20100904 Panamint City

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:04 pm

Filmed and edited by me for fun; it's a 6 minute short that was shot in September of 2010 but not edited until after I finished the Mohave and Crystal Cave projects. I think the weaker shots are contrasted against stronger editing to give the film an interesting feel.

Finally, I made this as a word of caution for everyone who ever plans to get on rope. This is how easy it is to make a mistake when you're exhausted, even with 8 years experience in climbing instruction.

Creative criticism welcome. Safety lectures unnecessary.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:25 pm

No criticism from me. I still make mistakes when spelling, let alone the tougher challenges i try. I'm still amazed at the balls you guys have.

I'll take mountaineering any day over that! Your videos are great though.

In '76 or '77 we drove our big ole' 4WD Ford truck up Surprise Canyon got tours of the cabins from the hippies that were living there and walked into the mine closest to the smelter chimney. It was a fun day. Glad to see the chimney and a cabin still standing.

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:00 pm

norma r wrote: In '76 or '77 we drove our big ole' 4WD Ford truck up Surprise Canyon got tours of the cabins.

You should see the road now! You'd need a helicopter to drive up that canyon.

norma r wrote: walked into the mine closest to the smelter chimney. It was a fun day. Glad to see the chimney and a cabin still standing.

That's a long one. Goes in dead straight for what feels like half a mile. Still there and intact. I think it's simply called the Panamint Mine. If you looked carefully at the hillside for tailings about 1600 feet above it - That's the one were we in.

Here's a picture for fun:

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:58 pm

I don't know about mine exploration, but I love your videos! Really well done. And I'm glad your friend didn't die of course.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:31 am

Took a look through an old photo album and scanned a couple of my photos from May 1977.

Panamint City cabin. I'm told that the group of hippies we found there lived full-time in the canyon through the 1970's.

Our 4WD trucks below the silver mine smelter chimney. I do remember being scared when the canyon got so narrow i felt we were driving sideways to get through!

Davan, it was that long mine you mentioned that we walked in. No photos of it.

davantalus · Post by **davantalus** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 1:24 pm

norma r wrote: Took a look through an old photo album and scanned a couple of my photos from May 1977.

Incredible. Thanks for going through the effort! It's really cool to have a few more *cough* vintage *cough* pictures floating around the net.

norma r wrote: Panamint City cabin.

This cabin, a little further up a small northern canyon is called "The Castle" were you able to drive up to it? Because now there's just a small trail leading over from the Hilton. It's got some very basic plumbing and lots of journal entries and history on the city.

norma r wrote: Our 4WD trucks below the silver mine smelter chimney. I do remember being scared when the canyon got so narrow i felt we were driving sideways to get through!

I'm amazed you didn't mention a winch. You'd have had to drive up those waterfalls at the start of the movie (or something resembling them).

norma r wrote: it was that long mine you mentioned that we walked in. No photos of it.

Here's my pictures from two trips if you're curious.
http://dav.me/gallery/v/hiking/Inyo/201 ... amintCity/
http://dav.me/gallery/v/hiking/Inyo/201 ... amintCity/

cougarmagic wrote:I don't know about mine exploration, but I love your videos! Really well done. And I'm glad your friend didn't die of course.

Thanks muchly!

I spent *so* long on this video (~3 hours per minute?) it's really nice to hear that you liked it. Sometimes it's easy to forget that people are bombarded with excellent YouTube videos all day long and take luke-warm response personally.

For anybody who hasn't been up to Panamint City, it's a bit of a drive, but I'd HIGHLY recommend it. My Towncar made it to the trailhead just fine and the hike's not so bad if you keep your pack light and use your water filter liberally. You can camp outside or in the cabins (if you're not not afraid of a little histoplasmosis). There's so much to see and photograph up there that you could fill an entire week with day trips from the cabins.

If you're into ghost towns this one gets five stars.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:46 pm

No winch necessary back then. I heard storms completey changed the canyon and made it impossible to drive through. I'm sure the winter of '79 was a disaster there. We were told a legend that they had melted silver into a large ball to roll down canyon, and while they were getting it down a huge storm came and the silver ball was lost forever. We kept our eyes open, but i'm sure that was an old miners tale.

I don't think we went much further than the few cabins that were near the mine. I have a couple more pics of our truck in a narrow section and me near a small waterfall.

Keep mining! Be safe!

obie · Post by **obie** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 6:06 pm

davantalus wrote: ... interesting feel.

Cool stuff. Always worth it to check your videos out. Never been down a mine and it's really interestingl to see what goes on down there.

This is how easy it is to make a mistake when you're exhausted...

Truth.

Know thy limits.

And not heeding this advice cost me a broken leg last fall.