Potato Chip Rock Mt. Woodson, Poway, CA

It seem like at some point everyone in San Diego needs to make the trip up to Potato Chip Rock for an (insert social media platform here) photo. Well I am no different. I was surprised to find that it is a pretty demanding hike almost 8 miles round trip and 2k feet of elevation gain. Now knowing how demanding the hike is I have a new appreciation for all those photos.

It seems like this is the Saturday morning cardio hike for a lot of San Diego's fitness minded residents. There was certainly no shortage of yoga pants and sports bras.

Past Potato Chip at the empty summit, I made a number of failed attempts to boulder and reach the true peak of Mt Woodson.

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Dome 2, Second attempt second failure to summit.

A year later, and Castle Dome still undefeated. I set off on my second attempt at a summit of Castle Dome sure I could make it. Unfortunately once again it was not to be. I set of after breakfast, and had an easy drive to the wash. Once I arrived I was surprised to find that I was the only one there, the weather was perfect for hiking, clear and 60s.

I set off up the wash as we did last year. We followed the big stone arrow up the second wash to the right and directly at the mountains peak. The was was hard to walk in so we shifted slightly to the right following scattered rock pillars. There is really no trail after you leave the big wash, you just have to pick what you find to be the easiest way.

Once we reached the rock face near the peak is where things went wrong. After exploring the immediate  area it seemed like the trail looped counter clockwise around the peak, which appears to be sloped on your right as opposed to vertical rock faces on your left. This is wrong. The "trail" traces the face to the left, clockwise, through the saddle of the pillar and then up to the summit.

We made our way difficultly to the right. What appeared to be the slope turned out to be much steeper than expected and did not make for easy climbing. We continued counterclockwise as until we reached a cliff and a ridge line. At this point we realized there was no easy way up on this side of the peak, but it was 3pm and to late to hike all the way around to the other side. From there we made our way back a bit to a spot that looked climbable. The loose nature of the desert rock made for some pretty scary climbing but we were encouraged that we were going the right way because we were still seeing rock piles. As it turns out we were just not the only ones to go the wrong way. After climbing to what I believe was about 200 vertical feet short of the summit we decided we had to turn back.

On the way back we searched for a better route down, but since we were so off "trail", nothing looked good. Most of the seemingly promising ways down quickly ended in cliffs we were unwilling to down climb. Defeated we worked our way back down into the wash that we struggled up, making our slow way. We hit the main wash right at the arrow we turned at and headed back for the car. By the time we sat in the car the sun was set. We had made it just in time.

I am not sure whether or not I will attempt the summit a 3rd time. Now it seems there are no more wrong turns to make, but I am not sure if it is worth is.

-James

Lele Kawa

Summiting Picacho Peak, CA

Today I set out the the meetup group for the other big peak near Yuma. After not making it to the top of Castle Dome, I felt I needed to make it to the top of this one. Six of us set out, but only two made it, the group leader and me.

We got an early start and made the drive down Picacho road and turned off the Wash along the BLM trail.

At the point where you can no longer drive, we started the hike by continued by walking up the same wash. After you pass by Picacho, a trail heads up to the left. The trail continues to a scree slope up to a saddle.

The Guardian

View from the Saddle

At the saddle we took a slight turn to the right and began the scramble along the first ledges. We arrived at the first ladder, about 6 feet tall.

At the top of the ladder is the infamous crack which divided our group. It is only about 2 feet wide but it is very exposed and there is no good location to step off from. The spot where you jump from is slightly higher than the landing. When you lower yourself to get a better angle to jump from, you give up all footing except for one little pocket about an inch deep that you can place one heel in. This means all your upward and most of your forward momentum needs to be generated from that one poorly placed foot.  It took me a minute to build up the confidence to take the leap. The first time I made my way to the edge I needed to back away and collect myself. The video below shows me making the leap.

 The Leap and Landing

Not ready to leap

 After the leap it is easy scrambling to the second ladder. You snake back and forth long a series of ledges and the turns are marked by red arrows. The second ladder was taller. Once at the top, we borrowed it to help go from the false summit to the true summit.

 A boulder divides the summits, and using the ladder to get on top of it was the most exposed part of the hike. I did not get a picture of the previous ladder placement on the other side of the boulder, which was the truly exposed part. The ladder was on a slope that had a small divot that held one leg. The ladder was also only about 3 feet in from the ledge. The only redeeming part was there were some good hand holds, so you could commit a lot of your weight to the rock as your feet moved up the ladder. The ladder placement in the below photos looks a little precarious, but it was solid.

 Exposure? You should see the other side.

After we reached the true summit we signed the log and got some photos. The log was in a pipe that was cemented into the rock. There was some additional stuff cashed in the rocks that are directly behind me in the below photo.

