Sid Davis Route to Summit on Sunday 4-25

[Vnthali]

I’m not sure if Sally is going to post a trip report from our hike yesterday, so I’ll try to give a more detailed account of our hike from the tram to Jean Peak. Here it goes. While waiting for the first tram up, I had the good fortune to meet Sally from the message board. My original plan was to try to make the summit of San J via the Sid Davis drainage. My regular hiking partner and I managed to summit via the same route in February with the help of another board member (Kathy) who provided a map of the route. That was my first time on the summit and the highest elevation I’ve ever reached on foot. I decided to try to do a repeat for my 45th birthday. I had the good fortune of meeting Sally while waiting for the tram. She asked if any of us were from the San J message board. I told her I was. Long story short, we agreed to hike together.
When we reached the Ranger Station I saw that the snow was patchy with a lot of exposed ground. All of my previous trips to San J have been in the snow. This was the first time I’ve actually seen the ground (dirt) in Long Valley. Sally already had a permit filled out. She changed the number of hikers on the permit to two and we set off at 8:30 west towards the drainage. Sally has a pair of micro spikes which she wore when we started out. We both carried crampons and axe. I planned on relying on my hiking boots to get us to the start of the Miller saddle climb. I’ve got some good boots, but the micro-spikes are definitely on my to-get list.
We made good time to the top of the draw where the drainage splits a little less than a mile from the Ranger Station. I checked my GPS and compass several times to make sure I was on our desired track. The first time my partner and I hiked this route we kept Cornell peak (to our north) and the other nearby prominent peaks on the same ridgeline leading west to Miller Peak in view all the way to the Miller saddle approach. Unfortunately, I pretty much stopped looking at my GPS, and only checked my compass infrequently for the next hour or so as we continued our adventure. As I look back on how things progressed, I realize I lost sight of the Cornell Peak ridgeline shortly after we made the top of the draw. Neither of us realized this at the time, and we seemed to be making pretty good progress. When we stopped for a quick break a little over an hour later, Sally saw a wooden post sticking out of the snow. It was marked “Gray Squirrel.” I’m pretty sure it was intended to mark a campsite or area within the Round Valley campground. Clearly, I had taken us too far south of the drainage.
Sally was very gracious about my sub-standard navigation. After a quick snack and some water, we adjusted our track and continued on a westerly course towards our goal. We figured we were south of the Miller saddle approach, and initially we tried to head north. The terrain is not impassable, but it would have required a little more climbing in a direction that didn’t really offer us any forward progress. We continued west. As the tree line ahead of us thinned a very prominent peak loomed ahead. Sally identified this as Jean Peak. My GPS confirmed what our eyes were telling us. Neither of us has been to the top of Jean and this seemed like a worthy goal. We continued our westward progress. We stopped at a nice rock and fallen log about a half mile east of the summit of Jean, and donned our crampons. Together we started straight up the east side the mountain.
I’ll post more in a second entry tomorrow. Sally please feel free to add or correct any of the trip details.

[Ellen]

Howdy Tyrus and Sally

I planned to come out on Sunday and hike with both of you but my bad cold and Saturday's hike finished me off

There's a split in the Sid Davis drainage where it's easy to go to the left towards Round Valley rather than staying to the right towards Tamarack. Sally and others can attest that I've gone the wrong way here several times

Congratulations on summiting Jean. Sometimes taking the road less traveled turns out to be a better experience.

Thanks to the cooler weather and possibility for snow this week, San Jacinto should be a great place to hike again this weekend.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[zippetydude]

I have attempted San J Peak in the snow 4 times (twice successfully) and 3 of those times we have veered off too far to the left. (Hmmm, is this typical?)

Well, it is for me! I've only done it a few times in the snow myself, but every time I've done it alone, I've missed the direct route and had to turn directly north, up and over the ridge in the middle to get back on course.

There's so much snow, I'm hoping to actually navigate the direct route straight up one weekend before all the snow is gone. I'm glad it turned out to be such a great hike! See you guys out there on the mountain!

z

[Vnthali]

Hi Ellen and Z! We actually made it past where the drainage splits according to my GPS track. I just stopped doing what I needed to do to navigate properly and we ended up going more south than west. This quickly took us out of the drainage and straigh to Round Valley. I agree with you though Hellen. It was a fun hike and climb up to the top of Jean. I'm really glad I got to meet and hike with Sally on our first summit of Jean Peak.

