Panamint Butte

3-Nov-79

By: Ron Jones

PANAMINT RANGE TRAVERSE Six strong backpackers, including seldom-seen Roy Ward, met Saturday morning at the ghost town of Ballarat. We spotted one vehicle near the end of Happy Canyon (the Canyon south of Suprise Canyon and Panamint City) at about 4600 ft. I missed an obscure turnoff below that point which leads to the end of the Canyon at ???? ft. The Happy Canyon road is passable to passenger cars with care. Mr and Mrs Jim Wesson live at the head of the canyon. She does acrylic painting on onyx slabs and offers her work for sale.

At nearly 10:00 we met again at Mahogany Flats, 8100 ft. This proved later to be too late a departure for our contemplated Panamint Ridge traverse to Porter Peak. The car shuttle needs to be set up the night before.

Dressed warmly as protection against the frigid winds blowing 0ff a Sierra storm we packed up the road to the repeater station on top of Rodgers Peak. Here I estimated the wind to be blowing 40-50 MPH. We moved on to Bennett Peak, then up the trail to Telescope.

Beyond Telescope Pk. there was no trail but staying to the east or lee side of the ridge we found easy going for another couple of miles where we set up camp at 9??? ft. That night the wind blew, the clouds dropped below the ridge top but the next morning dawned clear and cold with the pinons and junipers covered with hoarfrost. Morning temperatures dropped to 17 degrees and full one-gallon water bottles froze solid, never to defrost that day.

Sunday we encountered a lot of brush and some bouldering for several miles enroute to Panamint Pass. This is the most difficult section of the trip. That morning I slipped on an icy rock and landed on my knee. At Panamint Pass three hikers dropped down the trail into Surprise Canyon because of the late-hour and fatigue. Three of us continued on over Sentinel Peak and Peak 9??? from which we scrubbed the easy flat ridge to Porter Peak in favor of dropping down to my van in Happy Canyon. The car shuttle was completed and all participants picked up about midnight.

This traverse will go in a hard two days but it is difficult and requires the maximum time available. My thanks to Campy for assisting me and to Joe McCosker in helping with the car shuttle.