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Summits: 1421

Jan 12 – Feb 25 » Minnesota, the Midwest, and Isolation

I spent most of January and February working in Minnesota and made the best of my weekends, mostly concentrating on isolation peaks (isolation is the distance from a summit to the next highest piece of land). More isolated peaks (50mi+) aren’t as numerous as one might think, and there are only 39 in the contiguous states that have 100mi of isolation or more. Most of these mean a lot of driving with very little actual hiking, which I was fine with since temps were often below zero, and sometimes in the -30s with windchill. Some of these “peaks” aren’t really peaks at all, just bumps in the middle of nowhere, a testament to how flat the surroundings are.

Along with the isolation peaks I had some other fun – ice fishing in Minnesota, visiting childhood friends in Viroqua, exploring St Louis, visiting family in small town Illinois, and some other hikes as well. I put over 4000 miles on my rental cars and saw quite a bit of the midwest. I had a great time working and exploring theses last months. Here’s some of what I got to:

Height of Land Lookout (MN) – 133mi isolation

Sugarbush Hill (WI) – 66mi isolation

Blue Mounds (WI) – 130mi isolation

Pilot Knob (IA) – 64mi isolation

Carroll County High Point (IA) – 78mi isolation

Roberts County High Point (SD) – 93mi isolation

Peaks along the Mississippi River – Barn Bluff, Charity Bluff, Kings Bluff, and exploring Redwing (MN)

Perrot Ridge, Brady’s Bluff, Trempealau Mountain in Perrot State Park (WI)

McClean County High Point (IL) -86 mi isolation

Buffalo Knob (MO) – 69mi isolation

Gateway Arch National Park and St Louis

Williams Hill (IL) – 91mi isolation

Jan 1-3 » Warm Springs and Return to Sespe

Sespe Hot Spring is my favorite backpack in SoCal and one of my favorite hot springs ever. This was my 4th time there by two different routes and it’s always a rejuvenating trip. I spent just one night there, soaking in the hot stream for many hours over the course of two days. I’d seen bighorn sheep here before, this time I shared the small valley with the largest band I’d ever seen. About 30 sheep including two rams and many young. I’m already looking forward to my next visit. The day before Sespe I cycled up Warm Springs Mountain, a prominent peak north of Castaic Lake with an abandoned inmate rehab center at its base.

Sep 22 -Oct 17 » Sierra and Nevada Peakfest

2024 is the first year since I left full time work in 2013 that I didn’t take a multi-month trip, but the quality of this trip helped to make up for it. I first targeted Junction Peak (13888′) in the Sierra thinking I’d head home shortly after but things opened up for me to stay on the road a bit longer. Junction Peak was an important one. A good friend, Tom Waggoner, had tragically passed away early this year. He’d wanted to climb Junction Peak so I carried some of his ashes to the top. It was also my first tougher hike since developing an overuse injury the previous fall. I took the long way, a gorgeous four days over Kearsarge Pass and along the John Muir Trail to Forrester Pass before making the scramble to near Junction’s summit. I had to stop about 20 feet below the top due to ice, I let the wind take Tom’s ashes which carried straight over the top so it seemed meant to be.

After Junction Peak my girlfriend came out for a few fun days, then I worked my way up to the apex of my trip, Walker Lake in Nevada. Walker is an interesting place – a giant desert lake with few people around and the country’s largest weapons depot on the south end. Mt Grant is a high and prominent peak next to the lake, for which I got permission from Hawthorne Weapons Depot to make the long drive and short hike to the summit. After a few days around Walker I worked my way back south, tagging a handful of fun Nevada summits before crossing back into California for a few more before home. I finished with a day hike of Olancha Peak, at 24 miles and over 6000′ gain, the toughest hike I’ve done in several years. Here’s what I got to on this trip:

California: Junction Peak, Kearsarge Lake hike and Cerro Gordo (with Eris), Cloudripper, Wild Willy Hot Springs, Panum Crater and Mono Lake, Mt Dana

Nevada: Walker Lake, Mt Grant, Buckley Benchmark, Corey Peak, Garfield Hills, Pilot Peak and Belleville Mine, Fish Creek Valley Hot Springs, Lone Mountain, Alkali Hot Springs, Stonewall Mountain

Back in California: Pinto Peak (Death Valley), Coso Peak, Olancha Peak

Misc Hikes 2024

The pictures in this gallery are from a few miscellaneous “local” hikes I got to the last few months. Its getting much tougher to find new hikes in SoCal, at least ones that are picture worthy.

-Devils Peak – one of the few 5000’+ peaks in Socal that isn’t on the HPS list

-Temescal (repeat, but by bike this time from Santa Monica, 28mi roundtrip). Bobcat sighting (2nd from last pic)

-Topanga Canyon and Hearst Peaks (with Eris Ng)

-La Sierra Hills and Pumpkin Rock (with Phillip Stinis)

-Oat Mountain – a prominent peak north of LA with great views and leftovers from an old missle site to explore. Several helicopters were practicing maneuvers while we were exploring here.

July 24 -27 » Colorado

This was a quick trip to Colorado to climb Culebra Peak and meet with a friend for his 14ers finish. Culebra (14047′) is the highest privately owned mountain in the world and permits can be tough to get. It is also one of the 143 P4ks (4000ft of prominence) in the 48 states, and was my 137th. It was a gorgeous hike and relatively easy as far as 14ers go. The following day I met with friend Manoj who would complete his Colorado 14ers on Pikes Peak. I first met Manoj on Mt. Elbrus in Russia in 2007! I waited for him at the top with his family and friends and celebrated after. A satisfying few days in Colorado…