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Silver Peak - Southwest Summit Alpine County

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:13 pm
by Vaca Russ
The Tahoe Ogul Peak List lists Silver Peak’s Southwest peak as Peak #9 on the list.

I approached Silver from the Noble Canyon trail west of the peak. I traveled from the campground south to a point where I could leave the trail and climb cross country up to the saddle between Highland and Silver.
1 Peak from Noble Canyon Trail.JPG
I carefully studied the satellite pictures prior to my climb trying to select the easiest rout up the west slope. I believe I found a relatively STEEP but easy route.

Once I left the trail I entered a heavily forested area where the biggest issue was stepping over and around downed trees and big piles of bear scat. As the slope steepened the obstacles began to thin out. Eventually I exited the forest and the climb was clear of vegetation. Occasionally there was some brush but it was really inconsequential to impeding the climb.
2 Steep Climb Up Slope.JPG
After a solid 2000 feet of climbing I finally reached the saddle between Highland and Silver.
3 Saddle.JPG
The climb along the ridge was mostly class 1 with some class 2 in places.
4 Class 2 Talus.JPG
There are about 3 peaklets that make up the summit of the SW peak. I didn’t know what to do when I got to the first one so I just muscled up the class 3 rock to the first peaklet.
5.JPG
6 Class 3 First Peaklet.JPG
I realized I wasn’t on the actual summit so I scrambled over to the actual SW summit seen here.
7 True SW Summit.JPG
The easy class 2 route to this summit is climbers right around the first two peaklets and then up over the ridge (in the picture above) and then climbers left along the ridge to the actual summit.

Looking back at Highland peak I could see why the climb of both Highland and Silver in one day has been compared to Whitney or Russell without the altitude.
8 Looking back at Highland.JPG
This is a shot of the NE summit of Silver.
10 NE Summit.JPG
I guess there is some argument about which peak is higher. I don’t really care. The SW Peak is on the list. That is all I need to know.

I took this map from Cal Topo and drew a line roughly showing the route I took once I left the Noble Canyon Trail. I followed this route both on the ascent and descent. Maybe someday I will buy one of them fancy GPS tracker electronic things. I can then record my path and share it on the internet like all of the cool kids.
Map.png
Thanks for reading my post!

-Russ

Re: Siler Peak - Southwest Summit Alpine County

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:53 pm
by Jason
Awesome! That's some pretty country up there. Thanks for the inspiration to get out more.

Re: Siler Peak - Southwest Summit Alpine County

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 11:34 am
by cefire
Nice! Looks like a good route up there - I'm guessing you were trying to avoid previous reports that the north slopes of Silver are "sandy hellhole" (or something to that effect)

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Re: Silver Peak - Southwest Summit Alpine County

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:46 pm
by mokelumnekid
Dixon Canyon on the east side is a pretty and remote place with a hidden trail...

Re: Silver Peak - Southwest Summit Alpine County

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:20 pm
by Vaca Russ
mokelumnekid wrote:Dixon Canyon on the east side is a pretty and remote place with a hidden trail...
George,

Thanks for the information. I didn't find the register but I read a lot of people bagged the peak (according to the register) from that direction. I have been spending some time up there in your family's neighborhood. Yesterday Jon (SNOOOOW) and I climbed Reynolds Peak.

We still need to climb the peak just south of your cabin. What is your advise on the easiest way to bag Lookout? I was thinking of driving south on the road in Pacific Valley until my 4 WD said "walk", and then climbing up Marshall Canyon.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,

-Russ