SummitPost.org

Does anyone know exactly where Der Tooth in the Mid Hills (Gold Valley area, Mojave NP) is?

A 1971 Smatko trip report speaks glowingly of it, commenting that he'd climbed it four times and saying "This peak is fourth class and I would recommend it highly for DPS status."

That description and the name sound intriguing, but that's the only reference I can find online:
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/dps/archives/dps02051.htm

Poking around on TOPO!, I can't find anything that looks like an obvious candidate around the Mid Hills. Guess I can hope it will make itself known when I'm out there, but it would be nice to have an idea beforehand...

Yes. Just sent you an email.

cp0915 wrote:Yes. Just sent you an email.

Hey post up that info!! I wanna go now too

Shoot me a PM if you wanna join us.

Just for anyone else who looked at Smatko's trip report and became intrigued by his comments: He seems to have been smoking crack. North and South "Tower" are not very tower-like, and barely qualify as class 3. Der Tooth is cool, but it's a crag, not a peak.

(On the brighter side, the disappointment of those drastically lowered my expectations for the surrounding peaks, and I then found some of them to be quite enjoyable. Woods Mountain, Twin Buttes, Wildhorse Mesa, and Barber were all better than I was expecting.)

Next time you are in town, get CP to take you to this range:


Definitely more-tooth-like, the true summit.

And doesn't CP still need to go up Mitchell, your favorite peak? The SE route has fewer sticky things.

MoapaPk wrote:And doesn't CP still need to go up Mitchell, your favorite peak? The SE route has fewer sticky things.

In defiance of all odds, I've yet to go up Mitchell, McCullough or Mormon. I've heard rumors, at least, of an obscure but really nice route up Mitchell. Matthew and I were sneaking peeks at it yesterday. Might be time to pull the trigger.

cp0915 wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:And doesn't CP still need to go up Mitchell, your favorite peak? The SE route has fewer sticky things.

In defiance of all odds, I've yet to go up Mitchell, McCullough or Mormon. I've heard rumors, at least, of an obscure but really nice route up Mitchell. Matthew and I were sneaking peeks at it yesterday. Might be time to pull the trigger.

Oddly enough, a route on the N side of Mitchell has been mentioned by Dr Ed. He claims to know the roads.

Could be the same, but I'm pretty sure this is on another side. I'll hafta email my buddy and ask for a refresher on the info. He mentioned it to me a couple years ago, and I've been holding onto it.