Where:  Mojave National Preserve, CA

Who:  Matthew Hengst, Anne Kircher, Jeff Atijera

Pictures:  Matt's Flickr

GPS Track:  Matt's Track

Though the Sierra is still largely accessible I've been itching to get out to the desert for a while now and have been working on a number off list trip ideas.  

Castle Peaks is an interesting set of bumps out in eastern Mojave that anyone climbing in the area has probably noticed from a distance more than once.  While looking for interesting non DPS-list peaks to do I came across an extremely extensive writeup done by cp0915 over on SummitPost http://www.summitpost.org/castle-peaks-mojave/487688

3rd, 4th and 5th class bumps in the middle of nowhere best described as “impressive crud heap”?  Sold!

Pictures:  Flickr

GPS Track:  Track

After spending all day Saturday exploring nearby Castle Peaks we needed something shorter for Sunday since we had to get Anne back to Orange County in time to catch a flight back to the Bay Area.  So I scaled back some larger ideas I had and went scrounging around for something suitably short, obscure, and at least somewhat interesting to round out the weekend.

Teutonia pretty much defines obscure, has an interesting name, and supposedly had some fun 3rd+ class scrambling.  That'll work!

This weekend was originally planned as a quick three day Sierra climb to grab Brewer, North Guard, and South Guard over Sphinx Col until during the Steve Eckert proposed that we do a quick Shasta trip as a warm-up for the planned July climb of Mt Olympus.

Shasta is one of the 15 14,000+ ft peaks in California and therefore a very popular climb for the altitude hungry crowd.  I’d been invited to go before but always via the popular southern route called Avalanche Gulch and I was somewhat reluctant to burn two whole days getting to / from Shasta that could be better spent mucking about in the Sierra as far from any crowds as possible.

Steve however proposed coming in from the east and climbing the Hotlum-Wintun Ridge which I'd never heard of which always has appeal.  As an added bonus we’d only take 3 days if I could fly in to San Francisco and drive the rest of the way with him.

And it is one hell of a mountain from a distance.

Where:  Mojave National Preserve, CA

Pictures:           

  Matt's Flickr

GPS Track:  

  Matt's Track

This trip came about because Adrienne Benedict and I wanted to lead something together after the depressingly uncomplicated Hengst & White Chief trip this summer.  As Jack was free also this particular weekend we happily roped him in to the trip and then went about finding some peaks.