We began the ascent of this route at 10:45, and at 1:10 we were looking down on the world from the highest of the three pinnacles which crown the ridge of the old crater.
There was a small cairn at thc summit, but no record of previous ascents. The elevation was 3675.
Mopah is one of twin peaks. The other, approximately the same height, is a pyramid type of mountain lacking the challenge to climbers offered by Mopah.
From the summit we were looking down on Mopah Spring, a waterhole well known to all prospectors in that region, located in an arroyo northwest of the Peak. When I photographed this spring in 1940 there were two Washington palm trees there. Today the two palms are there, with four younger members of the same species growing nearby.
At the top of Mopah, one has a grandstand seat overlooking a vast panorama of Mojave desert terrain. To the east are the Whipple Mountains, with Lake Havasu occupying a canyon which was once the course of the Colorado River. To the South are the Riverside and Maria Mountains which mark the boundary between the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. To the west are the Old Woman Mountains and to the north the Sacramento Mountains, with Needles just beyond.
Perhaps the first person to climb Mopah was a Chemehuevi Indian in the 1870s. This was told to me by Charles Battye of San Bernardino, California. Battye is a veteran railroad man, now retired, who for many years was stationed at Needles, California. He spent his off hours exploring that desert area and became intimately acquainted with many of the Indians living in Chemehuevi Valley -the valley now occupied by Lake Havasu, the reservoir behind Parker Dam in the Colorado River.
In September, 1940, Desert Magazine published a map of the Turtle Mountains in connection with a field trip story about the chalcedony gem field. At that time we marked the volcanic crater as "Moabi" Peak, because that was the only name I could find for it on the old maps available.
Following the publication of this map, Battye wrote, advising that the name properly should be Mopah, as he had distinctly heard the Chemehuevi Indians pronounce it that way. Battye stated that his Indian friend, Hi-ko-rum, related the following history. In the 1870s a member of the Chemehuevi tribe was being sought by U.S. soldiers from Fort
The lieutenant, after surveying from a safe distance the impregnable position of the fugitive, and not caring to sacrifice the lives of his men, held a parley with the Chemehuevis. He promised them that if the man would surrender, no harm would befall him, and as payment for their good offices he gave the tribe a substantial quantity of provisions.
Everything worked out according to plan and the steamboat with the soldiers and provision left for Yuma. All arrived safely except the Indian. They reported he had fallen overboard and drowned.
Later, Capt. Poihamus, skipper of the steamer which transported the party, told Battye that the report was
According to Battye there were no palms at the spring when he first saw it 50 years ago.
Those who reached the top on this expedition were Bob Bear, Willard Dean, Ed Gammon, Tom Corrigan, Pauline A. Saylor, Lillian I. Casler and the writer. We added a few rocks to the cairn and left a small note book there as a register for future climbers. By 5:10 we were back at base camp again, having come down with the use of ropes by a route inside the couloir by which I had twice tried and failed to reach the top.
For those who like rugged climbing, Mopah will always be a challenge. Probably a score of routes to the top will be found where the ascent could be made without the use of pitons or the other paraphernalia of the rockclimbing fraternity. But it will always be advisable to use ropes for security, for much of the climbing must be done on exposed walls.
