Oreana (9346), Galena (9416) and Siegel (9451) Triple Crown

[Vaca Russ]

Anyone who has ever dropped down from the eastern escarpment of the Sierra around Tahoe and into the Carson Valley has noticed the large mountain range to the east known as the Pine Nuts.

We had the thought we would like to bag the three tallest peaks.

We left work on Friday afternoon and drove to Gardnerville. From there we took 395 south to Holbrook Junction. We turned left and drove north of Wellington to a dirt road heading up a canyon on the east slope of the Pine Nuts. This is Red Canyon.

Although the road is pretty much 2 WD, we did experience some jungle and swamps.

We managed to find a nice camp spot between two snow melt fed streams at about 6400 feet.

It got cold that night. We have spent the night in colder places but we were happy we had good equipment.

The next morning we continued up the road to an intersection at about 7000 feet. I wanted to buy a case of beer and 4 WD to the summits, but “Sport” didn’t think that was very sporty. We parked on the road near the spring.

From here we packed up and began our journey to conquer three peaks.

It wasn’t long before we were high on a ridge when all of the sudden a C130 flew from around a distant ridge.

Only to be followed by another…

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And then one more…

These guys must have been from the Reno Air National Guard. These were the only people we saw on the climb.

We kept slogging up the hill and after much effort we reached the summit of Oreana.
The register was two old coffee cans tucked away in a stone windbreak.

The views from the summit were absolutely spectacular!

That guy in the middle of the page is a legendary mountaineer.

The view from on top was great but we still had two more peaks to bag.

The road to the two highest peaks in the Pine Nuts was full of snow so we hiked cross country. We dropped down into the Buckeye Creek basin and started the climb to the summit of Galena.

To be continued...

[Vaca Russ]

We made the summit after a little hike (at altitude). It was easy to tell it was the summit because it had an obligatory “summit steel pipe”.

Once again, the views were quite inspiring.

We took one quick look back at Oreana…

…and started our hike across the saddle to the second highest peak in Douglass County. My research showed no snow on these peaks, but it turns out the NOHRSC was wrong. Sport didn’t bring any snow footwear so we dropped down in altitude to avoid the snow field on the saddle.

We eventually made our third summit of the day only to find a register placed by this guy.

Is this Aaron? He only lives about 30 miles from here as the crow flies.

This guy again? Is there a mountain he hasn’t climbed?

My hands were so cold I had trouble signing my John Hancock.

Here is Sport summiting the “Summit Cairn” on Siegel.

Three peaks in one day is good but we still had a long hike back down to Buckeye Creek and then up and out of the basin through the little shoulder just right of Oreana Peak.

We made it to that shoulder but still had a long way to go. Fortunately it was all downhill. I know it is impossible to see but that black dot down there next to the willows in the center of the shot is the truck.

The statistics were about 14 miles and about 5000 feet in one day. Quite a workout and it wasn’t even in our beautiful Sierra!

Thanks for reading my post about our adventure bagging the triple crown of the Pine Nuts.

-Russ

[austex]

A triple bag of pine nuts? I'll take it. Thanks for the armchair journey! I enjoyed getting out vicariously through your report; Thanks!

[cefire]

Nice!!