Reynolds Peak

[Vaca Russ]

I met up with SNOOOOW early Friday (8/25) morning. We hit the PCT north early to try or climbing skills on Reynolds Peak. I just bought an InReach and am beginning to learn how to set it up. I am a little slow. I was not able to get it to track until we were north of the summit just off the PCT. Here is part of the path we used on the ascent and the rest shows the descent.

We turned west off of the trail just south of this monolith.

The idea was to climb this reddish chute to gain the saddle north of the summit.

Jon is a great guy. I hope to summit more peaks with him in the future. This is the point in the climb where I was able to start the tracking.

This shot is looking down the "reddish color" chute north of the summit.

We did gain the top of the saddle, but we were unable to follow the crest directly to the summit. There is a LOT of sketchy class 2 and 3 climbing on this peak! You can see on the map how we wandered around in the wilderness looking for a path to the summit. I really need to start to read my Garmin more effectively.

Eventually we found the summit.

This is a really sweet summit. The climb is quite exhilarating!

This is Jon down climbing the summit block.

Don't take this climb lightly. Unless you take the "easy" "correct" route, you will find a bunch of fun climbing.

I fell and broke my glasses. Fortunately I always keep a pair of contact lenses in my emergency pack. Unfortunately I had recently purged them and had to climb "one-eyed".

I hope Jon gets some time to post some pictures!

Thanks for reading my post.

-Russ

[brvoyles]

One of best on the OGUL list imo. Glad you guys enjoyed it.

[cefire]

Yeah, Reynolds was a really fun peak! Beautiful meadows down below and a fun ledge up to the summit proper

[Harlen]

Hey Russ and Jon,
Thanks for the Report, looks like a fun and challenging summit. Isn't that pinkish rock beautiful? Cheers, Ian.

[SNOOOOW]

That GPS track makes me laugh, our route was ridiculous but still a very fun day

[mokelumnekid]

I've been up there a bunch of times starting in the mid-1960's, always coming in x-country (south to north) from Elbow Ck. drainage on Hwy. 4 (my family has an old log cabin in Hermit Valley nearby). Really pretty approach with lots fo wild flowers in mid-season (and a few cattle :-() from that way, with some fun route finding. One thing I do recall from the last half-dozen times I've been up there is that it was absolutely swarming with some kind of long-winged ant or flies, such that we couldn't hang out for long.