Casa Diablo Mountain

9-Jan-99

By: Eric Beck

This is the peak south of Glass Mtn and visible to its right from Bishop, a proper WIMP ( Winter, Inyo, Mono, Peak ). Colder and windier today, not nearly as nice for climbing as it has been, but a good day for a WIMP peak.

Joe Kelsey, Toby and I drove north out of town on hwy No 6, exiting left at Five Bridges road after 1.5 miles. This only road crosses the river, bridge still under construction, and then swings west past a gravel facility to a 4 way intersection. Left on Chalk Bluff road is to the Happy Boulders, right is to Fish Slough, a good spot for birds, and straight is the Casa Diablo road. This was excellent to dirt all the way. We drove 15 miles to a signed intersection directing through traffic left and out to the Benton Benton Crossing road. We turned right 0.6 miles of still good dirt and parked before the road deteriorated markedly. At this point we are .6 miles nne of the mountain. Easy walking up through the pinyon forest brought us to the rocky ridgeline. After climbing two false summits, we made it over to the true one which is the furthest south. Surprisingly intricate third class led up the final 200 feet. Toby waited below this section. No register- If we'd blinked we would have missed the snow, now only a film in two patches none bigger than a few square feet. We bypassed the false summits by easy contouring on the east on the descent.

Round trip stats: 1.5 miles, 800 feet, 90 minutes and a very enjoyable Could have been faster had we gone straight the correct summit.

For variety we drove out to the north and the Crossing road. Here, the road approached Idaho quality, 50 mph and my standard for excellence in dirt.