Lamont Pinnacles from trailhead (Lamont Peak
far right bump)
Canebrake Road up from Highway 178
Camp at 7200' (Spanish Needles (left) Owens
Peak (right))
Lamont Pinnacles from Lamont Peak
Me on Lamont Peak (Spanish Needles right
distant)
Sunset on Lamont Pinnacles (Lamont Peak
far right)
It took me three attempts to climb Lamont Peak. The first one I
came along the PCT from Chimney Creek Campground area. I took a
trail spur west off the saddle between Lamont and Spanish
Needles. I climbed to the highest point to find nothing but a
view. Lamont Peak is not the highest point. Even one of the
Lamont Pinnacles is higher. I dropped off the ridge and down to
the route Mike and I had 4 wheeled drove years before to climb
Spanish Needles (turned out not to be the summit). You can’t
drive up to a reasonable elevation any longer. The private land
in now marked no trespassing and the wilderness boundary is now
at the back end of the private land. The second time I came up
The Lamont Peak trail from Canebrake Rd. I lost the trail
somewhere and settled for a close view of the Pinnacles.
The
3rd attempt was April 5th 2005 by way of
the Canebrake Rd trailhead, which starts at about 5500’. I
carried an overly large 73-lb. pack up to where I had stopped
the previous time, set up a camp, finished listening to the
Giants beat the Dodgers to start the season then climbed the
peak. There were logs in ammo box with China Lake stickers on it
but no BM. (The earliest entry was 1961) Actually you don’t
need a camp for the 2 or 3-mile hike to the peak but I had plans
of also climbing Spanish Needles. The day was beautiful without
a cloud in the sky and I slept in my tent without a rain fly
with the door open so I could have my head outside looking at
the stars. Actually the tent wasn’t needed and I could have
saved about 7 lbs. but I would always rather be safe the sorry
when it comes to the mountains and I’m in training for a
14,000 footer for Memorial Day. (Hope to carry less than 70 lbs.
on that one)
Two
reasons I made camp where I did were to avoid dropping down a
couple hundred feet into a saddle before climbing to the peak
and the other was my water supply. There were still snow banks
on the north-facing slope down to the saddle at about 7100’.
Without snow there is not much for water in the area. I notice
atop Lamont Peak that the north-facing ridge leading towards
Spanish Needle was also coveted with snow banks. Although there
was somewhat of a trail on that side I chose the sunny south
facing side to bushwhack. This turned out to be a mistake as
after over two hours I had made it about a mile. I changed plans
and tried to go up over the ridge and look for the trail in the
snow. The route became virtually impassable and I retreated and
retraced my way back to camp. I was just as slow getting back
and I ended up spending about 6 hours on the day’s hike. Since
I arrived back at camp by 13:30 I decided to pack up and come
out. It was several hours getting back to the Jeep mostly
because my toes were getting jammed into the front of my boots
and were killing me. Even heavy use of my walking sticks failed
to relieve the toe jam or my sore knees.
