Tue, Nov 3, 2020
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I had spent the night camped at Highland Lake, perhaps illegally since the National Forests have been converted to day-use only playgrounds these past fiew months. Having gone to bed before 7p, I was up by 4:30a, having already slept far more than I needed. It was 25F outside and close to freezing inside the jeep. I had the motor running and the heater on for 20min before I got out of the sleeping bag. I wasn't built for this cold weather stuff. I drove back out to SR4 and then over Ebbetts Pass to the PCT trailhead just on the east side. I whiled away a lot of time eating breakfast along with unnecessary chores, stalling for more daylight. Luckily it was warmer at the pass than it had been at the lake and now 38F didn't seem so cold. It was 6:15a and time to start my day.
I planned a four peak tour on a 10mi loop through the national forest on the east side of the Sierra Crest. I had climbed the named summits in the same area - Ebbetts, Reynolds, Raymond - almost 20yrs ago, so today's outing would pick up the unnamed ones. The peaks in the area are volanic in origin, with many rugged pinnacles and difficult summits on questionable rock. Today's summits would all fit the bill nicely. The rock quality tends to improve at the very top, which would prove essential for climbing these safely. I was a little surprised how difficult a few were, but I probably shouldn't have been - I had climbed the nearby Sinister back in June with my daughter and it had been of a similar nature.
I headed north on the PCT, passing around Ebbetts Peak and Sherrold
Lake on their
north side. Sunrise came first to Raymond Peak to
the north, then the surrounding summits, including my first stop,
Peak 9,540ft. I followed the trail for almost two miles until I was at
the base of the peak on its
southeast side, under a dry gully I could
follow up towards the summit.
The terrain is rugged with volcanic blocks
and pinnacles crowding the slopes, but the going was no more than
class 2 all the way to the southeast side of
the summit blocks.
This is where things get interesting.
Some class 3 scrambling leads to the south side of the summit blocks where I
was able to
After dismounting the summit blocks, I made my way east and
The summit is an airy perch with striking views of the surrounding rugged
terrain. There is a slightly lower southern part to the summit with a gap
between the halves. I don't think I could have reached it from my position, so
it was somewhat lucky that I landed on the higher half.
I was my furthest point from the car at this point, now almost 11a, and it was
time to start heading back. The last summit, Peak 8,740ft, was found along the
return route. After descending west a short distance, I headed south down
the slopes towards Eagle Creek. Once again, the cross-country is fairly easy,
but the Eagle Creek drainage can get steep and somewhat
brushy down the middle, so I mostly avoided that with a descending traverse
across it into the Raymond Meadows Creek drainage. I was a little surprised to
see a large,
I descended south size up options. It looked like I could go around a
foreground block to the right with a class 3-4 route up that side, but I thought
I should do diligence and check out the west side through a gap on the left.
This led me around to what looked like a near-vertical cliff on the west side,
but made plausible by a
crack/chimney running up the middle of the
face that looked to have good holds. The volcanic conglomerate proved fairly
solid and class 3-4, taking only a minute to scale the 25-foot distance. I
hadn't expected the day's summits to start off spicy, but here I was elated
with a fine summit block when I landed
atop it shortly before 8a. The
best view was to
the north where Reynolds, The Sinister and Raymond
were displayed with a myriad of castellated formations surrounding them - this
was rugged country, indeed. I left
a register here, unfortunately the
only one I had with me. Some of the other summits I visited would prove equally
qualified. I descended
northeast
off the peak, then turning north into the Raymonds Meadows Creek drainage where
I shortly picked up the PCT once again. I followed this for about a mile, past
Reynolds Peak and across the Eagle Creek drainage to the base of Peak 9,140ft.
This one is a bit elusive, difficult to distinguish as a separate peak when
viewed from the south as it blends into the much higher
Raymond Peak
behind it. Yet, Peak 9,140ft has 400ft of prominence, separating the Eagle and
Pennsylvania Creek drainages. The PCT passes along the base of the peak on the
southeast side, and it was here that I left the trail to begin the ascent. The
summit block on this peak is huge, some 150ft high and imposing. I
could see no way to ascend it during the approach, hoping that a close-up
inspection would reveal some weakness. I imagined there might be a way up the
partially broken face on
the southeast side, but it became no clearer
to me as I made my way up the lower slopes to the base of the massive volcanic
plug. As I was eyeing a few scary-looking options, it occurred to me that I
should look around the corner at the saddle on the NE side to see what the
north side looked like. This turned out to be the key to the summit. The
north side is slanted at a lower angle with knobby holds abounding. It
drops off more steeply at the
bottom, but the lower-angled upper slope could be accessed from the small
saddle. I gingerly made my up in about 10min's time, though it seemed to take
much longer. It was slow going with lichen abounding on this shadier aspect and
enough loose rocks that I had to be careful with each step and hold. It was
9:20p by the time I landed on
the summit.
Raymond Peak
rises massively to the north, Reynolds to
the southwest and The
Sinister to the northwest. To
the east was the lower Peak 8,820ft, my
next stop, looking easier than these first two summits. After a short rest, I
carefully reversed my route
off the north side, again going slow to
test each hold. After descending to the saddle the terrain eased as I continued
down
the southeast side of the mountain, all class 2-3 terrain now. I
was back on
the PCT before 10a, following
it for another mile east and north to where it goes over a saddle between Peak
9,140ft and
Peak 8,820ft. There is an the intermediate Pt. 8,676ft to
go over on the way east to my third peak, and I though it might be easier to
traverse lower on its south side rather than go over the ridgeline.
Consequently, I left the PCT shortly before reaching the saddle and made my way
across the rocky, forested slopes. The going was a little tougher than expected
and it may have been easier to simply go over the ridgeline, but it worked with
nothing harder than class 3. From the west, I went up the obvious gully between
what looked like two highpoint options. It turns out that neither are the
actual highpoint which is found behind the two. In fact, there are two points
within about 100yds of each other vying for the honors. The easier
west summit turns out to be about 5-6ft lower than
the eastern one. The highpoint has a
class 3-4 summit block, more of the conglomerate volcanic stuff found on the
previous summits, though this one is only about 10ft and a bit easier.
green cabin perhaps 100yrs old in the
bottom of this second drainage.
I probably shouldn't have been, because it is depicted on the topo map with a
nearby mine. There's
a dirt road that leads south
to the highway in about half a mile. I then followed the highway south
for another mile until I was about half a mile
northeast of Peak 8,740ft. The northeast side is quite steep and
fraught with cliffs, but there is a drainage
leading up to the summit
ridge between the two halves of the mountain. The going is class 2 nearly the
whole way to the summit with some minor class 3 as one follows the ridge to the
northwest where
the highpoint is located. The rock just below the
summit is horribly loose, but thankfully not dangerously so.
from the summit of Peak 8,749ft, returning again to
Highway 4 at
Kinney Reservoir about half a mile away. From there, it
was just about another mile of hiking along the roadway to
return
to the Jeep by 1:20p. I ended with about
10.5mi and 3,000ft of gain, not a particularly big day. But the difficulty of
the scrambling had me tired and ready to call it a day. I had originally
planned to spend a third day doing some more summits in the area, but I wasn't
feeling it now. I really didn't know how I would occupy my time for 6-7hrs
before an early bedtime, so I decided to head home instead. I'm not sure if I'd
get back to the area before the winter snows closed the road for the season,
but it's probably about time to switch to desert peaks anyway...
This page last updated: Wed Nov 11 16:41:22 2020
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