Zinc Hill(5584') 8 Feb
1992
The Saturday weather forecast was for a day-long break between
storms. A call from Andy Zdon led to our climbing Zinc Hill in the northern
Argus Range. He and his dad and I drove Panamint grade down to the back road to
Darwin and took it to where the road makes its hairpin turn toward China Garden
Spring. It was cloudy and we couldn't see the mountain at all. We knew that we
needed to go up a short canyon and then get onto the west slope of the peak. We
found the trail shown on the Darwin 15' topo and it went easily to the saddle
to the north, and we were on the summit after 1.5 hours and 1900 feet of
climbing. The clouds briefly parted to reveal some snowy summits in the
northern Coso Range.
Panamint Butte (6585'), 15 Mar 1992
It
was a case where I owed Barbara Reber this trip. She had climbed it the hard
way a couple times before. In October we scheduled it as a backpack up Lemoigne
Canyon but the idea attracted nobody except us. Then we each sat at our
respective meeting places a quarter of a mile apart and wondered why the other
of us didn't show up. Barbara went home and I went on to climb Panamint Butte
alone. I reported on it earlier.
This time we got a few friends together and
we made our way up the road in three Toyota trucks and a vintage Scout. The
start of the 4 WD road begins at a dimly seen north side intersection 2.9 miles
downhill from the Emigrant Ranger Station. A sign Identifying the Lemoigne
Canyon road is placed far enough away from the highway to be overlooked by
casual motorists (Barbara says that the sign reflects brilliant headlight glare
when traveling up the highway at night). After an hour of crossing numerous
gullies we parked at a road fork where two canyons join (the road toward the
left soon peters out). |
We carried about 5 liters of water
each for the two days except for Andy Zdon who admitted that he had 2-1/2
gallons. Our weather was sunny yet cool enough to avoid sweating and thirst. We
walked along the jeep trail in the main Lemoigne Canyon. The canyon walls
narrowed down to barely vehicle width and the limestone bore patches of
rubbed-off paint. Just ahead is where most of the vehicle tracks take a left
fork which leads to the well preserved Lemoigne Mines. This fork is a severe
vehicle test-piece according to the mine cabin logbook which tells about many
broken axles and smashed vehicles.
The final rock jump in the main canyon is
a bit tall for vehicles and the jeep trail ends here. After a lunch break we
continued for an hour to a good campsite on a patch of sand at 5000' elevation.
The wind picked up as forecast and a weather pattern moved in. We put up three
flapping tents and two bivy sacks were stretched out on the ground. It was only
1 pm and we crashed until happy hour.
The climb of Panamint Butte involved
returning to the wash and following it to the base of the gentle northeast
ridge. Time to the summit was two hours. A breeze picked up and the air was
crisp which favored fine views of the snowy Sierra. Zinc Hill and Panamint
Butte stare at each other across Panamint Valley. The Ridgecrest BLM office had
helicoptered a box of filled canteens and water bottles to the summit and this
was probably there to aid a future Steve Smith-led traverse. We drank one of
his two beers.
The hike back down the canyon and out to the vehicles took
two hours. We agreed that this is the best way to climb Panamint Butte. The
canyon is interesting and colorful and is of easy grade. Our party consisted of
me, Ski, Barbara Reber, Edna Erspamer, George Pfeiffer, Andy Zdon, and Wynne
Benti. |