Cerro Pinacate is one of only 4 peaks on the Desert Peak Section list which are located in Mexico.


I've gone to climb this peak twice before.  In 2012 we were turned back at the gate due to"security concerns" and then in November of 2016 we made a special trip a month before I finished the DPS list.

It's a rather long drive from Orange County and despite really enjoying the area and the camp I normally wouldn't have made it a priority to do it again.  But last time I had a very limited window of weekends to do the trip and when Gracia was unable to join us I told her I'd go again.  So here we were again!

January 6th & 7th, 2018

Cerro del Pinacate (3,937’)

Carnegie Peak (3,707’)

9 miles, 3,300'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

[Garmin Mexico Maps By Harlan Stockman]

Yesterday our group climbed nearby Dome & Klinker Mountain before doing some sightseeing at the Owl in Red Mountain.  Today the plan was to start with Fremont Peak and then run over to climb Red Mountain and then hopefully make it home at a decent hour.

Since we camped right under the peak Saturday night this writeup covers the access and camping options rather than include them with the previous day.

December 17th, 2017

Fremont Peak (4,584')

Red Mountain (5,261')

Fremont: 1.4 miles, 750'
Red: 3.9 miles, 1,800'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [MapF] [MapR]

This trip came about thanks to Ross Doering who has been eyeing Fremont Peak for a while now since it sticks out rather dramatically along the 395 south of Red Mountain.


He mentioned it while we were driving back from a Sierra trip this summer and I jumped at the chance to lead something new.  So a few months later here we were with Dome Mountain, Klinker Mountain, and Red Mountain thrown in to fill out the weekend.

Yesterday Jen Blackie and I climbed Ashford and Desert Hound peaks to the west and today we had a few other random peaks in the Zdon Peak List to choose from.  We decided to grab Ibex since I had seen the name pop up a number of times on Peakbagger radius searches and Jubilee since it was straightforward and along the way.  With the sun going down so early I figured we probably were not going to have time for anything else which did turn out to be the case.

We ended up spending extra time around Ibex due to the New American Mine / American Mine located on the southwestern slope.  We took a longer route to climb the peak and found one of the more extensive mines I've come across lately.

December 3rd, 2017 

Jubilee Mountain (2,526')

Ibex Peak (4,751')
Jubilee: 2.16 miles, 1,200'
Ibex: 6.6 miles, 2,100'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [MapJub] [MapIbex]

I'd been back in civilization for a whopping four days following the epic six day Thanksgiving Turktacular trip to Escalante but an open weekend is an open weekend and I wasn't about to sit around at home. 

Since I finished the Sierra Club Desert Peak Section list last year I've been looking for new lists to work on and one of those has I've been toying with is the list of peaks which are in the Andy Zdon Desert Summits book.

Zdon Upper: http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-924180
Zdon Lower: http://www.peakbagger.com/List.aspx?lid=-924181

The guide itself I've never cared for since it doesn't include any maps which makes it a lot of work if you are looking for things to climb vs checking for beta on a specific peak.  But hey, Peakbagger to the rescue and it is the closest thing we have to a Secor like reference to the desert.

Jen Blackie and I decided to head out to the cluster of peaks around Ashford Junction west of Shoshone and see what we could get done despite the short days this time of year.

On the plus side that meant the drive was only going to be about 4 hours which is a nice change of pace.  We might have even gotten to sleep before midnight *except* I managed to forget my boots meaning by the time we backtracked and grabbed them we didn't actually get away until 9 pm.  Ah well...

December 2nd, 2017

Ashford Peak (3,547')

Desert Hound Peak (4,472')
7 miles, 4,000 ft

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Yesterday we climbed nearby Muddy Peak and camped along the road out through Buffington Pockets.  Today our goal was another nearby desert classic Moapa Peak.

Moapa is also on the Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section list and is notorious for its knife edge summit ridge.  It's also one of the best on the list in my experience and makes for a great combo with Muddy for a weekend of scramble peaks.

November 19th, 2017

Moapa Peak (6,471')

7.1 miles, 3,500'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

November 18th, 2017

Muddy Peak (5,387')
9.2 miles, 3,200'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

As much as I really enjoy the volunteer classes I teach through Sierra Club they do wear on me a bit since they keep me in town during periods I'd rather by running amok in the wilderness (otherwise known as each and every damn weekend)  So it was with great relief I wrapped up my commitments last week and set about making some last minute desert plans.

Muddy and Moapa are two peaks on the Sierra Club Desert Peak Section list.  They are located north of Vegas along the 15 in the general vicinity of Valley of Fire.  They're both 3rd class (with Moapa in particular being known for an extended summit ridge with a bit of exposure) and are really quality examples of what the list has to offer.

