Continued...
I was heading to Joshua Tree NP for Iris' birthday weekend, starting a few days
early as I often do. Tom Grundy was coming down from Bishop a little early too,
so we made plans to get together on Friday. It occurred to me that there was a
climbing objective near Landers that I was interested in, so I sent a few links
about Giant Rock to Tom and asked if maybe he'd like to do it on Thursday. He
was sufficiently enticed and we made plans to convene at Giant Rock around noon.
In the meantime, I found a handful of other summits between Apple Valley and
Landers that would keep me busy for the morning.
Cougar Buttes
This is a small collection of weathered granite rocks on BLM land between
and Valleys, a miniature version of the Coxcomb
Mtns in Joshua Tree NP. As such, it makes for some
opportunities. I had spent the night camped at of the
formations. Though less than half a mile distance to the highpoint, it took me
half an hour to make my way to with plenty of class 3, albeit
fairly easy. Mark Adrian had left at the summit near
back in March. I doubt it will last very long as
the place seems to be a party hangout for desert locals. On my way back,
I found with a firepit and three busted coolers outside,
elsewhere.
Old Woman BM
The next four summits are located off Bessemer Mine Rd south of SR247. Though
the Bessemer Mine is located on the other branch of the road north of the
highway, this southern branch also ends at a surface mine, though unnamed on the
maps. is the highest of some low hills on the west side of
the road. I parked on Bessemer Mine Rd and scrambled up the east side. Not as
interesting as Cougar Buttes, the rock quality here is more mundane. It took
about 20min to climb the rock jumble to the top where I found
and from 2012. It had no pencil and
I wasn't carrying my pack, so I had to put the register back without adding my
own entry.
Round Mountain
This is an even easier summit on the west side of the road, closer to the mine.
The is aptly, though not imaginatively, named. It
has a good view to of the mine and the next two peaks, but
otherwise unexceptional.
Peak 5,469ft / Peak 5,636ft
These two minor summits are located above the mine in the foothills of the
San Bernardino National Forest. The mine is inactive and not fenced off nor
otherwise secured to protect the public. I drove partway up the mine roads,
stopping where had been eroded by water. I hiked up
, first visiting the lower .
The two summits were spared the harsher flaying inflicted by the bulldozers
lower down, but they had been visited by mining equipment with crude roads cut
to both summits. I used some of these roads to traverse to
before descending
through the mine on my way back. I took a small detour to check out some of
the old mine buildings I had missed on the way up. were
made of stone and concrete, still sporting a roof. I spent
about an hour and a half on this loop.
Peak 3,579ft
Located north of SR247, about 4mi southeast of Cougar Buttes, this one makes
for taking less than 10min. I drove a dirt road to
of the hill, passing by a few forlorn-looking homesteads, the last
appearing abandoned. The rock is more like Cougar Buttes, so it made for some
fun, easy scrambling.
Peak 3,586ft
I contacted Tom via text to find that he was running a little late, so I added
this one as I was driving to Giant Rock. It's located southeast of Landers,
reached via Reche Rd and Yucca Mesa Rd. A rougher 4WD track then circles around
to of from where it can be climbed
in five minutes.
Giant Rock
And then it was time for the main event. Where the pavement ends at the junction
of Linn Rd and Belfield Blvd, a few sandy miles south of Giant Rock, stands
. It is linked to Giant Rock through the eccentric
characters of Frank Critzer and George Van Tassel, who lived in the area and
brought some development for a period of over 20yrs into the 1950s. Much about
can be found on the internet and makes for enjoyable reading. I had been to
Giant Rock on a previous trip in 2016, knowing nothing of the unusual history or
of Giant Rock. The feature is said to be the largest free-standing boulder in
the world at 110ft in height, but this is surely based on conjecture rather than
fact. In addition to once being Critzer's home (he dug out a 400sq-foot space
under the rock to live in, since filled in), Giant Rock has been a religious
site to the American natives for many generations and in more recent times to
a generation of young rock climbing and bouldering enthusiasts. With no easy
way up, there are many old bolts on various faces and installed climbing holds
on the overhung northwest side. Even with these, there are no free-climbing
routes on any side that would go at 5.9 or less. Drinking and partying seem to
have naturally integrated with the climbing, leaving much graffiti and broken
glass throughout the area. There have been various efforts to clean up both,
but it is far from a Wilderness climbing experience.
I met Tom at the base of just before 1:30p. He had arrived
shortly before me and was out the various aspects of the
rock. After some discussion to which I quickly deferred to his more seasoned
judgement, we settled on a series of three old on the
vertical west side. In conjunction with some solid aid-climbing skills, Tom was
in possession of that would allow us to climb the bolts
with no free climbing until we got to the third one where the angle rolls off to
something more manageable. It took about 15min for Tom to casually collect the
needed gear from of his truck and arrange it at
of the rock, then another 15min to up the
bolt ladder. The stick was used to put a carabiner through
, while and a rope were
attached to the carabiner. Once attached, we hung and bounced our combined
weights on the setup to ensure that the old bolt could at least be modestly
trusted. the aider steps while I belayed from below. I'm
pretty sure I would have taken about an hour to go up what Tom did so smoothly
in just a quarter of that time. Once at , he gingerly
weighted onto the rock and climbed the class 3-4 slab to in a
few minutes' time. Tom then tied off the rope to a large steel spike embedded in
the summit to allow me to prussik up in turn. After snapping a few photos of Tom
, I stepped into my prussiks and started up. I cleaned
the gear Tom had left behind as I inched my way up, at the
top in another ten minutes. We took a few summit shots with our phones before
the overhanging northwest side, about half of which was
. We spent about two hours in total at Giant
Rock, during which time about 3-4 cars had come by, folks would get, pictures
taken, and then they would leave just as readily. It seems to get mention on
enough desert touring guides to provide a regular trickle of traffic throughout
the non-summer months.
Peak 5,330ft
With a few hours of remaining daylight, we drove west into the nearby Bighorn
Mountains for a random climb of an unnamed, unremarkable desert summit, a taste
of what was in store for Tom the next day. It took some time to drive the jeep
up the New Dixie Mine Rd, having left Tom's truck near the start in what we
thought was an empty lot. to took less
than twenty minutes
with some scrambling and minor bushwhacking. There was an old survey pole, now
fallen, at the summit, but no register. On our way back we were treated to a
very with thin clouds covering much of
that lighted up in of yellow, orange, pink and purple.
A very nice way to .
By the time we got back to Tom's truck it was quite dark. We made plans to
reconvene an hour or so later near Joshua Tree and I happily went off to take
my shower in the same location while Tom started to drive off. I had all my
clothes off and was ready to pour water over my head when Tom walked back and
explained that he'd gotten a note on his car that we were on private property
(though there were no signs to that effect). I kinda shrugged it off and figured
I could just finish my shower before leaving, but Tom pointed out that there
was a lady in a car next to his that had asked him to inform his friend. I
would have to go somewhere else to get a peaceful shower. It was also my first
time driving a car naked. Not altogether unpleasant, it was a rather "freeing"
experience...
Continued...