off the far northern section of the park this week.  After Sandy point my goal was Last chance mountain.  It appeared virtually snow free from the south but the Gaia snow layer was showing feet of snow.  Hmmm....It turns out that all the northern facing slopes were still covered pretty heavily.  About half of the hike ended up being snowy.  Usually I could keep to areas of less than a foot of snow, but more than a few times I plunged to knee depth.

Here's a view looking south from the summit of Last Chance.




Ladybug sex parties (new band name?) are weirdly common on mountain summits, but I've never seen this many in one spot before.  



 

Then it was off for Marble benchmark.  From the Sandy point summit, there was some discussion over what the "thing" was in the middle of the Eureka Valley Pancake (that's what I'm calling it).  So I hiked up there to find out since I was camped right next to it.  To absolutely nobody's surprise, it's a rock.




I climbed Marble from the pancake.  I knew from satellite that the road between there and the canyon entrance was in poor shape and I didn't want to risk driving in wilderness by accident.  The climb up Marble was gloriously dry.  There's a nice section of red eroded mountain on the way up.



Ubehebe crater from Marble benchmark.



After Marble benchmark I headed to the far NE corner of the park around the north side of Last Chance for a couple of summits in that area.  Here's a photo of Lost Chance on the drive up.  The snow free slopes in this direction are deceptive.



168 down, 32 to go...

Another nice round of photos. I saw on pb that you ascended Lost Chance via Willow Creek Road. Did you go on to summit Last Chance from there or did you start from Last Chance Spring? I've never been on Willow Creek Road, but I was thinking about going around the tip of the Last Chance Range to explore that area near the CA/NV border. How are the road conditions out there?

(2024-03-23, 10:57 AM)edward Wrote: [ -> ]Another nice round of photos. I saw on pb that you ascended Lost Chance via Willow Creek Road. Did you do on to summit Last Chance from there or did you start from Last Chance Spring? I've never been on Willow Creek Road, but I was thinking about going around the tip of the Last Chance Range to explore that area near the CA/NV border. How are the road conditions out there?

I did Last Chance from the south by driving through Crater.  The road is rough in the first half but not difficult or risky as long as you have high clearance. Started my hike at the huge mine entrance here (37.24302, -117.68710).

Willow creek road is one of those roads that's fine right now, but looks like it could become impassable at any moment.  Much of it is sandwiched between an arroyo on one side, and a collapsing canyon wall on the other. There are some washouts near the Eureka side which require medium/high clearance.  Also as of yesterday, the roads east of this location (37.36687, -117.66760) are still snowed in.  I estimate it will be fully drivable in two weeks.  I bulldozed over/through several drifts until I decided to play it safe and turn back when the drifts became constant.