Thirty-three climbers began the march toward little Picacho this early Sunday day morning. A new cleverly designed ladder was found at the critical point and was used to advantage. A ladder or aid stirrups are necessary to get a large group quickly over the overhang. Another thrilling obstacle is the return up a twelve-foot vertical step on the ridge where one rappels down on the ascent.
Twenty-nine hardy souls found the summit still in place, with the profound desert floor view below.
Thanks go to those helping to belay climbers and aiding the less experienced persons over the four or five difficult pitches. Without such technical assistance our Section would not be able to successfully tackle an exposed climb as the magnitude of Little Picacho.
Ed. note: Little Picacho is our only sixth class Qualifying Peak.
Paiute Monument-March 11 -Arkel Erb
Fifteen eager climbers met in spite of threatening weather reports and cloudy skies at 8AM, just south of Independence. We then drove up Mazourka
Canyon and began the trek near Barrel
Springs.A couple of hours 1ater we reached the base of the 80' monolith. Eric Schumacher made a fine, fifth class lead to the top and eight other climbers followed within the next couple of serious hours. The weather remained cloudy most of the time and a fire was built to keep the waiting bodies happy.
For anyone making a future ascent useful hardware should include a bolt hanger and nut for a 1/4" bolt and, a few short-bladed pitons. There is a good eyebolt on the summit from which to rappel. A register which had blown off the summit was found below and was replaced by tying it to said eyebolt.
After returning to the cars, the group then split up, some going to the Merry Go Round for dinner, while others cooked out in the wind at Ed Lane's home in Big Pine.
Oh Sunday trip members could be seen scattered from Squaw and Waucoba Pks to Saline and Death Valleys, to Dirty Sox Spring, and up the Wanoga Road to Cottonwood Basin.
Maturango and Parkinson Pks- Mar 18-19 -Bill Banks
Eleven participants accepted the challenge of "The Killer" (Maturango) as they approached Panamint Valley. About 8 miles north of the old Nadeau Trail Rd we intercepted a fair to poor mining road marked by a pile of rooks, bound by steel rods wrapped around the rocks. Three of the cars turned west about four miles to a site just west of an old mine structure. Here we began the climb.
Only one person of all the takers failed to make the summit, and he was an Edwards AFB civilian just over the flu whose "half a lung" told him to retreat early in the game. All others had vigor to spare and climbed out of Knight Canyon to a WNW ridge running between Bendire and Knight Canyons. After one mile a broad flat plateau was met, which took us about 5-1/2 miles west to a 7800' point. Here we descended 800 feet into the far end of the NNE fork of Bendire Canyon. Just 1800' gain from the canyon floor, along with 1-1/2 miles, Maturango summit was achieved. The eight miles and total 6000' gain was made in 4-1/2 hrs. by three of the climbers! The slow ones got there 30-minutes later.