The rest of the group soon brought the idiot his clothes shortly before frostbite got to his entire body. Further upstream a log was found wedged between two rocks, effectively stopping the downward flow of sand and explaining why the tanks were full of water and not sand. The final set of tanks was passed via a ledge on the right wall and shortly past them a chute leads southward to the rim of the canyon. We crossed the flats to the base of the white sandstone dome and walked up friction slabs to the summit making the second recorded ascent. After a cool lunch break we descended by the same route (as if there were another) and backpacked back to the cars arriving just as darkness set in. RABBIT PEAK - Fran Smith On December 12 the second annual dawn to dusk climb of Rabbit Peak was made. For the second straight year 29 people expressed an interest, 19 started, and 15 signed the register. Starting from the "dump" roadhead at 6:30, we took a route that went fine except for an unwanted and unnecessary drop of 200 feet. Three climbers dropped out at the 3000 foot level and a fourth decided to wait for the party at the top of the main ridge. The main group reached the summit in varying degrees of exhaustion between 1 and 1:30. A cool clear day made viewing the surrounding ranges, the Salton Sea, and the Coachella Valley agricultural areas quite enjoyable. Jay Wiley led a faster group of returnees, and the leader brought up the rear echelon. Latest time of return to the cars was 6:30, a rather delayed dusk, but offset with a magnificent moon. Our group ranged in age from 10 to 61 years. Bruce Jones, ten years old, has 170 peaks to his credit and is possibly the youngest climber to conquer Rabbit in one day. Our two experienced participants, at 61, wisely knew their turnaround points. Wayne Vasey enjoyed (?) the 1969 climb so much that he repeated in 1970. Many thanks to Jay Wiley for protecting the rear guard going up and the front guard going down. Four eager beavers remained in the area overnight to join the HPS climb of Quail and Queen on Sunday. SHEEPHOLE and SPECTRE - Jerry Haven This is the story of what happened to the scheduled trip to the McCulloch and the El Dorado Mountains. First the El Dorados were found to be unworthy so we switched to Spirit as it is convenient to Searchlight, the announced meeting place. It was raining in LA when I left for Searchlight and snowing at Cajon Pass, but, driven by my sense of duty and my fear of losing face with Glorious Leader John Vitz, I refused to give up and went out through Twentynine Palms and Amboy to camp just outside of Searchlight. About 5 am the storm got out there and it started snowing. It was still snowing gently but steadily after breakfast as we waited to see if there were any others crazy enough to show up. Sure enough, Todd and Wendy Taylor arrived right on time, but fortunately no one was crazy enough to want to climb in the snow, so we drove back to Amboy in the hope of being able to climb Sheephole. It was a little clearer near Amboy, with the tops of the peaks still clothed in clouds. We parked by the microwave station on the pass and headed up the large canyon to the east. Since we had no maps, we had to rely on the leader's five year old memories of the peak, which turned the trip into a Northern Sheephole Exploratory. Apparently the best route is found by staying right in the canyon. We turned left at the second branch and reached the northern most peak of the range just in time to glimpse the true summit through the mist a mile to the south. We made our way to the summit without much trouble, but, due to the fog, we missed the canyon on our way down and wound up contouring across the front of the ridge. In short, we showed that the peak can be climbed by any route, and, as John explained, we got to see more of the range this way.

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