With a great NOAA forecast for Saturday, Michael and I decided to climb a couple of obscure White Knob 10K foot peaks - White Knob and South White Knob. The road up Alder Creek was in good shape and we were making good time, until we hit a patch of Qwyhee gumbo at 7800'. Unable to proceed without traction, we gently slid back into a "parking spot". Might as well start walking, perhaps it will be dry when we return.
We followed the road up until it split and decided to go left, up Stewart Canyon. It wasn't long before we could no longer skirt the snow patches in the road and had to walk over them. Ahhh, let the postholing begin! With our snowshoes back in the truck, we decided to forego the pain of knee deep snow. So, we crossed the creek and headed up to gain the ridge that would take us to our first objective - "South White Knob".
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| South White Knob on the left |
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| Our route to gain the ridge |
There was a fresh dusting of snow covering everything, but we didn't let that stop us as we moved through the aspen thickets only to be confronted with thick Mahogany. Luckily, we found a game trail that angled up through the tangle of Mahogany, which eventually led us to the rocky ridge.
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| Taking a break in the Mahogany |
Once we gained the ridge at 9100', we had clear sailing. No more Mahogany and the snow was supportive.
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| South White Knob peeking out |
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| Michael heading up |
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| The broad ridge to the summit |
A cold wind was blowing on the top of South White Knob so we didn't stop. Just touched the top and dropped down the wide expanse heading toward White Top. Just past the saddle, between our two peaks, we found a spot out of the wind and stopped to have some lunch and gawk at the sights.
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| White Knob Mountain |
Unlike the previous Saturday, it was cold above 10K feet, so we didn't linger too long for lunch. White Knob was only 1/4 mile and 350 feet above us, so we powered up it to stay warm.
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| Summit of White Knob (10,835 feet) |
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| Looking back at South White Knob with Shelly and Redbird in the background |
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| A nice ski line off of Lime Mountain |
After a couple of summit photos, we retraced our steps over South White Knob and back down the ridge. Since we are a couple of educated guys, we took a slightly different route getting off the ridge and bypassed the tangle of Mahogany.
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| Looking back up |
We walked back down the mining road, crossing paths with a half dozen side by sides before reaching the truck. Thankfully the soil was dry, we pulled right out and headed home.
Stats:
Distance - 8.75 miles
Elevation Gain - 3750 feet
Time - 6 hours car-car
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