Telescope peak in Death Valley hike

This was one of the most challenging day hikes I have ever done. With an estimated 12000ft+ of elevation gain (with up and downs) and 11000+ of net elevation gain all in around 26miles with a total hiking time of just 12h. It all started at around 7:30PM on Friday when I left my home in LA and headed towards the Death Valley. I arrived at the trail head - Shorty's well 10min before hike start time at 2:20AM. The last 10+ miles of the road to the trail head is dirt and takes regular car almost 1h to go across. The first 10miles of the hike follow an old road that is opposite to the well. At the end of the road there is a spring which can be used to resupply water. The first 10miles are easy with little elevation gain. After water resupply one heads to the right of the road up hill. Then turns a bit to the left at the top - follows an old trail just under the top of the ridge. Then at the tree line we turn to the right and go straight all the way - few miles of very hard cross country hike. Before all energy is exhausted one reaches a well maintained trail which when turned to the left goes all they way to the top of Telescope peak. From the top of the peak one can see lowest and highest elevations in continental US - Badwater and Mt. Whitney. At the top we were all greated by a very nice photographer who taken pictures of all of us on our last 100 yards of ascent. After spending around 30min on the top we began a descent using a 7 mile trail to the campground where a shuttle car would take us down to our cars at the well. Unfortunately the person with biggest shuttle vehicle was in another hiking group that chose even harder route than we did. We had to ask people we meat on the way to give us a ride out of the campground. 5 people got as far as a restaurant about 40miles from the well. The responsibility fell on me to shuttle then from the restaurant to the well. I did that and by around 2AM I was ready to leave for LA. I had with me 3 other people who wanted to get a ride. By 10AM on Sunday I was back home and after a quick shower I went to bed to recover my energy with so much needed sleep.

Click thumbnails to see larger image and more detailed explanation of what is shown on a given picture.

almost at the top	amy makes it to the top	at the top is cold
badwater from around 6000ft	badwater from higher elevation	badwater from over 8000ft
badwater from the summit	few yards to the top	first hill right after water refill from the spring
from the top ridge with ancient trees on the slopes	great plains on the descent ridge	group photo at the top of TELESCOPE PEAK
in a shuttle car with mountain bikers and Tom Brown	last ridge to the top	mountains in the desert
old dead tree at around 9000+ ft	old trees at the top of the mountain	our destination is a trail at top middle
our leader Donnie taking a break in a snow covered forest	panorama from the top	taking a break after a long scree ascend
taking a nap mid hike	taking a summit break	the great search
the side opposite to badwater	view from the top 2	view from the top
view of the range from low elevation	waiting for our turn to have some food at a local restaurant

Album created on 2007-10-09 and last updated on 2007-10-09