| I had been putting this climb off for far too long. I finally
committed to it over Mother's Day weekend while staying at my folks' place
in El Paso. A 4:30 wakeup was in order so as not to sizzle like bacon in
the heat and get this hikle overwith before noon. Courtesy of my father's
modified 1971 Landcruiser, I was able to drive all the way to Modoc Mine.
The drive took some time with the overly rocky road, but would ultimately
save some time to be sure. The trail was easy to follow to Yellow Rocks
(featured on the right along the slope in this photo), and I soon found my way into the gulch
leading to the Gray Eminenence. I missed a cairn in the wash and started
heading up east, whereas the "standard" route continues south. A lot of
bushwhacking and little idea where the "route" was themed the ascent for a
while. This was not of import, however, as I huffed my way up to the base
of the cliffs up the gulch, ending up one ridge bump and .2 miles north of
the Gray Eminence. |
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I traversed the top of the gulch over to Juniper Saddle (just east of
the eminence) which was actually rather unpleasant. Deciduous deadfall,
loose dirt, yucca and cactus of several varieties impeded progress. From
the saddle, the route was fairly obvious (photo on left) and I followed
the trail and cairns where not trailed up to the saddle, bushwhacking
somewhat at times. The route is rather steep in portions (for a trail). My
GPS was doing some whacky stuff once I reached the dark saddle, almost
leading me to believe I was off-route. Must have been some signal
scrambling a la White Sands. |
| I followed directions from memory of reports I had read and soon my
GPS corrected. I never did find the plaque indicating where to go to
acquire the summit, and I went over a slab looking around for the crux,
and surprisingly saw no more mountain to ascend other than a short hike.
It was a grand view from the top, and I admired the other pinnacles that
make up the Organ Mountain crest. I took this picture of the crux's route after descending,
trying to give it a fearsome appearance; there really wasn't way to make it look fearsome. The
descent was rapid, and I tried to find the regular route on the south side
of the Gray Eminence's ridge. It went about as well as the route I
ascended with, the difference being an occasional cairn. |
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