peaks. It is a little game initiated by Weldon Heald in 1945-and
several of the Club members have qualified. Not all the Sierrans at the
campfire Saturday night were there to climb Mopah Peak. Some of the women had
brought their small children, just for a weekend outing on the desert, and
among those present were rock collectors who had joined the Turtle Mountains
expedition to hunt for chalcedony, or gather garden rocks. Our camp was five
miles from the base of the Peak, and a rough prospector's road winds among the
rocks and through the sand in the bottom of Mopah dry creek to within a mile of
the base of the monolith. The next morning two jeep station wagons transported
21 prospective climbers up the wash to undertake the ascent. Since Desert
Peaks members generally do not go in for the rope-climbing technique of the
Rock Climbing section, I wanted to find an easier route to the top than the one
where I had twice failed. Tom Corrigan, who had once reached the top of the
Peak and had done considerable exploring of the mountain, suggested that we
attempt the ascent by way of a steep couloir on the west side. That was our
first objective, but it soon proved impracticable for so large a party with
limited experience in rope-climbing. |
Then
we circled the base of the mountain to the southwest approach where the face of
the old crater appeared to offer adequate hand and toe holds. This was the
route that finally brought success to seven members of the party. But it was a
slow tedious climb with frequent use of the rope for security. It became
evident there would not be time enough in one day |
for all
the members of the party to work their way up over the route, and a majority of
the party continued around the base of the crater in quest of another or a
better route to the top. With Tom Corrigan and Ed Gammon taking turns in the
lead, seven of us slowly worked our way to the summit. The volcanic rock in
this massif is highly fractured, and we had |