April 14-22 (South Pass?)

[DeathValleyDazed]

Taken March 24th. Don't try this in a rental Prius ...

There are currently several individuals and groups stranded in the valley and air drops of food and supplies have been made. Lippincott is iffy according to most reports.

Now wait a minute, a rental Prius is small enough to drive around those damn boulders. I'd consider myself luck to be stranded out there away from contact with the civilized world. Those air drops of food sound like another gov't subsidy? 
When that park ranger I s/w at the Furnace Creek Airport said "there maybe some boulders on the road", I had no idea how big and bad they currently are. Wow!

[wbdeford]

I checked it out and as expected the Titus road is closed at the park boundary, 1.5 miles from the highway.  Oh well.

Isn't hiking portions of Titus a possibility? I've hiked in a way from the exit and parking lot for Fall Canyon.

Yes.  My current plan is to cross country it over from Daylight Spring and meet up with the road, roughly 4 miles from where the hike to Thimble begins.  This will also get me slower views of Titus than I have gotten driving it.

[MojaveGeek]

Thimble is good, but long.  Consider Titanothere Pk via Willow Spring.  I did it from the Titus road a few years ago but there is a fine route from Willow as well.  Titanothere is often overlooked but is quite a nice peak, with a lot of prominence and good views north and south.  The ridge out to the high point looks really gnarly, but when you get up close there is a very cute use trail which threads the rocks with minimal exposure.  Saw two rams up there for a bonus.  Nice summit block.  Good enough that I almost returned to it a few weeks ago.  Stav has a route from Titus but you don't really need that beta.  Bob Burd describes a route including Corkscrew, and back to the Corkscrew TH..  Being Burd, he does the hike and is back at his car by 2 PM

Here is a view of Thimble from Titanothere.

[wbdeford]

Nice!  Will consider Titanothere for a future hike.  Thimble is just one that has been on my list a long time.  Yeah, I could wait for Titus to reopen for a much shorter hike, but if I do that, I will probably never take the time to walk the Titus road.  Plus, looking forward to the cross country portion.  I may adjust the schedule to make it an overnight and camp somewhere along the way.






Nice!

[wbdeford]

It seems clear that my plans for the 3 Sans are far too ambitious for my skills.  That means I will have at least 1 more day in DVNP than I previously planned.  So, looking at something like this now:

April 14, morning arrival to LAX, drive to Argus Range and hike part way up to Parkinson Peak
April 15, summit Parkinson Peak and perhaps Maturango, descend, and drive to Wildrose Campground
April 16, Drive up to Kilns/Thorndike/Mahogany Flat and hike as much of Telescope as I can, drive back to Wildrose Campground
April 17, Back to the Kilns to hike Wildrose Peak, then drive to the Racetrack
April 18, Hike Ubehebe Peak, perhaps doing the loop I originally planned, then drive to Daylight Pass
April 19, Hike cross country to Titus Canyon Rd, then to Leadfield and up to Thimble Peak, then return and drive to Hanaupah Canyon, as far up as my rental can take me safely.
April 20, Hike up to Hanaupah Spring (near the top of my list of favorite places) and back, then drive to LA area (though might wait till the next morning depending on how much I don't want to leave Death Valley.
April 21-22, improvise some drives and short hikes in the various ranges.
April 22, Palm Springs tramway, and back to LAX.

[GowerGulch42]

April 16, Drive up to Kilns/Thorndike/Mahogany Flat and hike as much of Telescope as I can, drive back to Wildrose Campground
April 17, Back to the Kilns to hike Wildrose Peak

Do you know what you're doing as far as ice axe and crampons are concerned? Essentials for winter ascent of Telescope, especially with this season. Satellite showing 30-40 inches of snow up there. Wildrose is dry (maybe dusted) at present.

(Check out https://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive/html/map.html for snow depth! Generally pretty accurate - play with the drop menus on the left side, change from snow water equivalent (default) to depth, temperature, whatever you like.)

[wbdeford]

Summitting isn't the goal.  It is unlikely I will make it that far.  I have enough fear of crossing steep, icy slopes to turn back if it's more than I can safely handle.  I have snowshoes, an ice axe, and microspikes (if there is anything that demands crampons, will turn around).  I was there April 2017 after a strong snow season and turned back at 10K feet, though that was as much because of the wind as the snow.  It will be worth it to me no matter how quickly I have to turn around.  I've done Telescope before where there was postholing.  In past April trips, it has been far more snow than ice, so I am hopeful I can at least get far enough to see some great views.  

I love that Hydrology site, though it has its limitations.  From satellite images, there is a lot more snow than that on Wildrose, and also the Argus Range.  As with Telescope, if I have to turn back on any of these, I'm OK with that.

[MojaveGeek]

Sounds like a pretty busy itinerary, but not a lot of driving (except down to Palm Springs). BTW in terms of your editing the Sans, at least some of the national forest was closed recently due to the snow fall. There was a significant snowfall on the 21st, and everything up on San G was quite white, though it was melting up from the bottom during the week - then we left the area, so don't know what has happened since. Hmm looks like San Jacinto is still closed, and many roads in San Bernadino close (but the PCT is open)

[GowerGulch42]

There was a huge avalanche off San Jacinto's north face a few weeks back. That's not a terribly common sight down there!

[DAW89446]

I hope you have your Star Trek cloaking device handy summiting Parkinson and Maturango peaks since they are inside China Lake NWC.