We planned to drive out Friday night, climb Muddy Saturday and then camp along the road out, and then do Moapa Sunday before driving home.

Mount Starr King is a granite dome located near Half Dome and is one of the 247-ish peaks on the Sierra Club Sierra Peak Section list.  It's higher than Half Dome though it lacks the massive cliff overlooking Yosemite Valley which makes the other so iconic.

Also unlike Half Dome there are no cables or other mechanisms to get to the summit of Starr King except for doing a bit of 5th class climbing.  This means it's visited a lot less often than it's neighbor.

This would be the 4th time on the summit for Jack Kieffer and I.  We've been leading it biannually for a number of years now and have settled on a relaxed 3 day schedule camping well off the trail.  The nature of the climbing lends itself to being able to safely bring along a decently large group of varying experience levels which makes it ideal for an exciting Wilderness Travel Course Experience Trip.

This time around we had along a group of 16 people with an additional 30+ more who had requested to join but we didn't have room for them on the permit.  And this time it got interesting right off the bat when our trailhead ended up being closed due to to both being technically on fire while also covered in snow...

September 22nd to 24th, 2017

Mount Starr King (9,092')

Day 1: 10 miles, 1,800'

Day 2: 3.3 miles, 2,000'

Day 3: 8.2 miles, 1,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This trip came about as an attempt at finding something WTC Experience Trip friendly using a less heavily utilized trailhead without repeating a peak I'd done before.

Koip Peak is on the Sierra Peak Section list while Kuna is the 3rd highest peak in Yosemite behind Lyell and Dana.  Since the peaks are only about 500 ft apart they're easily done together once you get all the way up to 13k.  As an added bonus there's a plane wreck to explore on the saddle between them and some mining ruins at Mono Pass.

September 16th & 17th, 2017

Koip Peak (12,962')

Kuna Peak (13,002')
Day 1: 8.4 miles, 3,300'
Day 2: 16.3 miles, 3,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Baldwin has been on my radar for a number of years.  It's most commonly done from the top of Convict Canyon which is an area I looked up at for years while fishing with my father at Convict Lake.  I finally got to go up there in 2010 when I led a trip to climb Laurel and Bloody.  The area was spectacular but the creek crossing on the way had caused us a bit of trouble.

Jeff Atijera and I had tried to do Mount Baldwin a few years later only to be told by the permit office that the stream crossing was too difficult and they wouldn't issue us a permit.

Kristen and I decided to try again this year scheduling it in September when theoretically the stream crossing would be at its most manageable.  And as an added plus we got a nice view of the peak from the top of Red Slate a few weekends before.

September 9th & 10th, 2017

Mount Baldwin (12,598')
Day 1: 6.35 miles, 3,100' gain
Day 2: 10.93 miles, 2,500' gain

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

I'd been back in town for three whole days following last weekend's trip to Red Slate so of course I was chomping at the bit when Thursday night came around and it was time to head for Mineral King!

This was a repeat of a trip I'd led back in 2011 which I'd really enjoyed despite suffering through legions of mosquitoes.  In addition to including my namesake peak it's just a really pleasant three day trip on the easier end and the Mosquito Lakes area seems to be a little less trodden than a lot of the other areas where we run comparable experience trips.  And of course it's Mineral King so the views are always spectacular.

August 18th to 20th, 2017

Hengst Peak (11,146')

White Chief Peak (11,159')

Miners Ridge (10,823')

Miners Nose (9,423')

Day 1: 6.4 miles, 2,100'

Day 2: 7.7 miles, 2,400'

Day 3: 6.4 miles, 700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Red Slate is another one of those peaks that I've had on my radar for a number of years there was always some reason it didn't happen.  There's also the rather rad looking technical snow route from the north that was always damn tempting to attempt vs the walkup route from McGee Pass or Lee & Cecil Lakes.

But this year I was on a roll and looking for non repeat trips that would work as Wilderness Travel Course Experience trips.  Red Slate makes for an almost ideal 3 day that gets you over the Sierra crest and has the added advantage of taking you up McGee Creek which is one of the more spectacular trails on the east side.

So when Ross Doering showed interest we threw together a trip and a few short -ish months later we were off!  We'd planned it for August figuring the snow on the pass wouldn't be an issue but the winter of 2017 turned out to be a very high snow year with snow lingering until the end of summer.

August 12th to 14th, 2017

Red Slate Mountain (13,123')

Day1: 12.5 miles, 4,200'

Day 2: 7 miles, 3,000'

Day 3: 12 miles, 1,500'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

After last weeks car stranding adventure in Mineral King I was looking forward to a nice straightforward buttkicker.

Enter GOOOOOOOOOOOAT!  Two days!  One peak!  5k up the first day followed by 2k up and 7k down the second!  Most of which was to be done with full packs.


