Flew to Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon to go to the Simon and Garfunkel concert at the MGM Grand with Erik, Ari, and Ari's family.
(Enjoyed the concert immensely- never thought I'd get the opportunity to see them live). The concert ended at 11 and I was on the road
heading towards Death Valley shorty afterward. My goals for the latter half of the weekend centered around making a moonlight attempt
at Telescope Peak. Since the last portion of the trail was unpaved, I had rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara for the weekend. It didn't seem to enjoy going
above 90 (and consumed an enormous amount of gas trying). At Beatty, I turned off of 95, refueled, and began the decent
down to sea level.
Driest Place in the US
It was overcast and drizzling as I drove across the floor of the valley past Stovepipe Wells and Towards Emigrant Pass.
The moon came out briefly and that was the last break in the clouds until much later that day. The drizzle gradually turned
into snow as I drove up past the Charcoal Kilns and onto the unpaved section leading up to Mahogony Flat. I reached the trailhead around 3am and decided against leaving the car above the snowline.
(The top section of the road was steep, icy, and exposed and I was fearful that the snow would accumulate during my outing). I drove back down about 3/4 mile to the Thorndike campground which, at 7500 ft, was below the snowline.
Whiteout at 9500
Though the moon was behind the clouds, there was still more than enough ambient light to follow the trail. The early section of the trail followed the eastern
side of the ridge and (for the most part) avoided the wind howling over from the west side. Visibility was poor and there was a light covering of snow. The trail climbed steadily but gently from 8000ft at the trailhead to about
9500 at Arcane Meadows. Arcane Meadows rests in the saddle between Rogers and Bennet Peaks and at this point the trail crossed over to the exposed western side of the ridge.
Up on the saddle, visibility dropped to zero and I got the full force of the ~20mph wind whipping over the ridge. I retraced my steps back off of the saddle and waited to see if the visibility was going to improve.
After about 15 minutes, I gave up and started heading back down the trail.
Badwater Basin
I was off of the mountain by 8 and not feeling too tired as of yet. Spent the rest of the day exploring the Valley floor, including stops at Golden Canyon and Badwater Basin. Telescope Peak was visible for most of the morning,
but the clouds that were covering the Penamint Range never did clear enough to get a good look at the summit.
