EISPIRATEN

I think he was lucky he didn't lose his big toe to frostbite. He told me it took almost 3 months to fully recover.

I can't imagine waiting day after day for a summit bid, and not knowing if the prior months of prep and work would get you there. And the cost. It's just too much for me.

Nice trip! I'm still trying to find the best way to discover new posts.

Gnar was a Stillman saying right? Last I heard, he was in Montana riding out the pandemic.

He posted a long report on Facebook. I've copied it here for people wise enough to avoid Facebook. There I was…about to die… OK, well, nothing that dramatic ever happened, but let’s start at the beginning. I flew from LAX to Kathmandu on March 27-28, 2016 with stopovers in both Hong Kong and Dhaka, ...

Nice video. Picacho Peak is on the Sierra Club's Desert Peaks Section List. Commonly referred to as 'Little Picacho', to differentiate it from 'Big Picacho', which is El Picacho del Diablo, the highest mountain in Baja, also on the list. Back in the 1970's, I climbed Big Picacho, but bad knees forc...

I don't know if anyone here knows Craig Barlow. I've seen his sig on all the Sierra Club San Diego peaks and exchanged a few messages with him. We are friends on facebook, but we've never met in person. Anyway, he just completed the 7 summits (7 highest peaks on each of the continents). It is a rare...

Welcome! Thanks for sharing. More posts, more photos, more better.

Another great exploration. Thanks for posting.

Nice exploration! That area is completely unknown to me. I have that same book and need to dig it out to look at stuff I missed (a lot).

What a story! Glad you got out of the storm in time. And you salvaged the trip with some nice canyon exploration.

My wife and I camped at Cottonwood (southern entrance) in January a few years ago. It was uncomfortably cold and we learned January is not the best month to camp in JT.

Looks like it's just off Lukens Road at 4223'.

Anywhere but the low desert is very cold right now. I guess if I'm going to miss 6-8 weeks with a busted ankle, this is not the worst time.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, 4.

What a nice replacement for Tapacrap.

Great report! The shot of the desert at dusk is cool.

There was a pretty good use trail on that ridge to the north with the plane crash debris. Really nice area of the Gabes.

Awesome!

Fun! Where did you start? You go to Cadiz, and then drive on dirt for a bit? By the way, you were by the Trilobite quarry. Check it out next time if that sounds interesting. Yup, went down Cadiz, then took the dirt road immediately south of the railroad tracks to Danby. I planned to hit Amboy Crate...

The range was named after a feature called Old Woman Statue about 5 miles from the summit. I did not visit the statue but here is a photo from summitpost:



Class 3 to the hemline, then about 55' of 5.7 from the hemline to the top. Bolted route.

Kicked off desert season in the Mojave. Old Woman Mountain (DPS #64) is south of I-40 and southwest of Needles. Tricky to reach the trailhead since you have to drive a stretch of Route 66 that has been closed for a while with several bridge washouts. I drove around the barriers and found good dirt r...

Wow, beautiful and healthy looking sheep. Great area, thanks for sharing!

Congrats! It is my namesake mountain and I think the hardest (via easiest route) with a trail. It's also in contention for the hardest peak via the hardest route (north ridge). Triplet Rocks isn't a true "peak", <300' prom, more like a point. I've bagged Iron a couple of times via San Anto...

Such a cool area. I really wanted to hike around south of Tahoe when we were last in the area, but since we were on the north side, I stayed up there. I think south is nicer and your photos support that. Thanks for sharing!

JeffH wrote: ↑Nice place to visit. I thought it was a more technical climb than that.

In the second photo, you can see a prominent chute. That is supposed to be class 4 for people who want more of a challenge.

Sean wrote: ↑Thanks for the report. Wotan looks like a lot of fun. I looked up the name. It's the German for Odin.

I think the original Wotans Throne is in the Grand Canyon and this one was named after. The name fits with nearby Thor Peak.

This was a side trip from Trail Camp on a Whitney overnight with my wife. We made it to Whitney the next day but that report was too long to repeat and Whitney has been well covered here over the years. Wotans Throne (12,730') overlooks Trail Camp along the Whitney Trail. After we set up camp, there...

That is harsh. Sorry you had to endure that. Worse than any of my close encounters. You aren't alone. Reminded me of David Stillman doing self surgery to remove a thorn:

http://davidstillman.blogspot.com/2012/ ... on-of.html

Get well!

I've been in that gulch once and didn't like it. Too much leaf litter over the rocks when I was there made it less safe. I lost the trail quickly and didn't go very far before turning around. It was a side excursion so I had better things to do. I will say that I got hit with an agave thorn that lef...

Thanks for the report. I used to have grandparents in Arizona and would visit frequently. I first tried Humphreys in 2012 from the Snowbowl side, but ran out of time and had to turn back. The next year, with more time, I went up from the Inner Basin in June. Despite a late afternoon start, I made t...

Awesome! I get the impression it is usually very windy up top. We had an unusually calm day. Rain and snow must have made conditions quite a bit tougher. I can definitely see that first mile or two as injury prone with all the rocks and exposed roots. I'm guessing that hiker was OK with only a minor...

Humphreys Peak (12,633') is the Arizona high point. Leisa and I drove to the Humphreys Peak trail parking lot on 8/3/23 at 7 AM. It's a huge lot that could hold at least 100 cars and there were already about 20. August is still monsoon season, so a normal start would be daybreak between 5-5:30 AM, b...

What a chill goat. He looks really strong. Interesting to see the differences between goats in CO vs WA vs bighorns in CA.

Good place to have GPS. I was thinking about trying to nav with just maps/compass at the start. It would be possible because you just needed to go in a particular direction. The forest blocked views of everything so no dead reckoning or using other mountains to nav by sight. Fortunately, not tall e...

Here's the recovery flight: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N14 ... /KPAI/KPAI And the map: https://caltopo.com/m/3KN56 Looks like Colin got into trouble very early in the hike. Be safe, everyone. Appears he was near the start or on the steepest part of the ridge. It is also at a junction of a ...