Arc Dome, Mount Dubois, Mount Jefferson

17-Jul-93

By: Bill T. Russell

Ten of us met on Sat at 0630 at a good spot where we had spent the night, about 0.4 mi east of the end of the road which is the trailhead for Dubois. The 3.8 mi of poor dirt road from the junction down on the flat is just passable by 2wdr trucks; in another year it may require 4wdr. We hiked to the road end and then crossed Middle Creek and went up the rounded ridge that starts at that point. At about 9400' (860869), we veered to the west and traversed upward through the pinyon forest to reach the saddle west of point 10975. We then continued up the ridge to Pellisier Flats and south to the rock pile which constitutes Mt Dubois. George Pfeiffer turned back early and Pat Russell stopped at 11000' so we had eight on the summit. We had plenty of leaders so we split the group to accommodate our climbers who had widely varying speeds. We left a new register can; the side spiral book placed in 1977 is 1/3 full.

Most of us camped at the meeting place Sat night where we enjoyed a campfire in a splendid fire ring prepared by Tom Sumner. Dan Richter and Eric Siering started very early from the NW and climbed Boundary and Montgomery, The jump-off, and Dubois and joined us in camp. Asher Waxman dropped them off and drove their car around to our trailhead and climbed with us.

Sunday morning we drove through Tonopah and met at the "Stone Cabin" on the way to the Jefferson trailhead. We had ample 4wdr capacity and drove to the end of the track on the main south ridge and climbed Jefferson without incident. Again we split the group to accommodate the fast and slow people. The register container on Jefferson is a 2" PVC tube and the book is a side spiral that is 90% full. A new container and book are needed.

For Are Dome, we were down to six people in three cars. We chose to get to the trailhead via the town of Austin, to the north. In fact we all had dinner there and then drove to the trailhead to sleep. The driving instructions in the peak guide are good but need some updating. There is no third stream crossing and there is no longer an Upper Columbine Campground. It is 3.4 miles from the second stream crossing to Columbine Campground. On Monday, we climbed in several groups as before. Pat and I and Asher went up Stewart Creek and then up the easy rounded ridge to its west through (676028); it was a pleasant way to go. The others went up the jeep trail, The register container is large nesting tin cans and the book is a 4"x6" top spiral placed in 1992 by the "Northern Alpine Section, Peak and Gorge Division, Mother Lode Chapter, Sierra Club"

It was a good, although diffuse outing, which seemed to satisfy the wants of the participants. They were Bill T Russell, Charlie Knapke, Asher Waxman, Pat Russell, Patty Kline, Tom Sumner, Dan Richter, Paula Peterson, Delores Holladay, Eric Siering, Bruce Peterson, and George Pfeiffer.