20100116 Dobbs Peak, West and East
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:17 pm
Headed up Vivian Creek Saturday morning around 6 AM with Tina and Ellen from the San J board, they affectionately call each other "The Pain Sisters", from what I've seen they are not kidding, they love great uphill hikes and are willing to do just about any of them 
it's the downhill they despise .
Anyway after reaching Vivian Creek Trial Camp we headed up to the left across the river to that ridge that is just slightly to the south - from there we traversed due north to where it intersects another ridge that goes uphill from West to East directly to the summit of "West Dobbs" - I like to call this "bumble bee ridge" because when the wind blows the "bees get stuck to the ice on the very crest of the ridge when they try to land in the winter" - you see hundreds of them stuck in the edge of the ridge, frozen in time - the ladies laughed when I pointed this out.
The ridge is about 2.5 miles long from the turn off to the summit of Dobbs and within a hundred feet of making the turn at the bottom we were all putting on our crampons, the snow was very compact and icy all the way up, the clouds threatened rain all morning, they were dark and ominous but when we reached the summit at 11:15 AM and took a break for 30 minutes they blew away on a soft breeze and we were left with a beautiful sunny Southern California morning.
From the top of West Dobbs we headed over to East Dobbs as I thought there was a second easy saddle leading up to Jepson and thus San G but when we came over that ridge it appeared to be a lot steeper than I remember from doing this same hike three years ago, the ladies were game in trying to descend but after 15 minutes we all thought the better of it as we didn't want to have to come down in the dark and we had all made plans to meet some other hikers (that started on another hike at the trial head at the same time) for dinner down in Forest Falls. We took some summit shots and headed back down at a nice pace - the snow was slicker going down than coming up as now the sun made it wet in the areas that were exposed to the sunshine but very icy where it was shady.
All and all we had a great day and I'm glad we got out there before this next set of storms set in, it's going to take a whole lot more to do that ridge now
Pictures here - http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/ac28 ... =slideshow
it's the downhill they despise .Anyway after reaching Vivian Creek Trial Camp we headed up to the left across the river to that ridge that is just slightly to the south - from there we traversed due north to where it intersects another ridge that goes uphill from West to East directly to the summit of "West Dobbs" - I like to call this "bumble bee ridge" because when the wind blows the "bees get stuck to the ice on the very crest of the ridge when they try to land in the winter" - you see hundreds of them stuck in the edge of the ridge, frozen in time - the ladies laughed when I pointed this out.
The ridge is about 2.5 miles long from the turn off to the summit of Dobbs and within a hundred feet of making the turn at the bottom we were all putting on our crampons, the snow was very compact and icy all the way up, the clouds threatened rain all morning, they were dark and ominous but when we reached the summit at 11:15 AM and took a break for 30 minutes they blew away on a soft breeze and we were left with a beautiful sunny Southern California morning.
From the top of West Dobbs we headed over to East Dobbs as I thought there was a second easy saddle leading up to Jepson and thus San G but when we came over that ridge it appeared to be a lot steeper than I remember from doing this same hike three years ago, the ladies were game in trying to descend but after 15 minutes we all thought the better of it as we didn't want to have to come down in the dark and we had all made plans to meet some other hikers (that started on another hike at the trial head at the same time) for dinner down in Forest Falls. We took some summit shots and headed back down at a nice pace - the snow was slicker going down than coming up as now the sun made it wet in the areas that were exposed to the sunshine but very icy where it was shady.
All and all we had a great day and I'm glad we got out there before this next set of storms set in, it's going to take a whole lot more to do that ridge now
Pictures here - http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/ac28 ... =slideshow
