The trip to GLASS MOUNTAIN the week end of May 11-12 left the peak untrodden, thanks to snowy weather. Of 30 persons known to have started on the trip, the Heningers with Dorothy MacAnally were smart enough to turn around in the face of threatening weather when they reached Big Pine. They enjoyed instead a trip to Death Valley, from where they climbed Manly Peak. The rest of us met at Tom's Place and enjoyed a wonderful gabfest for an hour and a half, waiting for the clan to gather. In spite of snow flurries, we set out for our Hot Creek swimming hole and our mountain early in the afternoon. Leader Ralph Merten was the only swimmer, and you never saw anyone put his clothes back on so fast.
Although cheated of decent swimming, the group dauntlessly headed through snow and sleet to Benton Crossing and onto the desert track to our campsite. Here the Bears promptly got stuck in the mud. After waiting an hour and a half for a Mammoth tow truck to haul them out, they retired to Bishop for the week end to clean off the mud. The rest of the group, after losing the way once, finally reached the appointed camp spot in a blinding snowstorm. When the storm continued unabated, the group decided to get out while the getting was good. That the decision was made none too soon is proven by the fact that two more cars became temporarily stuck during the retreat.
In spite of being driven off the chosen peak, 16 climbers followed leader Ralph Merten up Black Mountain, in the El Paso Range, near Red Rock Canyon, on Sunday. They were rewarded with the striking scenes that accompany the breaking up of a storm as viewed from a dominant peak. It takes more than a snowstorm to keep Desert Peaker from climbing when they take off on a week-end trip!
SUMMER CLIMBING is limited to the White Mountains in so far as scheduled DPS trips are concerned. On June 29-30, we're having a trip to climb Reeds Flat Mt. in the Bristlecone Pine Natural Area. However, the Sierra Peakers have scheduled a luscious selection of trips, hard and easy. So let's join them and enjoy the beauties of trips in the Sierra high country.
Here are a few PERSONAL items:
DICK KENYON, our Vice Chairman, was inadvertently left off our membership roster, His address and telephone are 19145 Livonia Ave., Los Angeles 31, VE 8-5601.
Frank Sanborn, Wallace Smith, and Walt Mitchell are now emblem members. Jim Tow's address is 25424 Mesa School Lane, Santa Barbara. Welcome to our new member, Richard A. Sheffield, of 1738 Dale St., San Diego.
Our CONGRATULATIONS to Jo Ann Walton and Warren Flock, who are engaged to be married. Also, to June Kilbourne, whose wedding to Thomas Hakala, a fellow student at Stanford, is planned for August, following which they will live in Boston, where Tom will attend Harvard Medical School.
See you at the Banquet,
