| MT. PALMER
(Non-sked) |
Andy Smatko |
| Editor: |
On
November 22-23, Andy Smatko, Bill, Schuler and Bill Ross were in the Grapevine
Mountains. With 3-5 inches of snow on the northern slopes of the higher peaks
and patches down to 6400 ft., the tracks of the DPS trip of the previous week
were found all over the place. Wahguyhe Peak was a steep, loose climb. The
following is a description of the climb of Mt. Palmer as submitted by
Andy. |
|
With far off Mt.
Palmer as our objective, we walked up the jeep road (no longer passable even
for a jeep due to a couple of deep washouts) to the crest of the range at a
saddle and thence followed the up and down ridge to Mt. Palmer's isolated
summit. Our ascent was only the second one made of this striking peak. It was
first climbed on Aug. 1, 1962 by two faculty members of the Univ. of California
via the same route, to gain information for the Geo1ogic Survey. The SSE face
of Mt. Palmer is absolutely sheer for over 600 ft. and overhangs in spots. Even
along our route we had a bit of 3rd class on loose rock. We sighted a band of
four deer on the ridge during the climb. Total elevation gain is about 3500 ft
and distance round trip was over 12 Miles. This is the easiest route for Mt.
Palmer as other routes would be both longer and would necessitate a much
greater gain. Sheep tracks and beds were observed, and also, 4-5 ft. circular
rock platforms were discovered on the ridge, obviously man made and most
probably engineered by Indians. Beautiful pinon forests clothed the slopes,
interspersed with lush juniper trees. Many other rugged summits were noted in a
radius of 10 miles in the range, undoubtedly unclimbed, as they are so remote
from any roadhead. (DPS tigers, here's your chance). Our weather was perfect.
Early morning temperature on Sunday reached 33°F, but the sun soon took
care of that.
|
| NAVAJO - RAINBOW BRIDGE |
Vitz/Haven |
We were
expecting a small turnout for the Thanksgiving trip to Northern Arizona and the
actual attendance exceeded our best dreams. We arrived an hour late at the
meeting place but found that we had left no one waiting.
So, without
further ado, we found the jeep road leading to the Summit and drove until it
became too steep to continue. We climbed the last 2500 ft. along the road,
through the beautiful ponderosa forest, past impressive sandstone cliffs and
overlooking ever changing vistas of Navajo Country. While there was some haze,
Monument Valley was visible to the east. |