California National Forest Highpoints > Dunderberg Peak > Climber's LogDunderberg Peak Climber's Log
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[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
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| mpbro | Route Climbed: SE Ridge Date Climbed: 17 August 2003  | |
| Heh-heh, I thought the SE Ridge was a pretty forgettable route myself. ;-) But Barry's route description was dead on. The scree is pretty bad all over the mountain, but if you stick to the class 3 scrambling, you can avoid much of it. That being said, summit views were FANtastic! We were blessed with a warm and relatively windless day. A pair of large birds of prey (falcons, golden eagles???) put on a high-speed acrobatics show around the summit. On the way up I saw a sweet-looking scree chute, so instead of following the spine of the ridge, we did a lot of tedious traversing on the descent, looking for the elusive chute. Eventually we did find it, and used it to descend the last thousand feet or so in less than twenty minutes. We met a use trail about halfway between Moat Lake and Blue Lake, and just followed it and later an official trail back to the parking lot. We drove in the night before and slept under the stars in the sagebrush. Mars and the Moon put on a great show. Started the climb at 7:15, took around 2 hours to ascend, spent an hour or so on the summit, and then took something like 1h30 to descend. We planned to climb Mount Dana later in the day, but after a tasty burger and shake in Lee Vining, we felt soft and instead took a swim in Tenaya Lake. Judging from the volume and looseness of the talus, I would guess that rockfall from the towers on the south slopes could be troublesome in spring. The mosquitoes followed us, but only up to 10,500' or so. Oddly, I would see them disperse when I'd kick a loose rock. There must have been some water on or near the surface. Perhaps some springs, or residual snowmelt? | |
| Posted Aug 18, 2003 10:58 am | ||
| steeleman | Route Climbed: South Couloir Date Climbed: May 2003 | |
| Unlike Bearbnz, it took me about ten hours from Virginia Lake to summit :-) Skied the south couloir back down. Three hours later, a huge avalanche swept the entire chute. That's why you get up early... | |
| Posted Aug 17, 2003 10:48 pm | ||
| Bob Burd | Route Climbed: SE Ridge (ascent) / West Ridge (descent) Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2003 | |
| Great views from the summit. bearbnz is right on about the SE Ridge. It has pretty firm rock and some very fun class 3 if you look for it. The West Ridge is a forgetable route - I took it just because it was different. Warm up for the 2003 Sierra Challenge. | |
| Posted Aug 17, 2003 10:30 pm | ||
| bearbnz | Route Climbed: SE Ridge Date Climbed: July 23, 2003 | |
| 1:28 from the Virginia Lakes Trailhead to the summit, went after work on a thunderstormy day. No rain, no nearby thunder made for a successful ascent. | |
| Posted Aug 2, 2003 12:24 am | ||
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