SIERRA CLUB

DESERT PEAKS SECTION NEWSLETTER #17

January 11, 1952


It is with a certain feeling of sadness as well as relief that I write this LAST NEWSLETTER of my regime as your chairman. There's a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in writing of our Section's activities before and then after they occur. For our DPS Trips represent not only our main Section activity but my favorite form of recreation. On the other hand writing these Newsletters as well as keeping an eye on all our Section projects is more than a little chore. But I have been proud of the honor and responsibility you bestowed on me and I would be happy if people thought that I did half as good a job as I have been trying to do. I'm sure you all know how much we married men owe to our better halves for the chores they take off our shoulders.

TRIPS GALORE, scheduled and outlaw, have filled our Desert Peaks calendar since the Thanksgiving week-end. They were all so successful it's too bad that some overlapped, because all were well worth attending.

PICACHO PEAK AND CASTLE DOME over the long Thanksgiving week-end started the parade of trips. Lloyd Balsam and Walt Collins lured thirty people out on this long 750 mile trip over near Yuma. These low but rugged peaks proved an ideal choice of climbs for a week-end that started rainy and ended up clear but cold. Both of the peaks rise so steeply above their surroundings as to appear impossible. However, Castle Dome was climbed without ropes, while Picacho is a real rock climb, involving an amazing sequence of rock lodges and pitches. It was mighty comforting to have a couple of agile rock climbers along like Ray Van Aken and Tom Kendig to lead the tough pitches. All who made this trip brought back vivid memories of the colorful rocks and vegetation of the Colorado River area as well as of the poor desert roads.

The trip to Rabbit Peak led by Bill Henderson and John Delmonte had a surprising turnout for such a hard trip. Practically everyone made the top except one girl who had only shorts to fend off the agaves and the two A.M. temperatures. But it was a race to get back to the cars by dark, with 200 miles of driving back to LA still to be done that night.

Over the four-day Now Year's Day week-end, Bill Henderson was once again leading a DPS trip with the aid of Margie. This time it was to explore the BIG MARIA AND COXCOMB mountain ranges out in the Colorado Desert north of Blythe and Desert Center. A cold rainy day which soaked everyone to the skin and buried the range in clouds didn't foil Bill and his determined followers in the assault on the high point of the Big Mariais. Once again Bill proved his skill as a leader by finding the summit in the clouds and locating the cars after dark. The weatherman favored the trippers a couple of days later when they scaled the high point of the Coxcomb Mts., but they still had rugged, steep, up and down going which provided an exhausting day of climbing. Looks like the dozen odd people who started off 1952 the rugged way with the Hendersons uncovered a couple of worthy new desert peaks to add to our qualifying list.
 
Page Index Prev Page 1 Next Issue Index