Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

cupple smokes choking up the view to the west

 

FYI-

Posted to the Death Valley Road Conditions page on FaceWaste (7/28/21):


ROAD CLOSURES as of 7/31/2021:
Scotty’s Castle Road: Grapevine Canyon section CLOSED; no access to NV 267/US 95.
Beatty Cutoff: CLOSED
Salt Creek: CLOSED
Titus Canyon: CLOSED
Twenty Mule Team Canyon: CLOSED
Lower Wildrose: CLOSED

 

Flash flooding?

 

I think so.

 

Inyo's been under a flash flood watch since Friday at noon. I wouldn't be surprised if they closed them as a precaution. I've lived here 17 years now and have only seen watches issued a handful of times.

 

I think back to the Scotty’s Castle event. Doesn’t take much to flash flood in Inyo.

 

Was that the same cell that took out the Mt Whitney Fish Hatchery and 395 in 2008? I remember that one well. It closed the highway for 6 hours just north of Lone Pine.

My wife and I where coming home from a climbing trip down south. We got caught in traffic like I've never seen going north. Then I found out that 395 was washed out. I took off into the valley and hit dirt to get around it all. The amount of water moving into the Owens and the chocolate brown color of it was pretty impressive.

 

I think so.

 

Boy, even Yosemite has FF warnings! They posted a great lightning strike on Half Dome today (for those so interested, there's a book called "Shattered: A true account of tragedy and courage" or something very close that talks about one strike in great detail--it's a lesson for us all).

 

Where’s the lightening strike post at? Yosemite FB page?

 

Courtesy of FB. That is a cool pic.

 

Holy shit. That looks like a direct hit on the Diving Board. One of the coolest features in Yos, which is full of cool features.

 

I see you found it

 

Definitely some active weather up there.
Spent Thursday night in the inyo’s solo with lightning overhead & rain. Got wet.
Another of my 650 mile one-nighters

 

I agree; an interesting book!

Lighting is no joke in the Sierras.

 

Some time ago, I invited some friends along, who never been, to hike up to Half Dome. After a long slog up the hill and a way too long of a lunch break, we made it up to the cables that you use to go up the last but very steep 200 yards. We had a late start so by time we got there it was early afternoon and the sky was already graying with a heavy mist where we stood. We spent a few minutes looking at the clouds and then back up the cables and then back up at the clouds wondering if we could make it up and back before any lighting started. For those who have not done it, it’s about an 8 mile, 4 to 5 hour hike uphill all the way to get to that point; so by the time we got there we had already invested a lot of time and sweat to get that far and we were not eager to turn around with victory in sight.
Probably not the smartest choice, and in my defense, our judgement may have been impaired by the 8000 ft altitude, we decided to chance it. I had made it to the top the previous year so I agreed to stay at the bottom and watch over the backpacks including a camera one of the party left behind to lighten the last steep climb. Fortunately, luck did prevail and they all made it up to top and with a quick turn around came back down again in one piece. But by now the clouds were getting ominous and the mist had changed to a light rain but we were still in a congratulatory mood for having made it to the top, That is …until the person bent down to pick up their camera, which happened to have a metallic body, and they got a static electric shock when they touched it.
That was enough for us. If there was enough static in the air to put a charge on that camera, we were not going to wait around for that same static to coalesce into a lightning bolt. Caution now prevailed over stupidity and we hightailed it back down the mountain in record time.

 

@Desert Dog my first Half Dome attempt was based on a clever plan to start from Glacier point and exit to the valley. Taking a bus to Glacier meant too late a start and we got to the cables in late afternoon with dark clouds approaching. Was very frustrating to turn around without ascending but it was the right decision. This was early 1990s so when we got to the cables late in the day there was almost no one there. Hard to imagine that these days!

It was another decade until I actually got to the top and boy was it a much more crowded place then!

 

$19 Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

 

Ha! My buddies and I did Half Dome from Glacier in the very late '80's. We spent a night in Little Yose Valley, which was infested with bears. It was one of the longest nights of my life! I think we encountered a handful of other people on the cables.
I have glassed the Cable Route from Olmstead Point several times since 2000 and it looks like folks are nut to butt going up the route. I am curious when they are gonna make it a two lane trail...

 

It requires a permit these days, even for day hikers, limited to about 300 per day so I think it is less awful than it was awhile ago but I’ve not been to the valley for close to twenty years at this point so I don’t have direct observations.

Another place being loved to death I guess…