Telescope Peak

23 Feb 2002 - by Ed Lulofs

Eric Miklas and I climbed Telescope Peak Saturday. Wind 23 mph average, gusting to 28. It felt like more. We used crampons the last 500 feet to make the climb easier. A few inches of powder on a mild crust. There were many bare patches, even at the summit. An ice axe wasn't really needed. That was good, because we are still looking for some experienced climber with ice axe proficiency to take pity on us and critique our self-taught technique. Very little snow below 10,000. I could see a huge dust cloud rising from Owens Lake. It went higher than Whitney. I wonder when LA is going to take responsibility for the mess it created there and fix it. We stayed in Wildrose camp Friday & Saturday night. Low 50 degrees at 4200 feet. Great weekend.

Michael Gordon adds:

This is just from my observations, but I noticed as of a few weeks ago that they seem to be running a trench from Cottonwood Creek into Owens Lake. I know the city of LA has been made legally responsible by law to mitigate the damage. My guess is they are diverting water from Cottonwood Creek to the lake to start wetting it better.

Ron Norton adds:

The plan is to cover the entire Owens Valley dry lake bed with a combination of three dust control measures: shallow flooding (which you can now see), managed vegetation (they found something that actually likes the soil out there!), and the rest of the lake bed will be covered with gravel. For more information than you could ever possibly want to know, see:

http://www.epa.gov/region09/air/owens/index.html


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