Glass Mountain 11142′
Desert Peak Section
Total Time: 4:10
Distance: 6.0 miles
Elevation Gain: 1900′
Crux: Class 1
Companions: Holly, Avery, Naya
Trailhead: Sawmill Cutoff, no services
I have looked up at the Glass Mountains from Mammoth truly 100s of times over the years. With over 3,000′ of prominence, the 11,000’+ summit dominates the skyline east of Mammoth Lakes, flanked by the higher White Mountains to the southeast. The high point is featured on the Sierra Club Desert Peak Sections list, and despite the proximity to Mammoth along with the relatively short route to the summit, I had yet to make the pilgrimage, in large part due to the long drive on dirt roads around the backside to the trailhead. We had started the drive once before in October of 2023, only to find the roads already had layer of snow from the first season’s storm, instead pivoting to nearby Granite Mountain instead. But with Avery in a sweet spot of no longer needing naps and not being too heavy to carry, it seemed as good a time as any to try again. We left Mammoth after breakfast, driving past the excellent climbing at Benton Crags and turning off onto Sawmill Meadows Road. Although dirt the rest of the drive, it was in excellent condition, graded in a few spots but almost completely devoid of potholes or ruts at any point. We followed this road for about 7 miles before turning south onto Sawmill Crossover, taking this to an indistinct pull off and start of our route.
The summit route very briefly followed an old road through patches of aspen and tall pines for about a quarter mile before the road deteriorated to a sandy single track trail, working up the slopes above a dry drainage. Even with the early start it was fairly hot, made worse by the 30 pound child, 8 pound Osprey child carrier and picnic lunch for the family I had on my back. The trail climbed steeply through thin pine before reaching a large field of obsidian somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way up. We paused here for a short break.
Looking up, it was hard to tell if we would be leaving the intermittent shade of the thin forest for the open sandy slopes above. Luckily the route moved up along the rounded ridgeline to the south, still within the trees but considerably steeper than before. This was made worse by the looseness of the terrain, Holly quickly growing annoyed of sliding half a step back for each step forward.
It wasn’t soon before Avery started whining in the carrier behind me that she was feeling “carsick” (she was actually just hangry). And even Naya was looking like she was over the hike, apparently walking on hot black obsidian not the same as the usual fun hikes to lakes she was used to. I quickly had a mutiny growing on my hands and despite being only a half mile from the summit, there was serious consideration to turning back. My saving grace was hitting a patch of snow along the trail, reviving Naya, and delighting Avery just long enough to get us to the broad saddle just a quarter mile below the summit.
The views suddenly opened up to the south, and we stopped here to have our picnic just short of the high point, my mutiny quashed by pesto pasta, potato chips and some patches of snow. After the rest and food, there was renewed enthusiasm by the team for the summit, and we left most of our stuff at the saddle, climbing the last quarter mile up the steepening summit rocks to the high point.
The views were just as good as I had hoped, extending from Dunderberg Peak to the north, the summits near Tioga Pass, down to Ritter, Banner and the Mammoth area, Mount Morrison, summits around Little Lakes Valley, Mount Tom and down to the Palisades.
We took another good break to enjoy the view, with another hiker at the summit who was able to take our picture at the top. After signing into the register we started back down the trail, loading our picnic back into our packs before continuing down.
We took one more break in the shade near the larger obsidian patch to give Naya’s paws a break before finishing off the hike to the car, the entire outing taking about 4 hours with a nice picnic in the middle. The drive out felt a bit faster than the way in, and we stopped at Benton Crossing along the Owens River for Naya to cool off before heading back to Mammoth for dinner.
A hangry mutiny 😂