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I'm curious if anyone has any insight into the numbering of the Center Basin Crags, specifically No. 5. Secor describes the route to Center Basin Crag No. 5 as follows: "This is a class 2 scramble from the north." He also mentions that "[t]he notch between Crag No. 3 and Crag No. 4 is reached by traversing to it from the large scree gully that leads from Center Basin to the saddle north of Crag No. 5. I found an annotated image of the crags in question from the east, but when looking at photos from the west I can't help but wonder if No. 5 is mislabeled, either in the image or by Secor.

Annotated image from the east:


Then I found, and marked with letters, this image from the west:


When comparing the the two images with Secor's description of a 'class 2 scramble from the north', and the 'large scree gully that leads from Center Basin to the saddle north of Crag No. 5', I am wondering if Center Basin Crag No. 5 may be 'F' in the image taken from the west, and to the left (out of frame) of the crag labeled 'No. 5' in the image from the east.

For additional reference, here are some more images taken from the west:



Thoughts? I readily admit that part of the problem may be that sometimes I misidentify obvious 'large scree gullies', mistake notches for saddles, etc. It's also possible that 'F' and '#5' in the two images are the same and they just look different from the east and west (imagine that).

The first photo is mine and I can vouch that it is incorrect. It was based off my approaching Center Basin Crags from Mt. Bradley on the east side of the crest. These looked to be the only significant crags from that side. The one labeled #5 was NOT class 2 from what we could see, so we guessed maybe there was an easier approach from the west. I think what happened was that we went right over the true #5, an easy class 2-3 scramble from Mt. Bradley, without realizing it. To further complicate things, it appears that at least some of the UTM coords that Secor provides are incorrect. John Kirk has these in ListsOfJohn shown here.

This places #4 where #5 should go (just south of the large scree gully) and puts #5 further up the ridge towards Mt. Bradley (labeled "G" on west side photo). It is unlikely that Secor ever climbed these or did close recon, relying on input from a variety of sources as was the practice since the first version put together by Hervey Voge back in the day. Best as I can judge:

Crag No. 1 = #1 (my photo from east side) = A (west side view)
Crag No. 2 = #3 = C
Crag No. 3 = #4 = D
Crag No. 4 = #5 = E
Crag No. 5 = F

This leaves out #2 = B which seems like it would make a 6th crag between No. 1 and No. 2.

Which leaves it all a bit messy. Sorry, but that's the best I've been able to come up with after mulling it over for a few years...

OK, the above isn't quite correct. The post below should be fairly clear...

I happen to run across a sketch of the Center Basin Crags in Voge's old Sierra guide from 1954:

which can then be matched up nicely with this photo:

If you'd like some coordinates to match to a map or GPS, I've got them identified here