San Ysidro Mountain

14-Dec-80

By: Wes Shelberg

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SAN YSIDRO PEAK (ANZA-BORRZGO) ----- A QUALITY DESERT PEAK WHEN CLIMBED BY AN UNCOMMON, SCENIC, BUT STRENUOUS ROUTE

San Ysidro is an HPS summit climbed by easy routes. But a soul-satisfying and sportsman way to climb it starts from Borrego Springs, i.e., from the State Park's parking lot at the mouth of Borrego Palm Canyon. The route as shown on the accompanying topo (Borrego Palm Canyon, CA, 7.5-Min) gains the San Ysidro ridge and follows it to the end at San Ysidro, with a caveat that the route should contour below the ridgecrest itself at the 5200-5300-ft level (as the map shows) to avoid troublesome rock and severe brush. Elevation gain and one-way distance are 5347-ft and 5.7-miles. The solo trip took 19 hours (I got back at 0115-hrs with moonlight and flashlight aid), but I wasted time and suffered on the way up fighting the ridgecrest's brush until I wised-up and descended to the aforementioned contour. Arrived at San Ysidro at 4 PM and left immediately since the "Big Eye" was set to set at about 5 PM. DPS tigers could knockoff some of the time required, of course, but the challenge would still remain.

On a different jaunt just to the east end of the San Ysidro Ridge (San Ysidro Peak is the west end), I was pleasantly surprised to find a small register left by Gordon MacLeod et al, on the elevation shown on the map as a tiny circu1ar contour at 5200-ft and coordinates 507813.


Detailed information for visiting one or more peaks mentioned in this article can be found in the
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