1 Beautiful striations in the limestone from the bottom of the peak.
2 Heading on up for what will prove to be a long, exhausting day.
3 A beautiful (and unidentified) cactus.
4 Heading up to the West Ridge.
5 Some interesting conglomerate rock.
6 Climbing up a gully to reach the West Ridge.
7 A tenaja on the way up.
8 The first interesting bit of scrambling on a tower leading to a false summit on the West Ridge proper.
9 Looking over toward the Southeast Ridge.
10 Some more scrambling. It would go on like this for hours.
11 Cody picking his way up.
12 Pushing on toward the first of a half-dozen false summits.
13 Incredible striations created ledges for easy scrambling.
14 The western portion of the rugged, tortured geology of the Funeral Range.
15 The upper portion of the mountain, with the first major summit to the left, and the second major summit to the right. (The true summit is hidden). We climbed all this stuff.
16 A neat cottontop.
17 This is getting tiring.
18 Our route traversed to the left, went up a chute, and then essentially straight through the upper black and white bands.
19 The rest of the way- easy right? The true summit is peaking up to the left (it is white on top).
20 The beautiful limestone of the Funeral Range.
21 Furnace Creek/Death Valley area.
22 Cody + Brendan topping out the white band.
23 Still steep.
24 Some spicy downclimbing on unstable rock.
25 Brendan sketching it down off a tower.
26 Gendarme traverse action sequence, #1.
27 Gendarme traverse action sequence, #2.
28 Gendarme traverse action sequence, #3.
29 Gendarme traverse action sequence, #4.
30 Gendarme traverse action sequence, #5.
31 One of the most "interesting" moves on the climb, this required some very intense concentration.
32 Cody topping out another tower.
33 Dear god, we're not there yet??? Almost.
34 Cody and Brendan on the final push to the true summit.
35 THE SUMMIT! 4.5 hours from the bottom, no rests longer than 5 minutes.
36 The view out towards Furance Creek, Death Valley, etc.
37 East along the rugged Funeral Range towards Death Valley Junction.
38 Stretching and getting ready for what would prove a relatively arduous descent.
39 Three dumbasses (including the one behind the camera) descending a long scree chute which would eventually lead to an impossible drop-off (500'+). This is NOT the correct descent route.
40 A little spicy downclimbing, before reaching the impossible dropoff.
I took no more pictures for the rest of our descent. After several ascents, traverses, and false starts, we found the correct descent. A few hours later, tequila and a campfire and burritos eased our aching bones.
