Peak x3153, east of Mt. Langley, CA

Overview

Getting There

How to get there? Park at the "end" (that's subjective) of Tuttle Creek Road (FS 16S01),, off of Granite View Road,, off of Horseshoe Meadows Road,, off of Whitney Portal Road. The road turns into 4WD and then into a trail along the south side of Tuttle Creek.  (The trail crosses S. Fork Tuttle Creek, then stops at the Ashram or "Stone House").There are two 4WD paths that have been blocked-off to vehicle traffic: 16S101 and 16S102 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/inyo/recarea/?recid=20724).  That's about where you want to leave the roads & trails and head S into the back-country.

Route

See above, "Getting There."  On the road / trail next to Tuttle Creek, around 2050m metres head S into the pine trees.

Notice that the 7.5-minute series (topographic) map called "MT. LANGLEY, CA" shows three blue streams _BETWEEN_ Tuttle and Diaz Creeks (in the range of 1900m to 2500m), and _EAST_ of the John Muir Wilderness boundary.   

(1.) the "upper disappearing stream" starts at 2500m and disappears at 1960.  THERE IS AT LEAST ONE (1) PASS UP THIS DRAINAGE.  It is at 2650m.  You can see the "Stone House" from there.

(2.) the "lower disappearing stream" starts as a blue line at 2760m and disappears at 1840m -- THERE ARE THREE (3) PASSES UP THIS DRAINAGE.  All of them are close to the top of x3153.  They are at, from N to S: 3060m (North of x3153), 3100m (North of x3153 and closer to it), and 3040m (East of x3153).  ((Actually, I haven't been to the second one (3100m), but I seen it (!!) off in the distance on my way to pass 3060m!! ...hopefully when I look for it on November 10-?, 2020, pass 3100m will be right at, or next to, Peak x3153)).

(3.) the southern-most stream (the one that doesn't "disappear") passes just N of x2048 and flows into Diaz Creek -- it would be very difficult to summit x3153 using this drainage unless you connect-up with the "lower disappearing stream."  This one would require crossing private land, off of Granite View Road.  NOTE: In this area is what could be considered the absolute, no-buts-about-it, *END* of the east ridge off the top of Mt. Langley x4277 (x14032).  Roughly, the ridge would end in Owens Valley where Diaz Creek crosses the boundary between private (who?) and public (Inyo National Forest, non-wilderness) land, at about x1900 (x6233).  That would be an elevation difference of 2377m (7,798'), and a distance of 5.1 miles.  ((Project for Another Day:  Climb the ridge from x1900 to x3153, if it's even possible for a joe from New Jersey.... then do "the mountaineer's waltz" from x3153 to x4277 !! ))

First Pass on JM Wilderness Boundary toward x3153:  2650m.

Continue up the drainage above "upper disappearing stream" and hug the ridge on your R.  Sometimes it's possible to find a gap in this ridge that overlooks Tuttle Creek.  Keep going, even when the going gets incredibly steep.  Pretty soon, you'll be at pass 2650m. From there:

There are four photos of this pass (2650m) taken from Friday, October 27, 2017 (from the album, at Josiah dot piwigo dot com). I used this pass to link-up with the old Tuttle Creek trail seen on some maps that goes up the south fork of the S. Fork of Tuttle Creek and all the way to Mt. Langley.

( FIX: )
The first photo (IMG_2138) is the view of Mt. Langley from the pass.  The second photo (_2146) shows a tent on top of the pass.  There were just a few flat areas to pitch a tent, everything else is wicked sloped.  The third photo (_2148) shows Owens Valley, and the fourth photo (_2161) shows the view to the N showing the north side of Tuttle Creek.

Second Pass on JM Wilderness Boundary toward x3153: 3060m.

x

Red Tape

I used to contact The Great Space Center ( http://www.franklinmerrell-wolff.com/educate/the-great-space-center/ ) for permission to cross their land, but that resulted in a hike of constant uphill effort.  Lately, I prefer gaining elevation on the road / trail next to Tuttle Creek, and then heading S through Forest Service land (Inyo N.F.) staying on level terrain (perhaps following deer / sheep trails) until heading up towards the chosen pass.  WARNING: that level terrain is covered with short pine trees, be careful of getting poked in the eye by a branch!!

When to Climb

All I can say, is, at certain times of the year when the snow is melting, an intermittent stream exists due to granite bowls and shelves that channel the water very nicely around 2700m metres in the "lower disappearing stream."  How to find the water: Around 2570m, the "lower disappearing stream" changes from direction SW to direction W while ascending the dry stream / wash (at the "diamond stack" rocks with the "moby dick" face rock).  Right at that change in direction is a massive boulder with a flat face that faces Owens Valley.  Water could be dripping off the top of it.  If not, keep going up, until the "cone rock" comes into view.  Right around there, the intermittent stream MIGHT be flowing if the snowmelt is active enough.  It's gorgeous!! *

Camping

Dispersed camping!

External Links

Search "piwigo" and "josiah" (use double-quotes in Google Search) and look at the photo albums that have "x3153" in the title. Piwigo is an open-source photo hosting website that costs a little bit. I posted to HighSierraTopix since I'm looking for a climbing partner(s).  See "Looking for a partner from 7,000' to Mt. Langley" which is under the "Community" section, and, under that section, subsection: "Find a Partner / Form a Group / Join a Group". Also, I created a Meetup, but, I * can't * find it using a search for a group near Bishop, CA called "Explorers in the Southern Half of John Muir Wilderness" (weird). But, you can find it by adding this after the .com: /explorers-in-the-southern-half-of-john-muir-wilderness/