Bat Mountain summit, and unexpected overnighter
PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/42 ... #246104739
Plans changed, so I made a late decision to go to Death Valley. I called Trekker since it was after midnight (he's a night owl) and talked til cell reception cut off. So he was the only person that knew where I was going. I drove a little past PSR for the night and camped. Sunday morning I drove to the Bat Mtn Trailhead, and with a noon start (4x4 road was work) I dayclimbed my peak and got out before 6pm. All was good til I tried to drive out, and couldn't tell where the real 'road' was. I drove in circles, back and forth, then after an hour of getting nowhere I made the decision to drive out when I could see. Safety first, right? It took an hour to drive out Monday morning, then another 90 min to get cell reception. By the time I called SnowDude, he had been sending e-mails to my friends, 3 were already on the road to look for me, and he was just getting ready to call SAR. I've been home late before, but I always call, and I never miss work. I caused a lot of trouble by not being able to call to say I was safe, so for solo trips, I'll be looking into getting the "Spot Satellite Personal Tracker"
Bat Mountain is the big knob in the middle. We tried the previous weekend and summitted the wrong high point
My turnaround point. GPS said it would take 19 min. That section was a lot steeper, so it took 35 min.
On the way down, I was fascinated by the big boulders of conglomerate rock
Photos from first attempt at Bat Mountain
Friday, 11 January 2008 (day 1 of 3)
Attempt at Bat Mountain
PHOTOS: http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/41 ... #243637652
After driving in circles looking for the dirt road leading to the start of the hike, we finally got to where we could start hiking to Bat Mountain. Unfortunately, my waypoint showed us going in the right direction, but to a false summit that was less than a half mile away, with a vertical drop to get there. We should have gone around the false summit. But we found some interesting conglomerate and limestone formations which made this hike worth it.
First attempt, climbed up a beautiful and steep gully
Looking down from the wrong highpoint . . . the saddle below was my turnaround the following weekend, but it was too close to turnaround.
Rachel and the cool rock colors and formations
