Quick Stats: 13.6 Miles & 4,869′ gain over 3 summits with a failed attempt at Triplet Rocks starting from Waterman Mountain Trailhead.
Yesterday I attempted to reach the “top” of what is widely regarded as the most remote point in the San Gabriel Mountains. Guarded by a double traverse of an already taxing peak, bushwhacking, exposed scrambling, and burn scarred loose terrain, Triplet Rocks sit off in the distance telling you that no one is welcome.
Some choose to bust down the door. I knew this would be a committed adventure, so when I decided on this I had planned on an alpine start and had a goal of finishing by 5 PM. Then my friends all decided they wanted to go to The Abbey, and planned to meet at 6:30 PM. . . which would mean I would have to be finished with my adventure by 3:00 PM at the absolute latest if I was to get ready for a girls night out. Working backward, I didn’t have a hard turnaround time when I set out– I had decided somewhere between 10 and 11 would probably good, but I would make my decision while I was out there.
This was the first time in a months that I was getting an alpine start to some new adventure in the San Gabriel Mountains. I’ve spent almost the entire winter climbing season in the Eastern Sierra or at the Baldy Bowl, so it felt good to do something lighter weight, lower altitude, in the local range, in a part of the San Gabriels that was off limits until just a week ago due to the Bobcat Fire Closure.
I left my car at 5 AM and made my way on the trail, which was surprisingly easy to follow all the way over Waterman Mountain and down toward Twin Peaks. I had anticipated it being harder to follow due to the lack of maintenance while the landscape repairs itself from the Bobcat Fire. I passed two guys before cresting over the Mount Waterman Trail that were also headed to Triplet Rocks, so I would likely have company along the way.
As you approach Twin Peaks Saddle, the trail becomes harder to follow, and when you get to the “Twin Peaks Use Trail,” there’s not much to follow as it hasn’t seen use. There are some cairns along the way to help you, but there was definitely some guesswork involved, and if you’re trying to follow the trail on a map, it doesn’t exist in that way; and judging from the cairns those maps need updating.
My agenda for the day was either 3 or 4 summits, Triplet Rocks as the primary target, a fun adventure as the primary goal, and all in a way that allows me to go out at night. I was at my first summit of the day feeling really good about my pace and how I was feeling, and shortly before leaving those two guys found their way to the summit. It’s worth mentioning that Twin Peaks (East) is an HPS peak, which makes 65 of 280! After a bit I made my way over the top to the SE Ridge of Twin Peaks, and for the first time Triplet Rocks was in view. . . and they were far away. From here there is no trail– it’s all about routefinding through terrible conditions:
- The rock is burned and chossy; the granite you can usually count on to be solid in these ranges was crumbling, including one hold while scrambling that broke clean off, despite looking solid. As far as I got the scrambling could be avoided by climbing down and around a lot, but where’s the fun in that? Some of the scrambling I did choose to do had a good amount of exposure.
- Despite the fires, the route is still overgrown, and now with a lot of the trees charred and dead, they are stiff and sharp, and not easy to move through.
- The area is pretty burn scarred, so there are no root systems keeping things cohesive. The ground would slide down beneath your feet regularly, and rocks that seemed solid would regularly slide down the mountainside. I have a few marks on me from rockfall, which was not the most fun of things.
These conditions made for slow travel, which made me think 10 AM would make for a good turnaround time. The two guys weren’t far behind me, and when I stopped to stow my poles and grab my helmet they caught up and we formed a very loose alliance to help each other with routefinding. There were a few instances where me being me, I chose the scramble since that’s more fun. . . and they found a way to go around it. It was helpful having another set of eyes at times– instead of going the wrong way and turning around, I would be scouting one way while he would check the other, and then we’d make our way through.
After a lot more of this slow travel, I caught sight of the time– it was 9 AM. In the grand scheme of things we were making great time, but we had just come to a clearing where it was clear how much farther we had to go to Triplet Rocks, and it was apparent that the travel on this route would be a lot slower than I had anticipated. An hour from my turnaround time and just before Peak 6384, I decided it was time to call it for me. I could see that it was more than an hour away, so while I could continue onward until 10 AM, I was concerned I would make enough progress to be within striking distance. If that were the case, even though I’m very responsible and take mountaineering very seriously, I could see myself getting a case of summit fever and just continuing onward– with a peak this inaccessible, if I was that close, I could see myself struggling to turn back so that I could just “be done” with it. On top of that, there’s the possibility that I would then try and rush through the return trip on a very dangerous route, which isn’t smart either. Rather than see what I would do in that situation, I decided I would turn back, and bag Waterman Mountain on the way out.
No shame in turning back– plenty of shame in making poor decisions.
As I made my way back up to the summit of Twin Peaks, I was able to follow an easier route along the way as I could better see where there may have once been use trails in certain sections (which involved downclimbing a bit). I also chose to do a lot more of the optional scrambling on the way back, since that is most of the reason I wanted to do Triplet Rocks anyway (it’s not a listed peak, so for my long term mountaineering objectives, it’s actually not on there). The way back was more of the same, though– choss, loose soil, rockfall, and bushwhacking through branches that don’t bend.
I stopped for a few minutes at the summit of Twin Peaks (2nd summit of 3 – 4 from the original plan) before making my way down to Twin Peaks Saddle, and up to Waterman Mountain. I decided to be a bit lazy when I saw the summit blocks on Waterman Mountain, and rather than follow the trail around to the Western approach to the summit, I went straight up from the East and over for some low exposure (~20′ at most) 3rd and 4th class scrambling. That was a nice little note to end the adventure on as I reached another HPS Peak, bringing my total to 66 of 280!
From there it was a nice hike down back to Waterman Mountain Trailhead along CA SR-2.
From there it was a nice drive home to get cute and go out to WeHo.