Despite some initial skepticism potential participants were eventually won over by my constant wandering around yelling GOOOOOOOOOAT! at them and we ended up with 11 people meeting us at the trailhead at the end of the 180.

August 5th & 6th, 2017

Goat Mountain (12,207')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

After last weekend's mosquito fest of an attempt on Stanford North was turned back by snow I was just a bit concerned for this weekend's trip to Warren.   But not enough to do something drastic like not go to the mountains of course.

Mount Warren seems to be done more popularly as a dayhike from Tioga but there's a route up from Lundy that climbs Lakes Canyon past a really nice lake called Oneida.  Even better the trailhead is non quota and you're allowed to have campfires.  Mileage was extremely reasonably making it seem like an ideal candidate to make a two day WTC Experience Trip.

July 22nd & 23rd, 2017

Mount Warren (12,327')

Warren Fin (12,160')
Day 1: 3.9 miles and 1,950'
Day 2: 10.06 miles and 3,000'

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

Thanks to the heavy snow year regular backpacking trips to the Sierra had been pushed back a bit.  But here we were in the middle of July which is when I'd conservatively hoped the snow would be manageable and it was time to finally start climbing high!

This was also a Sierra Club I provisional for Gracia Plascencia.  I was here to eval which is why I was attempting this peak for a third time.

The first time I turned back 200 ft from the summit with some students who were really struggling and ended up not getting them back to the trailhead until midnight and not getting back to Orange County until 6 am.  The second time I made the summit only to be nailed by a rainstorm which proceeded to soak us for the entire 5 hour hike out.  Then there was this trip where the mosquitos were epic, we nearly lost someone during a stream crossing, and we couldn't summit due to a section of steep snow.

I'm really starting to think this area is just bad luck for me...

July 15th & 16th, 2017

Mount Stanford (Attempt) (12,838')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This was the fifth and final day of our big 4th of July road trip where we visited Trinity Alps, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and Adams Peak which is the furthest north of the Sierra Peak Section list.  Writeups of the other days can be found here.

July 4th, 2017

Adams Peak (8,197')
5.75 miles, 1800'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Adams is the green dot north of Reno and as you can see it's waaaay up there and kind of on it's own.  We'd originally planned to do several of the SPS peaks up here before deciding Trinity Alps and Lassen NP sounded a bit more exciting.  But this one being all by itself and not that long or challenging it made sense to grab it on the last day so it wasn't just all driving.

It's May and thanks to the record snow in the Sierra I'm currently stuck with conditions where it's too hot to do much in the desert but the amount of snow in the Sierra makes backpacks a challenge.  So that leaves snow climbs (which are a ton of fun but a different tempo) or heading to the lower elevation areas like Golden Trout.  And with the latter you're still looking at high stream crossings and trailheads which haven't opened yet.

There is a trailhead at Kennedy Meadows I've been wanting to try for a while.  It's where the PCT heads north from from the Kennedy Meadows Campground which is accessible year round.  (The campground itself was shut down a few years ago but reopened by the General Store in Kennedy Meadows and just asks for donations.)  Even more importantly for this time of year the trail has a footbridge to get you across the South Fork of the Kern so you're not limited to one side or the other.

The goal of the weekend was to do a quick two day to go climb Crag peak and possibly look at some other nearby bumps.  Crag is one of those funny peaks where the Crag marked on the USGS map isn't the one that the Sierra Club Sierra Peaks Section has on their list and for good reason.  The northern bump is only a slight bit lower but significantly more interesting than it's governmentally recognized neighbor.

May 13th & 14th, 2017
Crag Peak (9,480')
Crag USGS (9,440')

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

April 30th, 2017

Scodie Mountain (7,294')

9.8 miles, 2900' gain

[Pics] [Map]

This was another Sierra Club I provisional for an Orange County Wilderness Travel Course staffer and this time it was Dennis Loya aka Bear from Modjeska Group.  Since it was just a day hike this one didn't count for students needing an experience trip but it was a good chance to get out and hike a pretty area that's only a few hours from LA.  Plus they got to hang out with us!

Mount Silliman is one of those peaks that gets done quite a lot by WTC staff.  I did it in 2011 as a two day and again in 2016 as a very nice and relaxed three day but I'd never been out that way in the winter.

It has the advantage of a reasonable approach (we did about 6 miles and 2k gain to camp the first day) and spectacular views from the top.  This trip came about after I happened to see a picture of the area on Facebook right before an open weekend.

April 1st to 3rd, 2017

Mount Silliman (11,188')

[Pics] [Map]

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.

January 15th, 2017

Teutonia Peak (719')

[Pics] [Map]