Brief report:
Bob Burd, Rick Kent and I day hiked Baja Mexico's highest peak, El Picacho del Diablo, in a grueling 14-hour day hike. The hike has over 8000 feet of elevation gain and loss.....over difficult terrain.
Bob and Rick picked me up at 8:00AM Saturday 4/12/08 at my place and we drove down south to the border. By 12PM we're in Ensenada and by 5PM we finally got to Picacho's western trailhead (~ 9 hour drive from LA). We turned in early to sleep at 7:30PM. Alarm went off at 3:30AM Sunday. We started hiking by headlamp at 4:07AM. The first 4.5 miles is over relatively flat terrain to Blue Bottle Saddle (1300 feet gain). Then, it's a 3000 foot descent over 1.75 miles down to Campo Noche (the usual backpacking campsite.....most people do Picacho over 3 days). Lastly, it's a steep ascent (3800 feet in 1.5 miles) to the summit of Picacho del Diablo over various class 2/class 3 chutes. We summited by ~ 11:20AM. We lost about 45 minutes trying to get to Pinnacle Ridge. I ran out of water on the descent from the summit down to Campo Noche (water source). It was hot coming down and my mouth was so parched. Rick and Bob were a few minutes ahead of me. I eventually got to Campo Noche, where I find Bob taking a skinny dip on the frozen creek water. I quenched my thirst and decided to take a skinny dip as well. Holy sh*t! The creek water was just as cold (or colder) than most Sierra lakes I've taking a dip on, but it felt so refreshing. The final leg was the 3000-foot ascent from Campo Noche to Blue Bottle Saddle. This was by far the hardest part of the day. So exhausting! Rick and I were dragging a$$. Bob always five minutes ahead. We got to Blue Bottle Saddle by 4:15PM and took a small break here. Then, just over a couple of hours later we finally got back to the trailhead at 6:20PM: all in all, just over 14 hours car-to-car. Phew!! Well, it doesn't end there. We decided to start driving right after that. Bob took the first shift from the trailhead to Ensenada and I drove the next leg from Ensenada to my place. I got home at 3:30AM. Slept 4 hrs and then went into work. My legs were so sored that I limped for the next couple of days.
My pics.
Rick's pics.
Bob's pics.