Participants: Craig Cheetham and Tom Chester
Date: 22 May 1996 (Written up 13 October 1996)This was our first successful ascent to Condor Peak. I had failed twice previously, once due to too much snow obscuring the trail and once when my soon-to-be-wife and I decided we were too pooped to make it all the way.
We had a bit of trouble finding the trailhead. We originally drove past Vogel Flat intentionally in order to try to see where the old trailhead was. We ended up not finding it, and driving to the new trailhead. We turned around and parked at Vogel Flat and then had little trouble finding the old trailhead. It was just about where Robinson said it was, but it was **very** obscured. A bulldozer had made the entrance off the road look very un-trailhead-like. In fact, someone who was planning on starting later ended up not finding that trailhead.
The old trail is quite steep until it meets the new trail. We were a bit unsure that we had reached the trail junction, but we quickly assured ourselves that we were there. There is a faint trail that heads directly north earlier, but that is much tougher according to someone we met later who had taken it. I got the trail junction at 0.50 miles on my pedometer, as opposed to the 1 mile quoted by Robinson.
I was a bit worried about too much sun, but as we got near the top we were in clouds. In fact, it was too cold to stay at Condor Peak very long!
Plot of altitude change during hike from my altimeter.
Explanation of columns for all trip logs
# Mileage Time arrived Time left Altitude Comments 0 0.00 9:18 1950 Vogel Flat 1 0.50 9:33 2100 Trail Junction. Went left. 2 4.10 11:24 11:34 3900 Rest stop. 3 4.70 11:56 4350 Saddle SE of Fox. 4 5.65 12:30 4550 Saddle NW of Fox. 5 5.75 12:34 12:46 4550 Rest stop. 6 6.60 1:24 5200 False summit. 7 7.15 1:52 2:25 5350 Condor Peak! 8 8.80 3:35 4550 =4 9 9.75 4:03 4400 =3 10 10.50 4:26 4050 =2 11 13.25 6:01 2200 =1 12 13.75 6:15 1900 Car.
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Copyright © 1996-1999 by Tom Chester.
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Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 18 June 1997 (added link for profile on 24 December 1999).
