Tin and Ubehebe mountains in Death Valley, CA

pics by Harlan W.S
Oct 28-29, 2011

I went out a day early to climb Tin Mountain, then met the LVMC crew for a day. I meant to spend another night with the LVMC crew, but my gas gauge was acting screwy, so I decided that the better part of valor was to leave early.

My first trip was up Tin Mt. I found a decent place to set a tent, just S of the Tin-Dry Pass. It was 30F in my tent when I woke up ~4AM the next morn.	I left directly from my tent site about 6:33 AM, and took a non-standard way. The route was steeper and had a lot of class 3, but was preferable (to me) to ascending the talus of the DPS route (blue in the google earth map above). I should have come down the DPS route, as the route I took kept cliffing-out.	This was actually from the day before Tin. This is Ubehebe Crater, at the end of paved road. I then traveled up an easy but highly wash-boarded gravel road to my camp at 4850’, 10.5 miles away.
This view is also from the day before, showing my tent site. Most ground is covered with baseball-sized rocks, so this area (with gravel) was relatively great!	I got up early the next morn, but didn’t start hiking till after 6:30, because it was very dark. I didn’t see significant light on the mountains till near 7AM. View N.
This canyon is ESE of my route.	View ~S to Ubehebe Peak, the Racetrack (white flats), which I would pass later in the day.	Near the top of the talus. The class 3 was a hugely welcome relief. There was no sign of previous climbers, so I was extremely careful about loose rock.
	Early on, I thought this pleasant peak to S was Tin Peak!
		I made the 4100’ of elevation gain in less than 3 hours; it was not an easy trip, but I kept my own pace and was comfortable.
View N.	Sierra to W,	Another view of Ubehebe.
Telescope to S.	Palmer and the Grapevines (to E)?
		I decide to go back over the ridge to the W.
Now I know why this ridge is NOT the standard DPS route – it is rough and lumpy.
On descent, you aim for this lump and stay high but on the L side, in order to intersect the DPS route.
	Back to car, view up NE to edge of Tin (summit not visible from here).	I got back to my car by noon, and waited for 2 hours for the LVMC crew. Then I headed S to The Racetrack.
View NE from Racetrack.	View W across Racetrack, to Ubehebe Peak.	The Grandstand in the Racetrack, as well as Ubehebe, are made of intermediate composition (in terms of SiO2 content) plutonic rocks.
I set up my tent at the Homestake dry camp S of Ubehebe. By 4PM, I was convinced the LVMC trip had been cancelled…	…but the rest of the party soon rolled in.
Next morn we went up the Ubehebe trail. I was pleasantly surprised by how neat the trail (and hike) were.	This is a Google Earth synthetic view of the back of Ubehebe. The east side is cliffy.	View E to the Grandstand in Ubehebe playa, just after we set out.
The northern (lower) peak of Ubehebe. I was content to let Peppe race ahead, knowing that he would get lost at some point.
Now we are at the shoulder N of Ubehebe, looking S to the lower N peak..	This is my 1^st view of the S (higher) peak. At this point I heard Peppe shouting that he had lost the trail.	So I caught up with Peppe, and stayed with him till just below the peak, when he rocketed to the summit.
		Self-portrait, view S.
After 15 minutes, I looked N from the top, and saw HTMM (Henry the mountain man; inside blue circle).		So we descended quickly, hoping to intercept Henry. HTMM said he would take his time, and eventually reached the summit.
View ~S to Henry, who was still shouting instructions to me.	After the HTMM instructions, I caught up to Peppe…	…and then we saw Kay below (in blue circle). She had climbed the N peak, and not finding us there, had descended.
Peppe gets his daily copper; important for a 67-year-old.		Peppe heads NNE down the trail, below the shoulder.
I left the group, because of the gas concerns. The next day they had a splendid time at Darwin Falls.	Back at Ubehebe Crater, I came across Bill Walton (former NBA star), after he finished a leg of a 200-mile bike race.