Peak 2,740ft P300
Planet Peak P1K
Peak 2,510ft
Swansea Peak P500
Nov 29, 2023
| With: | Eric Smith |
Nov 29, 2023
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| With: | Eric Smith |
It was nearly 8a (CA time) when we started out, heading first to
Peak 2,740ft half a mile to the ENE. After a first easy stretch across
the rolling drainages, we came to the base of the steep 
SW Slope. The
climb is not difficult, but it gains some 900ft in less than a quarter mile. I
was cruising along at my usual pace that was a bit too fast for Eric. He
eventually asked if we could take a break about 2/3 of the way up. After having
a chance 
to rest, we 
continued up, reaching the summit after
45min. The summit has a very nice view of the much higher 
Planet Peak to
the north. There was a small cairn but no register, so we 
left one while
we took a longer break at the top. We next headed to Planet Peak along the
connecting ridgeline, first dropping almost 500ft along Peak 2,740ft's North
Ridge to 
the saddle, then northwest and north another 900ft up to Planet
Peak. We passed by several old prospects shown on the topo map, one of them with
some nice 
bluegreen rocks that had been dug out of the hole but then
abandoned. We took 
another break on the ridgeline before finally making
the summit about an hour and a half from the first peak. There is
a benchmark from 1948 and a Bob Martin/Bob Packard register
from 1999. The peak does not see all that much traffic, about 20
parties all told, including a party of seven 
in 2008 made up of San
Diego and Tucson climbers.
It was 10:30a when we were ready to depart the summit. I wanted to visit Peak
2,510ft to the southwest, a longer stretch of ridgeline than we'd done so far.
Eric chose to head back to the Jeep, so after we traversed a short distance
to the south, we 
went down different ridgelines. Mine went to
the southwest, along a somewhat meandering line connecting Planet Peak
to the third summit. It was 
a pleasant traverse between the two with
nice views, taking an hour and a half. There are several 
false summits,
but the highpoint is found at the most 
southern point. I left a second
register here. Getting back to the Jeep was not so straightforward.
After 
dropping east into 
a drainage heading south, I had
to cross several minor ridgelines and 
drainages to reach the one where
we'd parked, taking an additional hour. I found Eric wandering about
outside, bird-watching and exploring about. He had planned to read the book he'd
left in the car, but found it locked, despite my telling him I'd left it open. I
felt bad about that one. We drove back out to retrieve Eric's car and then a
last easy summit a few miles to the east.
pumping it back up, we were ready to
go less than 30min later - not bad!
I had promised Eric an easy one, but this turned out to be more work than
expected and would take us 30min to make the summit after gaining 500ft over
the course of 2/3mi. 
The route I picked from the east was pretty
direct, but went through 
a class 3 cliff band with some exposure. On
the way back we took a more southerly route through 
a different gully,
but it had a bit of 
class 3 as well. A scrap of paper at the summit
dated 
to 1998, but it was weathered badly and without a proper
container. We left it in the tin with 
a new register we left at the
top. Lilley and MacLeod had been to the summit in 1986, but we saw no sign of a
register we expected they'd have left. We 
were back to the
Jeep by 3:45p, having spent over an hour on this one.
We would go back to retrieve Eric's car, then find a place to camp in a nearby wash in Cactus Plain. The wash was chosen for its abundance of dead palo verde trees that would provide us virtually unlimited firewood for the evening's massive campfire - our contribution to global warming...
Continued...
This page last updated: Tue Dec 19 08:16:35 2023
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