East Mojave Trip (Cave, Old Dad, Kelso, Cowholes)

Harlan W. S. & Friends
December 19-21, 2006

This trip started in a snowstorm, which closed i-15 south of Primm.  Dr. F found a cross-country route on dirt roads. This ersatz route allowed us to bypass Mountain Pass and intersect the Cima road, avoiding the traffic jams.  However, since snow was persistent above 3300', we decided to stick with the lower mountains.

Click on any small image below to see the corresponding larger image.

Map (1:250k) for entire trip.	GPS trace of trip up and down Cave Mt is in red. The blue dashed line is the traditional route.	View SW to Cave Mt. From i-15 a few miles SW of Baker, on Dec 19.
Climbing up the SE ridge of Cave. Illustrated is a disadvantage of this ridge route: there are a few pinnacles that end in cliffs on the uphill side. We’re looking down a sheer 20’ drop. Luba downclimbed this cliff, but Dr F and I went down the W side.	When the ridge ran out, we traversed WNW and W to the gully below the summit.
The steep gully below top ridge.	Summit of Cave, view SW. Luba (yellow shirt) is on the highest of numerous granite outcrops.	Old Pb-acid battery that Luba found below summit.
	View to i-15, W from summit.	View of i-15, NE from summit.
View SE.	Ed and Luba on highest outcrop.	Heading down the main drainage.
Lots of boulders, no significant dryfalls.
There are a few granite spires.	The next day, Dec 20. GPS trace of Old Dad. We went up the standard ridge, down the valley to south.
		The summit block comes into view to WNW.
	View SE.
On summit -- view SE.	Providence Mts to S. L to R: Mitchell, Edgar & Fountain.	Panorama centered on S summit of Old Dad.
		The descent was bouldery, with a few tall dryfalls. We had to climb R to get around a few big drops.
	That afternoon (Dec. 20), we went to Kelso Pk.	Kelso in distance.  We had snow the entire trip.
	View S, with Providence Mts. on L. Granite on R.	View NE to cinder cones. That night, we camped by the rightmost cone.
Charleston Pk was faintly visible to N.
	T-shirt and shorts weather.	GPS trace of Cowhole Mountain.  We went here Dec. 21, but first...
we broke camp just S of a cinder cone, and	...went to a near-by lava tube. See the two holes?...	...here is the view of the same holes, from within the lava tube.
Flash photos inside the tubes produced an interesting effect. The dust, stirred up by our boots, sparkled like snowflakes.	OK, THEN we drove to Cowhole.  Here is the view S as we cross the desert toward the peak.  This peak -- 800' lower than my home in Vegas -- was a very pleasant surprise.	The ascent route was a bit sketchy, so I didn't take many photos.
View NW as Luba and Ed near the top.	Shorts and T-shirt weather.	View E to Old Dad Mt.
View S to Granite Mt.	View W to Cave Mt.
This is a view looking DOWN over N face.	We went down by an easier eastern route.	This descent was mainly class 2, but the rock was loose and very steep at the top.
	Looking up and back S.  There were a few class 3 downclimbs on the route.	View S and up; our routes. We started the ascent on the R side, intending to go up a hidden canyon to the summit.  At the red x, we found a chimney blocked at the top with a chockstone, with no obvious non-technical exit.  So, we back-tracked and went right. The descent is on the L side.
After returning from Cowhole, we went up Little Cowhole, to the N.		View S to Cowhole (from Little Cowhole),
View S to Cowhole.		View SW to Old Dad.
The best thing about Little Cowhole is the descent; one can run down the sand, losing 600' in a matter of minutes.