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This past weekend I packed up the vehicle and headed out for Death Valley and its highest peak. My friend and I headed out on Saturday afternoon for the 3 hour drive from my house to the trailhead. We actually couldn't get all the way to the trailhead, because the road was closed because of ice and snow, so we settled for the end of the road at Thorndike Campground jsut past the charcoal kilns. These are very cool, though I am not sure if they would be worth the out of the way drive if you aren't hiking either Telescope or Wildrose.
This did add another mile and 500 ' elevation to each end of the hike, but that is what you have to deal with when the Park Service is too worried about idiot driving off the side of a hill.
So after a not too cold nights sleep at 7500' we started off on our hike at 7:00 am after a breakfast of yogurt and a nature valley. The trail is nice and easy and we we only had to cross a couple of snow fields and we walked around the east side Rogers Peak and looked down into Death Valley and at Badwater. The trail crosses a saddle between Rogers and Bennett peaks and goes around the west side of Bennett and looks down on Panamint Valley. It was here that we crossed a huge snow field on a fairly steep slope that made us glad that we had heed the Park Service's recommendation to bring and ice axe along for safety. We didn't end up needing it, but it was still a bit comforting.
On the final saddle now we headed up to the peak. Most of this was on snow and the last 1/4 mile was pretty steep.
Telescope peak from the top of Rogers Peak.
Thankfully the sun was shining bright this day and was keeping the snow soft. Only once did I slip on an ice patch and slide about 5 feet down the hill before I was able to recover and roll off on the rocks. Got some nice bruises from that one. It was after this, that I decided to keep the ice axe out full time. If I hadn't been able to stop my slide it would have been at least a 30 ft slide on a steep slope with big rocks at the bottom, it definitely got the pulse raised. But with the sun out the steepest part of the climb was uneventful and we were able to kick stairs into the snow and slowly trudge up.
We arrived on top 4 hours from our starting time and spent a nice hour on the peak enjoying the views. This mountain is great. You could see for a long ways in all directions. From here we had a great view of the Sierras, from olancha peak past the palisades , including Mt Whitney. To the east we could see Mt Charlston just outside of Vegas and to the south we could make out San Gorgonio and Baldy. Last time I had views this good was from the top of Mt Sill, which incidentally I could also see from the top of Telescope.
My friend and I on the Top of Telescope with the Sierras in the background.
Another thing that is really cool is that this mountain rises up from Badwater (-250 ') in Death valley, which is the lowest point in the US, and sits at over 11000'. So we were looking down at the valley over 11000 ' below. Not may mountains where you can do that. Even Timpanogas which looks huge, only rises up 7000 feet from Utah valley.
Descending was a lot easier that climbing up, and the snow was really soft by then, so there was little chance of slipping. This is me descending next to a Limber Pine(which are awesome trees) with Badwater in the background:
Made it down in 3 1/2 hours with some side trips up Bennett and Rogers Peaks that added about 600 ' climb and a mile to the trip. Great, great day. And I didn't even feel bad about missing all of my obligations at church.
This did add another mile and 500 ' elevation to each end of the hike, but that is what you have to deal with when the Park Service is too worried about idiot driving off the side of a hill.
So after a not too cold nights sleep at 7500' we started off on our hike at 7:00 am after a breakfast of yogurt and a nature valley. The trail is nice and easy and we we only had to cross a couple of snow fields and we walked around the east side Rogers Peak and looked down into Death Valley and at Badwater. The trail crosses a saddle between Rogers and Bennett peaks and goes around the west side of Bennett and looks down on Panamint Valley. It was here that we crossed a huge snow field on a fairly steep slope that made us glad that we had heed the Park Service's recommendation to bring and ice axe along for safety. We didn't end up needing it, but it was still a bit comforting.
On the final saddle now we headed up to the peak. Most of this was on snow and the last 1/4 mile was pretty steep.
Telescope peak from the top of Rogers Peak. Thankfully the sun was shining bright this day and was keeping the snow soft. Only once did I slip on an ice patch and slide about 5 feet down the hill before I was able to recover and roll off on the rocks. Got some nice bruises from that one. It was after this, that I decided to keep the ice axe out full time. If I hadn't been able to stop my slide it would have been at least a 30 ft slide on a steep slope with big rocks at the bottom, it definitely got the pulse raised. But with the sun out the steepest part of the climb was uneventful and we were able to kick stairs into the snow and slowly trudge up.
We arrived on top 4 hours from our starting time and spent a nice hour on the peak enjoying the views. This mountain is great. You could see for a long ways in all directions. From here we had a great view of the Sierras, from olancha peak past the palisades , including Mt Whitney. To the east we could see Mt Charlston just outside of Vegas and to the south we could make out San Gorgonio and Baldy. Last time I had views this good was from the top of Mt Sill, which incidentally I could also see from the top of Telescope.
My friend and I on the Top of Telescope with the Sierras in the background.Another thing that is really cool is that this mountain rises up from Badwater (-250 ') in Death valley, which is the lowest point in the US, and sits at over 11000'. So we were looking down at the valley over 11000 ' below. Not may mountains where you can do that. Even Timpanogas which looks huge, only rises up 7000 feet from Utah valley.
Descending was a lot easier that climbing up, and the snow was really soft by then, so there was little chance of slipping. This is me descending next to a Limber Pine(which are awesome trees) with Badwater in the background:
Made it down in 3 1/2 hours with some side trips up Bennett and Rogers Peaks that added about 600 ' climb and a mile to the trip. Great, great day. And I didn't even feel bad about missing all of my obligations at church.
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