Telescope Peak, California

I had Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park, in California in my list for a very long time and eventually was able to hike it and reach the summit this Oct.. Alphonse (the name has been changed to protect the privacy of the individual), my buddy from university days, who now lives in California joined me in Pahrump the night before our hike. We chatted for a while. It was our fist meeting since 2001, in the old country although we have been in touch through e-mail and telephone the whole time. I will probably write about him separably but just to say that I didn't want to be hard on him after all these years. So when I asked him when he would have wanted to wake up in the morning for the hike and he answered 06:00, I agreed. 

We had our breakfast at the hotel and then headed toward the park. It was hot day, as it's supposed to be in Death Valley and it was a very long drive. However I'm sure it's much better this time of the year. It took us nearly 02:30 hours to reach the trail-head! Had it not been because of the Alphonse's Honda SUV, we would not have been able to save the the last 1.5 miles (I'm following American measuring system now!) and it would definitely have been much harder and longer to do the hike.  We noticed only two cars near the trail-head. An SUV with two girls dismounting it. We never saw them again. They either went to the much easier hike, Wildrose Peak or were there for a short hike around. There was a Chevy sedan which got us very surprised. We wondered how he got himself up there because even Alphonse's SUV was going up the road not easily. We later saw the guy near the summit, descending and we had a little chat with him.

You can see the road that leads to the trail-head once you get enough elevation, probably after 1 hour or so. This is a dead-end which goes to Mahogany Flat Campground but you certainly need an SUV or a big truck. If you're driving a sedan don't even bother entering the gravel road or you'll lose your car!

The hike was not bad and the temperature was not very high. The good thing was I had selected a weekday for the hike. What, though, we could have done and I recommend to everyone who has this hike in the planning stage, is in addition to do it in a weekend, he or she should stay the night at Mahogany Flat Campground. We started our hike at 10:02 hours. Had we started from the campground I just named, we would have been able to start at 07:00 and save us 3 hours! 

Alphonse was not doing badly up until the end of the first stage of the hike. I have divided the hike to three main stages:

1) From the trail-head to the area where a twin small peaks are located. Alphonse thought one of them is actually the summit! 

2) From the twin small peaks area to the switchbacks. This area is easy and mostly feels like ridge walks. You have views of Death Valley both at right and left side of yours, if the view is not obscured by mist.

The US Geological Survey Plaque on the summit of Telescope Peak. I have seen something similar on Canadian Peaks and probably exists on other US summits as well. I guess I'll see next year!

3) From the switchbacks to the summit which is the most difficult part.

As I said Alphonse's speed was reduced after he realized that the summit was not what he had guessed. I was sure that it was not the targeted summit and pointed at the real summit which looked very far away! It looked that we had another 2 hours to go! I, then, handed a radio to him and told him that if he falls behind I will contact him and will check on him frequently. Soon I realized that It had been a good idea to bring the radios. Alphonse started to fall behind and I was not able to see him. So I contacted him every 5 minutes to make sure that he was OK but the piece of sh*t(!) radios went out of battery soon! I was really tired at the switchbacks as well. That was where we bumped to the Chevy guy. I, however, continued and Alphonse, according to him, was dragging himself up! I eventually reached the summit at 13:57 hours meaning the hike took me 03:55 hours which is not a significant time. I was not tired though. The only reason that I felt a little tired was lack of sleep in the previous two days. I had just a little water left. I drank that with a fistful of raisin and tried to contact Alphonse but the damn radio was out of battery. I was going to go down and help him to come up until I finally saw him coming up. He joined me at the summit a little more than 25 minutes after my arrival. We rested there for a few minutes, ate whatever we had (which was not much) and took a few photos. 

Going back down, I was expecting Alphonse to be more comfortable but I was wrong. He was having problem and we had to stop two times for him to rest. He was complaining about high heart ratio (which I believe is normal at that kind of activity) and was saying that he nearly blacked out a few times on the way up.

Alphonse is dragging himself on the trail! I'm just quoting! This is on the way back to the car and shortly before passing the twin small peak which are obscured by clouds in this picture on the right side

I guess it was 18:55 hours or so when we reached the car meaning the damn hike took at almost 7 freaking hours or maybe even more! Alphonse drove the gravel, difficult part of the road and then it got dark and I drove as he was dead tired! He laid down on the seat next to me until we reached a very nice store on the way. Stovepipe General Store, is amazing and they have everything you need in the middle of the desert. From drinks and foods, to souvenirs, books and gasoline. Alphonse got resurrected, just a little bit(!), after drinking water and an energy drink, according to him but I continued to drive back to Pahrump for the rest of the trip. 

Telescope Peak, is generally considered a difficult hike but I found it moderate. It's long and if you're not ready emotionally and physically, it would feel tedious and you won't enjoy. There's no scrambling involved but there are a number of exposed parts on the trail but it's much easier than many of the mountains I have been too in Canada. I'm happy that I did it and I enjoyed that. You get a total of a little more than 900 m. elevation during the hike which is not bad. All the detail is available on the web and there's no need to repeat them here but my recommendations, if taken into consideration, would help a lot to make the hike more enjoyable and easier to do. What I was surprised about was the lack of authorized personnel in the park. We bought our ticket from a machine in Furnace Creek and then later when we reached a visitor center (I don't remember which one but definitely after Furnace Creek) it was closed! While in Grand Canyon and Glacier, both the staff were available from earlier times. That could be due to number of visitors they get. Then the next day I saw full staff at Red Rock Canyon National Conversation Area, near Las Vegas!
(Photo, top: Telescope Peak from the trail. Here it's more than an hour to the summit depending on your speed and it's, of course before the switchbacks)