| PANAMINT BUTTE,
TOWNE PEAK AND PANAMINT CANYON TRAVERSE December 16-18, 1991 - Steve Smith |
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Panamint Canyon shows on the Panamint Butte quadrangle as a prominent canyon between Towns Peak and Panamint Butte. The canyon leaves the Panamint Range crest at 6,120' and descends steeply west down into Panamint Valley and reaches the Big 4 mine road at 1,600'.
Having climbed Panamint Butte from Hunter Mountain to the north and Lake Hill/Big 4 mine from the west, coming in from the south and traversing down Panamint Canyon looked like an interesting outing. Brian Webb, a Friends of the Inyo WSA volunteer, and Tom Pincu joined me for the three day traverse. We started late Monday and only went a little way - climbing up to the broad ridge 1,000' above Towne Pass with its panoramic vistas of both Death Valley and Panamint Valley areas. It was a great camp area and the weather really cooperated with warmer temperatures than usual for this time of year.
On Tuesday, we were on top of Towns Peak by midday and traversed the ridgeline in a broad arc on around to the saddle where Panamint Canyon leaves the crest. It was late afternoon when we left our packs and within an hour we had reached the summit of Panamint Butte. The register showed that most people recently have been reaching the summit of Panamint Butte from the east by using a roadhead in Lemoigne Canyon.
Panamint Butte is unique in having reasonable climbing routes from the north, east, south and vest - and notations in the register showed all four approaches are being actively used. Coming down from Hunter Mountain would be the longest distance with the steep scree climb up from Lake Hill being the most demanding. The east and south approaches are the most pleasant but to be reasonable need to be done as backpacks.
Returning south to the saddle on the crest at the head of Panamint Canyon, we wondered what the 4,520' descent would require. We had plenty of rappelling gear, harnesses and two 165' 9mm ropes. The weather remained relatively warm that night and it remained comfortable all day Wednesday. Wednesday morning, the upper third of the canyon was open and quickly hiked.
The middle third was a different story and required eight rappels. The first was the highest - a vertical 110' with a little overhang near the top. Brian and Tom rappelled on a double line until it ran out and I then manually lowered them the remaining 30' using the belay line. I tied both 9mm ropes together to have enough rope for me to reach the bottom which necessitated going down without the belay so I doubled anchored the rappel line for extra safety.