It was nearly July and I hadn't yet visited any real summits in the Sierra this
year, owing to the abundance of snowfall the range had accumulated.
I'd made plans more than a month earlier to climb Petit Griffon on Jun 30, so
I headed to the Sierra a few days earlier to do some acclimatizing. Tioga Pass
was not yet open, so I'd have to go over Sonora or Ebbetts Pass to get there.
Silver Peak popped up on my radar recently when looking over the WSC list. This
prompted me to use Ebbetts Pass, and by leaving San Jose around 6:30a, I was
able to make it to the starting point before 10:30a.
Silver Peak
There are two summits to Silver Peak, both of which appear on peak lists that
were originally concocted by the Sacramento area's Motherlode Chapter of the
Sierra Club. The lower summit appears on the OGUL list as well as Pete
Yamagata's Northern Sierra Peaks list (a superset of the OGUL list). I had
visited this summit back in 2001 along with Highland Peak with several friends.
At the time, I'd found a register on the southwest summit and called it good
since this was the point on the topo map depicted as Silver Peak. But I could
see that the northeast summit was higher and knew that I should have climbed
it at the time, and it has mildly haunted me ever since. Then I found that the
WSC list more specifically describes the higher summit, and with more than
800ft of prominence, I was going to have to get after it sooner or later. There
are various ways to reach it, the one I chose via Noble Canyon from SR4 seems
to be the shortest. The route is about 3mi each way with nearly 4,000ft of gain.
There are two hairpin turns in SR4 as one descends from Ebbetts Pass on the
east side, both of which can be used to start. My original plan was to use the
, cross Noble Creek and start up on the NW Ridge more directly
to Silver Peak. I found the far too much to make a safe
crossing anywhere in the vicinity. Not wanting to do anything foolish, I
returned to the jeep, drove back up to the higher turn, and restarted
using the well-defined trail.
This was probably the better starting point, too. Though it is slightly longer,
One can use the Noble Creek Trail for more than a mile and a half before
starting the cross-country. I detoured off the trail after the first half
mile to see if I could cross the creek again, but finding no good option I
returned and continued south on the trail. At the one mile mark it crosses the
creek to the eastern bank at where the water wasn't too
deep. I took off my boots and socks, rolled up my pants and walked across, the
water never reaching to my knees, but freezing cold. On the other side I
continued on one of several trail threads for another half mile before starting
to the east. Here the gradient becomes steep, growing
steeper yet as one gains and above
treeline. Though not predicted to be so, the sky was
overcast and threatening light rain at times. This had the effect of washing
out the views and scenes, but perferably keeping it cooler for the climb. There
were areas of snow the higher I went, but the class 2 ridgeline continued all
the way to the lower summit without needing to step on any of it. I was quite a
bit slower than I had thought I might be. Most of this I chalked up to this
being the first time I was above 10,000ft since last summer. I had to pause
often to catch my breath even though I wasn't moving all too fast. I reached
just after 1:30p, a three hour effort. The rocky ridge
between the two took only 20min to traverse with a
to
cross at the saddle between the two. The snow was slippery but not really
dangerous as I cautiously made my way across. There was
with several registers at the summit (I found none at the lower summit, this
time). The
older registers were in a plastic bag and completely soaked, now just unreadable
paper mush. I signed , noting that fellow Sierra
Challengers Rob Houghton and AJ Kaufmann had been the last to sign in, back in
October. Later in the day I sent them a text with a picture of the entry to
which AJ shortly replied. The next day as I was driving south on US395 towards
Mammoth, I passed AJ on the highway. Small world.
My route back went much the same way, though in places I traded
for brushier ones. I found my way back to the
trail, , more and eventually
at the turn I'd started from.
About 5.5hrs for the roundtrip effort.
Colorado Hill
I descended SR4 to its junction with SR89, taking the latter up towards
Monitor Pass. There were a few summits along this route I noticed might be done
as easy bonus peaks and detoured to check them out. The area was the scene of
mining activity back in the day, the largest of these found at the huge
Leviathan Mine. Colorado Hill, found just north of SR89, had lots of prospects,
a few small mines, and lots of roads dug into it, but not a whole lot of value
taken from it. Most of the roads on the hill have fallen into disuse or were
deliberately closed to vehicles.
The dirt Morningstar Road climbs up from the highway to the east of
Colorado Hill. I drove up this a short ways, finding several bad washouts and
stopping at . From this point I was little more
than half a mile from the summit so it didn't seem worth adding more punishment
to the jeep. It took half an hour to make my way up the
, past the various prospects and what looks like
found near the summit. is found at the
west end of the summit with some . Not
a terribly interesting summit, overall.
Peak 8,262ft
This unnamed summit was easier, and a little more interesting than Colorado
Hill. It's set further back from the highway, so involved more forest road
driving. I used the Leviathan Rd (partially paved) for a mile and a half to
the Morningstar Rd (the other end of the road I had used earlier) which I
then drove about the same distance to Peak 8,262ft. A rougher spur road goes
higher up the northeast side of the peak, eventually blocked by downfall. It
was a short six minute walk to the unassuming among a few
stunted
trees and shrubs. It was after 6p by the time I got done with this one and time
to call it a day. I still had some driving to do to get over Monitor Pass and
down to US395. I ended up camped for the night in Mill Canyon, a quiet, lonely
spot in the foothills of the Eastern Sierra south of Walker. It would do quite
nicely...
Continued...