Pleasant Point 9690′
Desert Peaks Section- Great Basin Desert
Total Time: 4:00
Elevation Gain: 2100′
Distance: 6.3 miles
Crux: Class 2
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Cerro Gordo Mine Road, no services
I had sadly neglected the Sierra Club Deserts Peak Section List for years, even though I lived in the Sonoran Desert for the past 5. After finishing the Arizona portion of the list on Mount Tipton in May of 2018, I hadn’t pursued any of the other summits, in part because most of my trips to Joshua Tree and the Mojave revolved around technical climbing or HPS peaks. Now living on the Sierra west side, the closest DPS summit was over 4 hours away, but an unseasonably warm weekend in January brought us to the Sierra Eastside for some cragging in the Alabama Hills. To add a little variety to weekend, I suggested a hike in the Inyo Mountains, which would give incredible snowy views across Owens Valley to the top of the Sierras. Holly was in agreement, and I quickly settled on Pleasant Point near the southern end of the range. The hike starts at a high saddle just above the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, allowing us to spend most of our hike on the ridgeline rather than working up side canyons in the cold shade. We left our camp in the Alabama Hills in no particular hurry, turning off a surprisingly good dirt road on the east side of Owens Lake up to the ghost town of Cerro Gordo. There were several cars parked in the scattered residence and we slowly drove past and up to the saddle. Although a sign asks that you check in with the town caretaker before exploring, I felt like we were far enough above the small town to make this unnecessary. Whether that was actually true or not, we weren’t bothered by a soul for the day as we started north along a dirt road.
We quickly reached a locked gate with a “Authorized Vehicles Only” and “No Camping” sign and hiked around, quickly rounding the corner for an incredible view across Owens Valley to the High Sierras cast in early morning light. We would have the view the rest of the day, and I was somewhat thankful for the easy to follow route as I’m sure I would have tripped and fallen on more uneven terrain, distracted by the white summits across the valley.
The road passed a small empty cabin, then slowly climbed back towards the ridgeline above. The summit of Pleasant Point (although in reality a false summit) came into view as we rounded the bend, the south face looking surprisingly jagged with striated rocks. The road switchbacked to the south towards some telecommunication towers, and we dropped onto a fairly well defined use trail to the north along the ridgeline.
Unfortunately, the wind was gusting strong on the main ridge, and we quickly threw on what layers we had. The use trail traversed an intervening highpoint to the west giving us partial relief from the wind, then began climbing the ridgeline again directly weaving through small pinnacles.
The route steepened as we neared the jagged summit, and left the ridgeline proper for the west slopes. As we neared the top of the rocks, it quickly became clear that although less geologically interesting, a rounded rise another quarter mile to the north was the true summit, requiring a 100′ drop off the more jagged false summit. While this normally would have been a minor inconvenience, the use trail dropped into a shallow gully that had snow at the bottom, the first significant patch we encountered all day. I scrambled up to try and find a way to avoid the gully but was quickly cliffed out. Admitting defeat, I dropped back down to Holly and the two of us cautiously started down the gully.
It actually turned out to be easier than it looked from above, and we were largely able to avoid the snow keeping to the sides, taking 20 minutes to drop off the false summit and up to the true high point. The winds were a bit strong to sit unsheltered at the summit, so we dropped onto the western slopes to enjoy the incredible views of the Sierras, with Olancha in isolation to the south, Mount Langley, Mount Whitney and Mount Williamson dominating the skyline, and University Peak and Mount Pinchot visible to the far north.
We enjoyed some leftovers from Alabama Hills Cafe from the day before for lunch, and I popped back up to the summit to sign us into the register (first summit of 2021) and take some photos of the Inyos to the north, Death Valley NP to the east, and Cerro Gordo and Owens Valley to the south and southwest.
Holly had already started down by the time I finished taking photos, and I caught up to her just as she was starting up the snowy gully and back to the false summit. The winds seemed to die down as we descended the steep ridgeline, and we were both sweating by the time we made it back to the road.
We made short work of the return trip once back on the road, finding a group of Jeeps and trucks taking photos of their cars at the saddle. It’s an amusing trend I’ve noticed on these dirt roads thanks to social media, people wanting to share pictures of taking their cars up “treacherous” dirt passes. In reality, a passenger car and a patient driver could probably make it up to Cerro Gordo. I don’t think their pictures would be as glamorous with an old rusty Toyota Corolla next to them. Back at the car, we headed back down into Owens Valley, making it back to Alabama Hills with enough time to do a bit of climbing before sunset.
