Telescope Peak

26-Feb-66

By: Richard (Steve) Smith

none

Deciding on a winter ascent of Telescope Peak, we reached the Charcoal Kilns below Mahogany Flat on Sat morning, only to find the above road closed due to snow and ice. Beginning with my friend, Roger Steeb, we used crampons to reach Mahogany Flat. Here we donned snowshoes, since the trail is protected from the sun and snow had drifted over the trail. This went on for about 1-1/2 miles until the trail makes a sharp turn to the west. Walking became easy since the trail below Rogers Peak was all void of snow.

We camped on the summit of Rogers since two small structures afforded protection from the wind. Temperatures fell to about 10 degrees and we had a wonderful view of the many valleys with their lights to the north of us. Sunday morning we started early to reach Telescope Peak. It was necessary to use crampons again from Rogers since the ridge was completely covered with frozen snow. My friend stopped at Arcane Meadows while I went on up the final ridge to the summit. The register showed the last climber to sign in had been on Nov. 6th.

Going back to the car, we took a short cut by going down the north side of Rogers and followed the maintenance road back to the Flat Sunday evening.


Detailed information for visiting one or more peaks mentioned in this article can be found in the
Desert Peak Section Road and Peak Guides

DPS Archives Index | Desert Peaks Section