When Tom suggested we visit the White Mtns for a few days, we both hoped we
might be able to avoid the smoke that was still smothering much of the High
Sierra due to the Castle and Creek Fires still burning for almost two months
now. We would have little luck in that regard. Fickle winds had shifted, pushing
smoke into the Owens Valley and the White and Inyo Mtns.
The air quality
was unhealthful, views muted or non-existent throughout the day. All of the
day's peaks were found in the southern half of the range between 7,800ft and
9,100ft. Cross-country travel in this part of the range, and indeed in most of
the White Mtns, is pretty easy. The vegetation is mostly junipers and pinyons,
very little in the way of brush, with much of bare dirt and
rock.
Peak 8,180ft - Peak 7,860ft
These two summits are located off the south side of the high-clearance
heading to Black Mtn off paved White Mtn Rd. Peak 8,180ft is a short, easy
climb taking less than half an hour roundtrip. There are four equal-height
contours vying for highpoint honors. We visited three of these, the southwest
(and largest) one appearing to be highest. The hike to Peak 7,860ft is about
a mile each way, with a drop to a shallow saddle before climbing to the summit
featuring a . It lies atop the north side of the
canyon
up which SR168 runs, with good views overlooking the Owens Valley if it weren't
for the heavy smoke we had today. The views are better from
to the
west, and if you haven't climbed it, would be an easy addition with these two,
simply driving to the west end of the road and climbing the short distance to
the top.
Peak 8,580ft - Peak 8,660ft - Peak 8,900ft
These three summits are found about 3mi north of the first pair. I had grabbed
Mihai's gpx track off PB and we made a variation of this three-peak outing.
Mihai
had parked off the shoulder of White Mtn Rd on the east side of Peak 8,900ft. We
tried to drive the dirt road shown on the topo maps but got less than a quarter
mile before it veered off in the wrong direction - better to simply park off the
pavement and start from there. We southwest to Peak 8,580ft
first, contouring across the SE side of Peak 8,900ft, over a saddle and then
more directly towards Peak 8,580ft, taking about 30min to reach
. Nothing particularly special about this one. The
better summit was to , another 80ft higher and more than 400ft
of prominence. It took only 20min to cover the half mile distance to Peak
8,660ft. We left here
before continuing on. Rather than return back over Peak 8,580ft and approach
Peak 8,900ft from the south as Mihai had done, we chose to head directly to
the third peak to the northeast. We had to drop about 200ft lower in the
drainage, but the elevation gain was similar to the longer route because we
didn't have to reclimb Peak 8,580ft. This
took us most of an hour. A register left had more than 20
pages of entries. Indeed, it is located
just above the Grandview Campground (currently closed due to Covid restrictions)
and only a short hike from there. We were amused to find Barbara Lilley was
the last person to make , back in July. At 91yrs of age, she's
still getting up new summits. From the summit, we descended to
the half mile back to our starting point, making for a
3.5mi loop in a little over two hours.
Peak 8,860ft - Peak 8,700ft - Peak 9,100ft
The first two summits of this group are found on the west side of Black Canyon.
It may be easier to drive up Black Canyon from the south to access these, but
that would have been a terribly inconvenient detour from White Mtn Rd. Instead,
we started from a turnout halfway between Grandview CG and Sierra View. A
starts from there, traversing the southwest side of Sierra
View before dropping into Black Canyon around 7,900ft. Another spur road then
leads up to a saddle at 8,300ft. From there we went cross-country, climbing to
on the northwest side of Black Canyon that would lead us to Peak
8,860ft and then 8,700ft. The higher of these has 600ft of prominence. The
furthest, , was five miles from our starting point and
took us more
than 2.5hrs to reach. On the way back we traversed below Peak 8,860ft and
another bump northeast of it, making for a more efficient return. We had
considered dropping more directly down to Black Canyon, but that would have
meant dropping an extra 600ft which we'd have to reclimb on the other side of
the canyon. We decided using and motorcycle track was
probably easier. Once we got back to our start, we made
up to just southwest of
where we parked, taking half an hour for the roundtrip. There was another busy
register (this summit is even closer to Granview CG). had
visited this one as well back in July, the day before climbing Peak 8,900ft. It
was nearly 5:20p by the time we finished up, the sun in an
orange/red smoke haze much as it had risen . We
ended up camping in the same location we'd used the previous night, closer to
SR168. It got quite chilly after the sun went down and with campfires still
prohibited throughout the state, we were driven to bed much earlier than we
hoped...
Continued...