[Vnthali]

It was a little after 11:40 AM as we started up the east flank of Jean. A set of snow shoe tracks, which looked to be a day or two old, were going our way so we decided to follow them up. The snow was somewhat mushy on the surface, and I noted my boots would sink in about six inches or so before my crampons would gain solid purchase. All the way to the top the snow’s consistency changed several times. On our way to the top I would pick out a feature (tree, rock, etc.) and establish it as a goal. This is only the third time I’ve been above ten thousand feet and I am still in the process of getting my mountaineer lungs (so to speak). I took the lead until we were maybe three or four hundred feet below the summit. On the way up I stopped several times to catch my breath and to pick another terrain feature higher up. I think Sally could have done without these short breaks, but I definitely needed them. The last three hundred feet or so was the steepest part of the climb.
We reached the top of Jean at about 12:50 PM. Certainly not world class time, but I figure I’ll improve with practice. We took a few moments to soak in the view and snap a few pictures. I had brought my new stove with me to give it a test in field conditions. The starter wouldn’t ignite the burner. Sally used her lighter and it fired right up after a couple of tries. I brought some tea (really hard to not prepare correctly). If the navigation was problematic, the tea preparation was not an issue. While waiting for the tea, a group of sailors from Coronado started making their way to the clearing at the top of Jean. The first guy to arrive was in good spirits despite the soaking wet running shoes he was wearing. Eventually a total of five of my Department of the Navy shipmates made their way to summit of Jean. A couple of them were wearing desert combat boots. One of them had a really nice pair of leather dress shoes (similar to wingtips in appearance). All were in good spirits despite the gear issues. In addition to the sailors, a couple of young climbers practicing for an attempt on Mt. Whitney next week rolled in and joined us.
As 1:30 PM approached Sally and I started preparing to go back down the mountain. We geared up and started down what had been the steepest part of our earlier climb. The sailors left the summit a few minutes after us but quickly caught up with us by glissading on their feet and backsides. I’ve never glissaded and Sally and I agreed to just work our way down the mountain the old fashioned way (one step at a time). Sally and I stopped to allow a couple of the glissading group to go past us. Once they were well forward and below us, we started down again. I was following our previous tracks which had been smoothed over by someone’s backside. Bad crampon technique / footwork, some invisible ice, or bad luck caused me to fall and start to slide downward. Advice I received on this forum and some practice I manage to get in earlier this year came together to result in a successful self-arrest with my ax. I probably slid less than 20-feet before I manage to bring myself to a stop. A small accomplishment I know, but I was very happy with my performance. After regaining my footing, Sally and I continued our descent.
Our route back to the Long Valley Ranger Station was completed by way of Round Valley. When we reached the large open meadow we turned northeast towards the direction of the drainage where we started our adventure. We eventually dropped back into the Sid Davis drainage about .8 miles from the Ranger Station. Having never been through this portion of the park before, nothing was familiar to me and I checked my compass and GPS frequently. I think Sally started to wonder at this point whether or not I was going to get us completely lost or not. We made it though. At 4:10 PM we reached the Ranger Station. We even had our pictures taken by some Japanese tourists as we finished our hike. Someday you might even see us on a billboard advertisement for an energy drink on Okinawa.
In closing, I had a great time. I’m glad I got to summit a peak I’ve never been to before. I’m glad (and honored) to have had the opportunity to hike with Sally who is truly a really nice person, and an excellent climbing partner. I am looking forward to many new adventures at altitude in the years to come. Thank you to everyone on the board for your words of support, assistance, and well wishes. Semper Fi.

[Sally]

Happy Birthday, Tyrus! Hope your special day has been a good one!

Thanks for the great trip report and sending me those photos. You told the story better than I could have.

Sally

PS: Don't forget to watch out for those chickery holes!

[Hikin_Jim]

Hi, Tyrus,

Sounds like a really good trip. Nothing wrong with serendipity.

If you were using a Jetboil, that's pretty typical that the ignitor is unreliable. I've never met even one person who has had their ignitor work properly after they've used the stove for a while. Get ya a nice bic.

HJ