New York Mountains

14-Apr-62

By: Joe McCosker

13 climbers, including 5 in the Ted Lewis family who came all the way from Lompoc on their spring vacation, drove through the Mojave Desert to climb New York Mountain on Sunday, April 15.

The group camped Saturday night at the site of an abandoned miner's cabin at about 5,500' elevation. Old timers in a nearby cabin explained that sometimes the sunlight made it appear that there were windows and doors in the granite blocks on top of the mountain resembling the New York skyline, hence the name New York Mountain.

Bill Lynch left early Sunday morning to find the summit and managed to climb three other peaks before he located the register indicating that he was on the true summit. The rest of the party broke camp at seven in the morning and scrambled across rocks and through brush looking for Bill Lynch and the summit. The summit itself presented an interesting third class climb and, with the patient leadership of Cliff Meyers, all climbers made the peak by eleven thirty. The group was rewarded with a good view of desert peaks in California, Arizona, and Nevada, and could even see snow-capped Telescope Peak far to the northwest.

Descending the peak several climbers had their first lesson in rappelling Despite dire predictions, no one encountered any trouble from the cactus on the way down although Ralph Rice was bruised somewhat when a rock he stepped on turned out to be two rocks. All members of the party returned to their cars by 2:00 p.m.