Routefinding In The Needles

Clare on a WPOD Scope-out Hike
Last Wednesday night, I made a grand defensive play on the Ultimate field resulting in a very bruised and battered index finger. Since it is my right index finger, I decided to forgoe the “Premier Buttress” route Walter and I had planned to do over by Mt. Whitney. It would be very painfull for me to place gear with my finger in it’s current state. SO, we headed up to The Needles-a popular summer destination for climbers everywhere. Thanks to Walter we have pics from the hike as I didn’t have a camera!

WPOD The Start

We wanted to scope out the hike up to the classic route “White Punks on Dope”. The hike is notoriously long (1hour ish) and steep (1000+ ft of gain). Walter last did this route a few years back, and when we do it (in a couple weeks) we will be getting a very very early start. We want our climbing day to start out great, without any kinks in the approach. I’m very happy that we went up there and explored the trail.

Turns out about 10 minutes from the road, we both took a wrong turn. The fork in the trail is very subtle!!! One way (the correct route) looks overrun with underbrush and basically unpleasant. The other way (the incorrect way for WPOD) looked like a clear path. So instead of a fairly rigorous approach, we had a BUSHWHACKING, BUG FILLED, TREE BRANCH WHIPPING fight up this very steep rocky ridge. It was very tricky making our way to the start of our route, and I’m so happy we made the mistake with only 8 pound daypacks instead of 20 pound climbing packs!

Magic Dragon Profile

The weather was fairly pleasant up there-mid 80s as a high, but the BUGS– my goodness. I got bit so many times, it’s amazing my heart still has blood to pump. Every time we stopped, there was a very large swarm.

After we got back from our hike, Walter showed me a few things (review on Munter hitches) for rappelling if needed. We cooled off a bit from the hike, then we drove up to the Upper road and headed for the fire hut path head. We hiked up the trail a little bit, and were blessed with a beautiful side view of Mt. Langley among other Sierra peaks. Pretty!

We stopped at the Ponderosa Lodge for a snack on the way back-I got an Apple Crisp and milk. YUMMY! When we left the lodge, we saw a swarm of bees congregating around the back corner of Walter’s honda crv. Odd!!!

In anycase, we made it back to Ridgecrest in time for dinner. A very successful trip. Can’t wait to get back up to WPOD except next time I’ll be on a rope instead!!!

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One Response to “Routefinding In The Needles”

  1. Walter says:

    Yes, I’m glad we found the place to turn. Going up next time shouldn’t take us as long. We should be able to make it in about an hour.

    That was weird about the bees. I think it was the beginning of a swarm. If I had looked close on the rear of my car I probably would have seen a queen. My theory anyway.

    A fun day, in spite of getting “lost” and having to bushwack and rock scramble. I’m glad my knee held up to the test. A reinjury at this point would not be good. :-)