| WES SHELBERG - San Diego |
SAN YSIDRO
PEAK (ANZA-BORRZGO) ----- A QUALITY DESERT
PEAK WHEN CLIMBED BY AN
UNCOMMON, SCENIC, BUT STRENUOUS
ROUTE ----- 14 DEC 1980. |
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San Ysidro is
an HPS summit climbed by easy routes. But a soul-satisfying and sportsman way
to climb it starts from Borrego Springs, i.e., from the State Park's parking
lot at the mouth of Borrego Palm Canyon. The route as shown on the accompanying
topo (Borrego Palm Canyon, CA, 7.5-Min) gains the San Ysidro ridge and follows
it to the end at San Ysidro, with a caveat that the route should contour below
the ridgecrest itself at the 5200-5300-ft level (as the map shows) to avoid
troublesome rock and severe brush. Elevation gain and one-way distance are
5347-ft and 5.7-miles. The solo trip took 19 hours (I got back at 0115-hrs with
moonlight and flashlight aid), but I wasted time and suffered on the way up
fighting the ridgecrest's brush until I wised-up and descended to the
aforementioned contour. Arrived at San Ysidro at 4 PM and left immediately
since the "Big Eye" was set to set at about 5 PM. DPS tigers could knockoff
some of the time required, of course, but the challenge would still remain.
On a different jaunt just to the east end of the San Ysidro Ridge (San
Ysidro Peak is the west end), I was pleasantly surprised to find a small
register left by Gordon MacLeod et al, on the elevation shown on the map as a
tiny circu1ar contour at 5200-ft and coordinates 507813. |
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