Colorado River as seen from the peak

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Dome, failed attempt

There aren't too many things around Yuma on my to do list that I haven't been able to do yet. Castle Dome is one of them. Castle Dome is the highest point in Yuma County. From Yuma it looks like it would be hard to summit due to its sheer sides facing Yuma.

The "back side" is less sheer, and can be hiked.

We decided to drive in the night before and camp at the base of the wash. Unfortunately shortly after we passed Castle Dome mine one of our four vehicles experienced not one, but two flats. Luckily one of the other vehicles was able to loan a spare, and we got two tires changed out in the dark.

Early the next morning we made breakfast and broke camp. By the time we broke camp, one older hiker had already started up the trail and another hiking group arrived.

We started off right behind that group. We were moving faster than they were and passed them up. This was our first mistake. The only one of our group who had done the hike stayed back at camp, leaving us with only vague directions.

We missed our turn up the wash, marked on the below map as missed turn. We headed up the next wash when the trail seemed to go cold. It was hard hiking up loose and steep rocks that lead to a ridge line that did not connect with Castle Dome.

Top of the ridge looking away from Castle Dome

-James

Lele Kawa

On Las Vegas and Snowboarding

I feel that with the exception of the hardcore fans of Vegas, everyone else shares a love hate relationship with the city. In this small area of the world you can do just about anything. The hate comes from the cost of this convenience, both financial and facing the crowds. I feel that overall I like Vegas, despite my hate of crowds and the pain I feel in my wallet when its time to leave. Its good seem to outweigh the bad. Where else could you gorge yourself at a buffet, before skiing, rock climb on your way back to the city, where you enjoy dinner from a Michelin Star chef, shoot machine guns spanning the last 100 years and then watch the most talented fighters in the world beat each other for sport? Nowhere that I know of.

I'm sure there are very few people who consider Vegas to be a ski town, but less than an hour from downtown they have a small resort that is pretty decent. Situated above 8,500 feet on mount Charleston, it actually receives a fair amount of real snow. At the time I went on Christmas Eve it had received more snow than any of the Souther California or Arizona resorts that are within a weekends trip away from me.

As long as you avoided the bunny hill, there were no lift lines and nicely groomed slopes. The bunny hill was crowded, barely steep enough to slide on, and full of tourist form all over the world. They didn't have nearly as many terrain features as Big Bear had, but there were a few jumps and sliders scattered along one of the runs.

With a new GoPro arrangement and a little editing I put together the video below.

-James

Lele Kawa

Early season snowboarding at Big Bear, CA

The worst part about early season snow is only two runs being open and lift lines. The best part is all the snow bunnies in tank tops as the day heated up.

It had been a while since I spent any time on a snowboard, so I was happy to get up to Big Bear, CA for the long weekend. Plenty of fake snow on the two open slopes, one beginner and one intermediate. The good thing was the intermediate trail had a bunch of man made terrain scattered all over it.

Normally I shy away from terrain parks in favor of glades or side country, but for early season you have to take what you can get. They had a good variety, which was nice. They had rails, boxes, small table tops, larger kickers, and some large pipes.

-James

Lele Kawa

Plane Crash Mountain hike

For my first real Meet Up. I joined two other hikers on an early morning hike up Air Plane Crash Mountain, which is the site of a WWII B17 crash during a training mission.

I reached the Mountain before the sun did

The hike was a little over two miles round trip depending on how close to the trail head you park. My GPS didn't track the way up, so the map below only has the trip down, but it is an out and back so the route was the same.

 Looking down the valley

The debris field from the crash runs from about half way up to and ends about three fourths of the way up.

 Small memorial at the top of the debris field.

 View from the top

Survey marker at the top

-James

Lele Kawa

Flaine, France Skiing

Flaine, France is a tiny little ski town in the shadow of Mont Blanc. I went down there with three friends for some fun in the snow. We got a little ski in ski out condo and spent the week doing nothing but spending time on the mountain or drinking. That is the beauty of small towns like Flaine.

Mont Blanc

Our timing couldn't have been much better. There was already a good amount of snow in the mountain when we got there. Our first day was spent warming up and learning the mountain on the groomers, which was nice since all of us had not rode for at least a year.

Shopping for supplies with the smallest shopping cart ever

Just as we were heading in for the night, the snow started coming down. It continued almost all night. In the morning we got up early to find about 9 inches of fresh powder. We spent the whole day on the side-country floating over all the fresh powder.

Day three I took the day off from snowboarding to ski and get my board tuned. There was still a little powder to play on, but most of the day was spent on the back side of the mountain, which wasn't very steep.

Day four it was back to the board and sticking to the steeps. I tried to seek out some cliff jumps, and found a few small ones.