Post by wporter on Jul 1, 2015 13:14:35 GMT -5
The La Sal Mountains (http://www.summitpost.org/la-sal-mountains/190208) Everyone who passes through the Moab area has been intrigued by this cluster of peaks in the desert. They provide an excellent backdrop to Arches and Canyonlands. My curiosity and imagination got the best of me this past winter when I started looking into the range a little more and noticed it contains (9) peaks over 12k' with 300' prominence that looked to be linkable in a day. The lack of designated trails in the range further encouraged me to research off-trail routes. All-in-all, a lot of time was spent researching the route.
This past weekend, on Saturday 27 June 2015, myself (Will Porter), David Glennon, Greg Lackey, and Jed Brown drove to the La Sals to attempt the traverse. We decided to tackle the route S-N to get the slightly technical Razor Fang ridge out of the way early. We started at La Sal Pass (10,100') at the parking area and, after hitting all (9) 12ers, ended at the green gate marking private property on FR4658 (per Google Maps). The route drops down to Geyser Pass (10,538') after the first (3) peaks and then climbs 2,000' again to Mt Tomasaki for the remainder of the peaks. The final descent route that we took was heinous. I'm sure a better way exists. This route contains a lot of scree and loose/unstable rock. We carried all food from the start and filled our bottles with snow or at creeks.
Here is an overview of the general route using CalTopo: caltopo.com/m/3R4A
~22mi, 9600' gain.
We completed all peaks in 9hrs 6min. It can definitely go faster, have fun!
Strava: www.strava.com/activities/334477111/overview
This route was partially inspired by Jared Campbell: door5.com/2014/06/23/lasal-linkup-loop/ Thanks!
This past weekend, on Saturday 27 June 2015, myself (Will Porter), David Glennon, Greg Lackey, and Jed Brown drove to the La Sals to attempt the traverse. We decided to tackle the route S-N to get the slightly technical Razor Fang ridge out of the way early. We started at La Sal Pass (10,100') at the parking area and, after hitting all (9) 12ers, ended at the green gate marking private property on FR4658 (per Google Maps). The route drops down to Geyser Pass (10,538') after the first (3) peaks and then climbs 2,000' again to Mt Tomasaki for the remainder of the peaks. The final descent route that we took was heinous. I'm sure a better way exists. This route contains a lot of scree and loose/unstable rock. We carried all food from the start and filled our bottles with snow or at creeks.
Here is an overview of the general route using CalTopo: caltopo.com/m/3R4A
~22mi, 9600' gain.
We completed all peaks in 9hrs 6min. It can definitely go faster, have fun!
Strava: www.strava.com/activities/334477111/overview
This route was partially inspired by Jared Campbell: door5.com/2014/06/23/lasal-linkup-loop/ Thanks!