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Olancha Peak

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 1:00 pm
by tekewin
It looks like the last trip report on Olancha was ~10 years ago, so here is one from last Thursday. It is the King Kong of the southern Sierra, towering over everything 14 miles north in the range and everything south of it. I drove 4 hours from the OC to the Olancha Pass trailhead and started around 5:30 AM, already daylight. (note: Google maps gives the wrong directions to "Olancha Pass Trailhead", just drive to the end of Sage Flats Road).

There were four distinct sections of this hike:

Olancha Pass
Summit Meadow
PCT
Olancha West Face

Olancha Pass
When I stepped out of truck, a mosquito bit me. Olancha is notorious for mosquitos, but 30 minutes up the trail, I didn't see another one until I got back. Not far from the start, the regular trail winds up the canyon walls on the right (north) while the cow driveway continues straight up the gully. Like the name sounds, the cow driveway follows the stream up the gully and is used to drive cattle up to Summit Meadow. I had read mixed things about the driveway, but decided to take it up. The cow driveway was not clear in the lower half of the gully. The upper cow driveway was very steep, hard packed mud. It's not great to hike on, but better than ascending soft sand. It would not be fun going down that way. At the top of the pass, I cached a couple bottles of water for the return trip.

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Cow bone!

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Upper cow driveway

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Round Mountain from the pass

Summit Meadow
This section was relatively flat, crossing open slopes, then dropping slightly down to the wide, grassy Summit Meadow area. There was a cattle pen and a cowboy camp. Summit Meadow itself was like a miles long golf fairway, devoid of trees. The trail skirts the meadow. I kept expecting to see animals in the meadow, but didn't. The Bear Trap Meadow trail connects from the north and is considered a short cut to the upper PCT. I considered taking it back, depending on my water situation and how I felt. I stuck to the Olancha Pass trail to the PCT. Up to this point, I had seen nobody.

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PCT
I turned north when I hit the PCT. This is a pretty section of trail through scattered pines and boulder piles. I had read in another trip report that there was a stream with possible water at 9700'. At the stream, there were two through hikers getting water. We had a brief chat. They were two of a dozen through hikers I met who recently came from Kennedy Meadows. The stream had a slow but steady flow. I was going to filter some water, but felt I had packed in all I would need. I'm glad I didn't need it because the slow flow turned into a trickle when I crossed the stream on the way down. Better views opened up as the trail skirted the western shoulder of Olancha. Just above 10000', I dropped a second water cache. After 9 miles of hiking, I finally got a view of the summit. I had seen the photos, but it was an intimidating sight in person. I still had another mile before reaching the best spot to leave the trail. Much work ahead.

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Olancha comes into view

Olancha West Face
At the high point of the PCT, I left the trail and started up. The slope was still in the tree line and not as vertical as I expected. Steep class 1. I generally aimed Northeast, weaving around trees and ground cover. I spotted cairns in various places, but there was no defined use trail and the cairns were mostly useless. Once I emerged from the tree line, all that remained was boulders, easy class 2. The route can remain class 2 if you stay far enough north. I wandered a little too far south at the very end and needed some unexposed class 3 to top out. Several small radio towers were on the summit. I found the benchmark and a couple of reference marks. An ammo box held a couple of registers. Olancha sees plenty of visitors. Views exceeded all expectations. It was thankfully clear enough to see Langley and Whitney. Owens Valley and the Panamint range were east, the interior of the Sierra was west, and south was the lower crest as it melted into the high desert.

I found the class 2 route off the summit and got down quickly. Off the summit, I only had 10 miles back to the truck. Instead of the cow driveway, I took the trail down. Having been on both, I'd recommend sticking to the well maintained trail both ways. it does add a little distance, but was much more pleasant and had better views. I was starving as I drove an hour to Ridgecrest, where I planned to spend the night. I was so tired I started seeing things on the side of the road. I slept soundly, probably could have slept soundly on a pile of gravel.

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Lower slope

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Upper slope

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South

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NE ridge

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Whitney area zoomed

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Descent

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Olancha from the 395 (taken next day)

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Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:31 pm
by JeffH
Nice pics!
I look at that peak whenever I drive past, thinking one of these days I should do it. Of course summer probably isn't the best time due to the amount of water to carry and lack of same along the trail.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 6:37 pm
by tekewin
JeffH wrote: Nice pics!
I look at that peak whenever I drive past, thinking one of these days I should do it. Of course summer probably isn't the best time due to the amount of water to carry and lack of same along the trail.
I was trying to think of the best time, and each season has something to deal with. Check out this spring report. I opted for max daylight and relatively mild temps. There was some water at the spring at 9700', even though we are in a dry spell. The ideal time is probably when it minimizes whatever problem you want to avoid.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:55 pm
by Sean
Wow, congrats and thanks for the excellent report! You had me at "I stepped out of the truck and a mosquito bit me." Hahahah.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:56 pm
by dima
Awesome! I too stare at this peak when I'm over there. Looks pretty over there.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 7:04 am
by Uncle Rico
You are the top bovine, teke.

That pic looking north toward Langley, Whitney, et al. is spectacular.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:24 pm
by JerryN
i did Olancha a couple of years ago on a 2 day. Easy peak to summit and a nice hike. This TR brought back good memories.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 12:01 pm
by Hikin_Jim
Nice write up. Nice pics. Looks like a nice trip. I thought it would be just a dusty desert up there. Nice to see there's a lot more to it.

What was your total mileage if I may ask?

HJ

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 12:11 pm
by tekewin
Hikin_Jim wrote: Nice write up. Nice pics. Looks like a nice trip. I thought it would be just a dusty desert up there. Nice to see there's a lot more to it.

What was your total mileage if I may ask?

HJ
Yeah, the desert turns to beautiful green meadows and forests up there. Round trip was 21.6 miles, 6410' gain.

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:42 pm
by Hikin_Jim
tekewin wrote: Round trip was 21.6 miles, 6410' gain.
Nice day's work! Overnight territory definitely for me. Hmmm...

HJ

Re: Olancha Peak

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:32 pm
by Girl Hiker
Congrats!