NEW YORK BUTTE AND PLEASANT MTN - Vitz and Haven New York Butte was one of the original peaks on the DPS qualifying list and even qualified as an emblem peak. And as such it was climbed numerous times in the fifties. All the famous old timers climbed it many times, generally taking two days to do it. It wasn’t until late in that decade when Mt. Inyo was named and made the emblem peak that the butte started getting the recognition that it has always deserved - little. Its only claims to fame are a strenuous climb and a nice summit area. The rest of the approach — at least from the west is up undistingguished sage covered steeply piled loose, crud. Nine peole met at 7 am south of Lone Pine for the caravan over an ever deteriorating road which runs east from Lone Pine Station up Long John Canyon. At 44OO’ it becomes virtually impassable to cars. From there we took the better part of the day to climb the 6100+’ to the summit with all nine making it. We climbed by means of a fork of Long John Canyon lying between the steep west ridge and the larger, more gradual, northwest ridge, which we descended, returning to the cars at dark. A very windy night was spent in the campground west of Lone Pine off the Tuttle Creek Road. Next morning seven of us drove to the Cerro Gordo Mine for the climb of Pleasant which was just that. It was much cooler than it had been the previous day. A liesurely climb found us on top by 10:30 and back to the cars at noon. There were of course magnificent views of the Sierra and the Saline Valley. It should be noted that the roadhead is on private property and permission must be obtained from the caretaker to park and/or climb in the area. PYRAMID PEAK and EAGLE PEAK #2 - Fran Smith At the scheduled 8 am meeting time thirteen starters were ready to go. After a slight wait for possible stragglers, we drove 11.6 miles from Death Valley Junction to the nearest point on Highway 190 from which a northwesterly ridge up Pyramid could be reached. For two miles of gently sloping desert floor the naturalists of the group (Romeros, Taylors, and Nelsons) enjoyed researching to what extent that spring had sprung in the desert. The climb up the ridge was accomplished at a slow pace with plenty of scrambling. Several areas of rough rock, and one spot of third class added a little spice to the activity. Twelve made the summit and after a rest for lunch and views started downward. On the decent we made use of an easier route to the south of the ridge. There were a number of sections of loose scree to facilitate the down climb. The total time for the roundtrip was over seven hours. This was a big day for Mike Risely as he completed his fifteenth peak thereby qualifying himself for emblem status. Eight stayed over for the short climb of Eagle the next morning. Parking a short distance off, Highway 127 directly west of the peak, we climbed the northern of two prominent chutes to the north of the high point. Once up this chute a combination of contouring and climbing southward about 300 yards brought us to a point west of and almost directly below the summit. About ten more minutes of careful class 2 climbing up and across a ridge brought us to the register. All eight signed in and due to high winds, little time was spent on top. We returned the same way and soon joined the Vegas traffic line.

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