Silver Peak with Carlos

Published on 2003-10-24 by Michael Stanton

Silver Peak, October 24, 2003

Carlos and I parked on the road below Silver Peak, where the PCT crosses. We hiked up the trail for a climb of Silver Peak, but started to worry that we missed our turnoff onto a "faint" trail leading to the summit. We decided to "give up" on the trail, and bushwhack our way up a cliff band and brush instead. This felt like a pretty crazy idea for a quick morning hike, but we were curious about how we'd do. Right away we scrambled on steep and muddy broken cliffs, making liberal use of brush handholds. We were on a sort of ridge with alternating steps of cliff and brushy level sections. After about 30 minutes, we came to a streambed that led into a wonderful large heathery basin on the east side of the peak. We admired the sunrise on nearby peaks, and walked up talus and heather slopes to a weakness in the cliffs that ringed the basin. There were a few moves of 5.0 rock climbing on solid rock. I would make a move, then wait for Carlos to finish it. After this excitement, we connected with the regular trail on the ridge, and followed it to the summit. There was a great panorama all around, and our unusual ascent route added to the fun of the morning. We had to get back to start the workday, so we rambled down the trail. We found that we should have kept walking another 10 minutes to find it on the way up, but we enjoyed our unusual climbing route. Into the car and off to work!