Tom Grundy's 2023 Sierra Challenge Day 7 Redwind Peak Page

8-10-2023, Rafee had tried to go up Taboose Pass a few days earlier but had balked at the stream crossing - it was a bit too high and raging for him to want to try alone. Since then he had heard about people just bushwhacking up the right side of the stream without crossing - and finding bits of the old trail there too. Based on this worry, a number of people decided to start at 4 am to give them more time in case the stream crossing didn't work. I joined them - which meant getting up early and not getting as much sleep as I would have liked. At least I was mostly ready ahead of time, so I only got up at 3:30 - and was actually ready a few minutes early. We set out up the trail across the desert in the dark. Once the switchbacks started I didn't keep up with the lead group, but kept them in sight and saw that they just kept going on the same side at the stream crossing. It was just getting light at this point and the crossing didn't look too bad to me and there was a hand-line, so I switched into my approach shoes I brought for the crossing and waited for Chris - he wanted to take the crossing too, so we did that - it looked a lot worse than it was, since there was a pretty good ledge of rocks that were ankle-mid shin deep. I switched into my dry shoes on the far side and we continued up the trail. After we crossed back over the rest of the group was on the other side resting - so our way was probably quicker even with the time to change shoes since they were hiking faster.

sunrise over the Owens Valley

Chris on the first stream crossing

a little later sunrise over the Owens Valley

Chris on the trail - Redwind up above

We followed the trail up past the waterfall and a number of trees. Then cut up onto a snowfield to cross the creek and head up the side drainage towards the west side of Redwind Peak. There was a somewhat steep somewhat hard and slippery snowfield that we crossed the bottom to get to the talus. Later I realized it went up the canyon a long way, and I probably should have just put crampons on and followed it up as far as was wise. Instead we mostly kept to the rocks up to the hanging valley. From there we cut up towards Redwind following the path of least resistance up the talus, scree, and rock. As we neared the top I could see a falcon buzzing someone near the summit. I could also see a bunch of people catching up from below with Clement in the lead. I did manage to beat him to the summit with a 2 hour head start - barely. There was quite a dropoff down to the east. Judging by the summit register the main person to visit this peak is Kim - coming up maybe more times than everyone else combined. After a few minutes on the summit we mostly headed on the ridge - or off to the side up towards Goodale Peak.

following people up the switchbacks

heading up the slope
we went up the slope left of the snowfield above Marc (in the black shorts)

looking back below the start of the hanging valley

above the hanging valley - ridge to Goodale is upper left

#summitcookies on the summit of Redwind

panorama on the summit of Redwind - Sean K on the left, Taboose Canyon center left, Goodale in the center

I tried to follow the ridge for a while, but it was pretty loose and much slower going so I dropped down to the right and side-hilled like everyone else. The last bit up to the summit of Goodale required either dropping down to traverse around or climbing up. We all climbed up on various paths. I took a pretty direct line - probably easy 5th class. Goodale was my last SPS peak in this immediate area, so I was glad to have an opportunity to climb it. Most of the other people wanted to go on to climb Striped Mountain, but I already did that on day 6 of the 2014 Challenge. So a few of us headed down the steep scree and talus taking advantage of the snow when we could to make our way back down. I took a pretty good line from the hanging valley back to the trail, but then lost time taking off my shoes for the stream crossings. I wore the wet approach shoes for about a mile or so after the second crossing, but then they were starting to hurt my feet and no longer dripping so I switched back. I tried to jog a bit at the bottom but didn't really succeed until after the worst of the broken rock sections when I was able to just shuffle-jog on the sandy trail back to camp. I quickly loaded back into the truck for the tedious slow bumpy rocky drive back to pavement with a stop right at the end to take a dip and sit in the icy cold creek - I was attempting a leg ice bath to revive my legs. Then I headed to Onion Valley where I talked to Bob a bit and ate some food, I also heard that the weather forecast was for thunderstorms the next day and people were thinking about starting early. Then I crawled into the back of my truck and went to sleep before 8. I woke up to the patter of rain and quickly pulled some gear (wet shoes and chair) out of the rain and went back to sleep.

Rafee on the S Goodale summit

looking back at Redwind from the N summit with Ari, Chris, and Clement

panorama on the N summit of Goodale

view back N from the S summit

Mason on the N summit of Goodale

Goodale with Redwind down to the right and Cardinal and Split above that

view back from the desert near the trailhead

Total for the day 7, 2 peaks, 1 post hike dip, Strava said 15.6 mi (moto gpower) and 8415 ft of elevation gain in 11:50

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