Tom Grundy's 2020 Sierra Challenge Day 2 Scheelore Peak

8-08-2020 We got up about 5 and prepared for the day, cold brew coffee from the day before plus luke-warm grits in a thermos. I actually was a minute late for the 6 am start because I forgot something, but then headed on up the trail behind the rest. Soon the sun came out and things got warm. I lost ground again for a bathroom break but managed to catch Iris and a few others near an old road to the mine. We went cross country for a bit and stopped at the lake to get water. There were enough swimmers (cyclops and daphnia?) that I opted to use the filter. There were a number of people at this lake and we discussed possible ways to get up onto the ridge. The majority of us opted to head on up the road to the mine. The Scheelore mine was operated from 1942-22 and possibly briefly in 1954 tapping the Tungsten deposit in the skarn (contact metamorphism) between the carbonate rocks and intruded granodiorite. There were 3 main workings of pits and trenches. We could see people heading up from the mine at the end of the road towards the Scheelore-Baldwin saddle, but it was unclear if it was a good route or not. Near the top we saw Sean C top out so at least it went. I followed on up on the metamorphic mess (crumbly marble and ? rock), but did a poor job of keeping it under class 5. The others were wondering what the best way was when Fred came crab scrambling down a steep notch saying "this is the better way". When I got to the top I turned right and headed up towards Mt Baldwin in the hopes that there would be a better descent south of the challenge peak and there would be less back-tracking by climbing Baldwin first (plus I figured if Bob went to the Challenge Peak first he would leave a summit register there).

playing catch up as the sun rises

moon over a moonscape of marble

Iris approaches the last lake, we went up above the end of the road

looking down at people heading up

Iris above the steepest part

360 pano on the way up Baldwin (center right) Scheelore is left of Red Slate - the peak with the snowfield on the left

Mount Baldwin's impressive SE face

Mount Baldwin was farther than I thought it would be, but I made it. Shortly after I arrived Grant popped up from the ridge to the North. He had already come over Aggie and White Fang and had passed Kristine and Robert on the way. Soon others arrived on the summit and we spent a bit of time there before heading to Scheelore.

The traverse back to Scheelore was pretty uneventful and we passed a few people heading the other way. From there we decided to try to follow Bob and Sean and Grant to the south in the hopes that was a better way down and back. We followed for a bit but based on their looking over the edge and the crumbly nature of the rock decided to turn back before long. That meant a bit of back tracking and elevation gain before the tedious but not difficult down scramble to the mine. There we hiked down the road catching up to a group that decided to swim before cutting cross country for a while back to the trail lower down. We stopped for a cooling dip where the trail crossed the creek and then continued on down the increasingly mule pounded trail back to camp. Iris gained some energy somewhere and jogged a bit near the end.

Iris heading back on the ridge S of Scheelore

Iris heading down to the trough/ramp

Total for the day 2 peaks, 1 swim. Strava said 17.67 mi (iphone 5) or 18.25 mi (iphone x) and 6123 or 6320 ft of elevation gain (we did take slightly different routes this day).

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