Like most nifty, seldom-visited things in the Gabes, it had been on my mind for a few years now. And yesterday was the day to get it done. Plus, my friend Willie was itching to do some scrambling.
After deciding against a direct, gully approach from Markham saddle (too much brush), we walked the trail and road up to Mt. Disappointment, and then started down the south ridge.
Some poodle dog blocks the ideal path, so we managed some class 3 downclimbing on pointy boulders.
The ridge is quite narrow with steep, slick, sandy surfaces. A stumble could result in tumbling off the ridge and sliding some distance into brush or worse on either side.
We soon came to the small saddle between Disappointment and the Pinnacle. From here it's a steep, but relatively easy scramble to the summit blocks.
It's perhaps the best viewing spot in the canyon, because you have a clear, 360-degree panorama of all the surrounding mounts: Lowe, Markham, San Gabriel, Disappointment, and Deception. You can also see other peaks in the distance, like Harvard, Wilson, Lawlor, Strawberry, and Josephine. The clouds blocked our view of Brown.
For the return trip, we avoided the ridge and dropped into a little gully leading up to Disappointment's SE shoulder. The short climb out was steep but merely class 2 with easily avoidable poodle dog.
