Mustache Mosey 2017 Day 2: Teutonia Peak Scramble

This was the second day of the 2017 Mustache Mosey and we planned to have an easy day climbing the 3rd -ish class pile of rocks called Teutonia Peak.

We woke up to clear skies and a layer of frost covering everything.  I'd slept out without a tent and you could see the outline of my head on my pillow.


Since we weren't in too much of a hurry we restarted the fire during breakfast which provided some much appreciated warmth.


Bill and Auggie wouldn't be joining us for Teutonia so we took one more group shot and got moving.


Eventually.


We drove through Kelso and north along Cima Road to the signed parking area for Teutonia.  There were a few other vehicles already there though they seemed to be just walking the trail which doesn't actually take you to the highpoint.

Teutonia from the trail

The trail goes most of the way up the peak before petering out.  I explored keeping us on the ridge but that was looking to be a little more involved than our group was up for.  Instead we dropped down to the north side.




We climbed up and with some light scrambling reached the way I'd taken when I came here before.


This is how I got up last time.  The step Jack is looking across at is an easy -ish step across with only a little stretching involved.  However the foot placement is that flat rock which actually moves when touch it.  Even better if you look close you can see the small column is disconnected and sloping out on the bottom so it's already shifted.  And as an added bonus if the rock did fall it would have landed on the rest of the group waiting at the start of the 3rd class below.


We decided to take the group around.  Backtracking slightly we dropped down the chute visible on the right side of the picture above.


We then climbed up a chute in between the two highpoints.


This is the actual highpoint but a very small amount.  There's a few different ways up it including the face climb you can see someone doing here.  It's trivial down below and just enough you really want to pay attention near the top since you're looking at a not insignificant fall.


We set a rope on the crack to the right and then rappelled down the face.

Jack belaying from above

Looking northwest along the ridge

Our rappel station above the face

Jack preparing to dulfersitz down the face

We used a 8mm 30m rope and a big piece of webbing for everything and even managed a double stranded rappel.


We left Jen with a camera and the rest of us ran over to the lower summit for one last mustache group shot.


Well technically a mustache and eyebrow shot as Kristen had confused the two when shopping.


We decided to shortcut down and visit some mining ruins before rejoining the trail.


From there we scattered with a few people planning to stick around and climb some nearby bumps on Monday.  Sadly I was one of those who had to work on the so called holiday.

One of the hidden "gems" along the 15 is the gas station at the Cima Rd exit before you reach the Nevada border.  Everyone knows Baker with the thermometer and alien beef jerky or the Vegas-lite experience of Prim but neither of those places have animatronic gold panners trying to sell you beef jerky (which were out of commission when we were there), a Zoltar fortune teller machine, a urinal fountain (which they used to put on postcards sold in the store), and this...

For a good time...

A slightly hygienically challenged urinal fountain

A good -ish time was had by all followed by a few of us stopping by Casa Jimenez in Barstow for post trip mexican food enjoyed under the awkward stare of taxidermied animals.

And for the record:
Number of tires destroyed by the 2017 Mustache Mosey: 0!