Kingston Peak, New York Mountains

17-Nov-90

By: Dale van Dalsem

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We had a new route from the west mapped out for Kingston: The Tecopa Pass 7.5 topo shows a road going in to UTM 894567, 0.7 mi. WNW of NW corner of Kingston Peak 7.5 topo. The route from there is obvious & would be new, but 500' more gain and 6 miles more round trip than the regular route from the north. We woosed out & took the easy way. Next time! A glorious weekend of clowdiess, warm days & near-freezing nights. Participants: Judy Ware filled in as assistant leader & brought her brother, Alan Connors. Also hiking were Ron Grau & Evelyn Chadwell, Randy Ragland, Mary Sue Miller, Vic Henney & Sue Wyman, Ron Lanyi, Paul Freiman, & Bob Greenawalt. Alterio "Bill" Banks did his usual solo of both peaks.

Kingston took about 9 hours; we had one slow newcomer; but with a 6:30 meeting, we had plenty of sunshine left. Then a soak in Tecopa Hot Springs, mandatory for any hike in the area! Back past Horse Thief Springs to the flat desert, where we pulled off & had a good happy hour & campfire. We christened my new ROLL-A-TABLE, $35 at REI. Every DPSer should have one!

Sunday we were going to do New York Mtn from the south via Caruthers Canyon, but did it from Keystone Canyon, a new route for me. The Last 250 yds of the road are washed out to the point that I chose not to thrash our vehicles further, so we stopped that much short of the mine. Up the canyon to the saddle W of 2069T (Ivanpah 7.5), then contour across upper Carruthers Canyon to the peak. The easiest route up the summit is probably on the SW side. Banks called our attention to a route on the NE side, which had a move or two which were definitely more than 3rd class! All made it up & down, sans rope or other forbidden aids. We gardened a washing machine size boulder on the way down. Leader made an uncharacteristic navigation goof & put us 0.4 m and two saddles, SE on the ridge above the mine. This cost us about a half hour. Bill Banks made a similar mistake & wound up in the next canyon, but New York was still less than 6 hours, although the caravan from Kingston took us 3 hours, somehow. On the way home, many of us ate dinner at Carlos & Toto's in Barstow, on the north side of the main street, at the west end of town. Recommended.-Dale


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