Aug 5, 2020
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Etymology |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | GPXs: 1 2 | Profile | |
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Peak 7,745ft later climbed Oct 6, 2022 |
Almost immediately I realized this was a much bigger outing than it had looked on paper. There is an unnamed summit, Peak 9,070ft about halfway along the ridgeline. The going all the way to Peak 9,070ft is very rough with lots of route-finding challenges and much class 3 scrambling. I'm almost certain my brother would have turned around long before reaching this point. Thinking I had plenty of time when I started out, I was now wondering if I'd need the headlamp before this was done. It would take me an hour to make it to the halfway point atop Peak 9,070ft. The north side looks class 5 but I was able to find a class 3-4 route from the notch on its south side, no easy scramble. I found a register left in 2013 with a few entries since then. An Andrew Joyce had made two visits before I arrived. The distance to Timosea was longer still, and I was worried I'd run into more of the same. The difficulties continued for a portion of it, but the going becomes easier as one makes their way down to the saddle with Timosea and soon becomes class 2 for the remainder of the traverse. Still, it would take over an hour between Peak 9,070ft and Timosea Peak. The highpoint is found among some trees and brush, but an ammo box register is found a short distance to the west where the ridge drops off and views in that direction are quite nice. There are two books here, the newer one placed Greg Vernon in 2009 along with the ammo box. It had only five pages of entries that included a number of familiar names. The most recent entry was dated 2017. The real find was the first register, an original left by Paul Estes and Chester Versteeg in 1940. Carl Heller, Frank Sanborn, Barbara Lilley, Gordon MacLeod, Andy Smatko, and Bob Rockwell were among the many familiar names. It would take me another two hours to make my way back to Walt's Point where I started, leaving me a comfortable margin before sunset. I took a shower before heading down to Lone Pine where I grabbed dinner and a few supplies. I then drove north to Bishop and into the Sierra on the rough 4WD Coyote Flat Rd where temperatures were comfortably cool at 8,800ft. I slept peacefully just off the road with plans to to some hiking further up the road the next morning...
Continued...
This page last updated: Sat Sep 12 19:23:12 2020
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