Cobb Peak

Date: Friday, August 25, 2023. 

Partners: Roy.

Objective: Cobb Peak.

Stats: 11 miles and 4,500ft of gain in 10hrs.

Links: Lists of John.  Strava.  Photos.

Roy and I had our sights set on the Tetons.  Unfortunately, this was a rough summer season and there  were reoccurring storms that were forming rime ice up on the peaks.  We had eyed Forbidden Peak as a late back up option but due to the long drive and rain forecast for what would have been our only summit day, we decided that maybe we'd just stick close to home.

I figured Cobb Peak would give us a nice long and challenging day and give us a chance to simply get out and camp for a couple of days.  We stayed at Sawmill Gulch Campground and were the only people there the first night.  The bathroom looked and smelled (in a good way) like it had just been cleaned.  The camp sites themselves were a little funky.  Once we decided on our site, we leaned that there were about a million Daddy-Long-Leg spiders running about.  Oh well, its their home, not ours!  Everything was still a little damp and dank from the recent thunderstorm that was pretty significant.  We got set up and got some dinner in us, then turned in after a couple hours of chill time.

We were up just before sunrise and hit the trail with cool temps and clear skies.  The first few miles are flat so we wanted to grind those out and get to the stream crossing.  We walked past some pretty big mushrooms along the way.

It took as a bit to find a suitable crossing.  We ended up going just a bit higher than the summit post beta suggested.  Once across the steam, the real fun and route finding started.  Looking to gain the ridge looked pretty tricky, but once we started up, the route revealed itself.  

Eventually we were above the treeline and looking at the Southwest Face of Cobb.  We had some discussion about trying the West Ridge proper, or sticking to the Face.  Taking into consideration that there was a good chance of thunderstorms, we stuck to the face.  There were a few pauses to scope the most efficient line, but we found our way into the Gully as described.  

This is what we came for.  Fun Class 3 with the option to add some extra spice if desired.  It felt like we were moving well, but that darn gully went on for ever.  It didn't feel steep, until we looked down.  The sky was getting cloudy and we had a few sprinkles, but reached the summit and had very warm temps.  The views are always incredible in The Pio's!  Unfortunately, the weather Gods told us we didn't have very long to enjoy it.  After digging through the summit box and taking pictures in every possible direction, we headed back down the gully.  While we were headed across the Southwest Face, we encountered the sandy dirt that was described in the beta.  We did drop a little lower on the way down, so somehow we must have missed it on the way up.  

By the time we were back to the treeline and emptying our shoes of all their newly acquired contents, the thunder started.  There wasn't much concern at this point now that we were not completely exposed.  The predicted showers hit and soon we were basically soaked.  Ah, to rain jacket, or not to rain jacket... It was too warm for a shell, but too wet to not, so we tried both.  The worst of it didn't last long and eventually we were too close to the trailhead to really care.

It's funny how the pace quickens when you can smell the beer!  It was a good long day with a good buddy and we were feeling the stoke.  The next morning we basically passed on breakfast and went straight to The Wrangler which is simply fantastic.  While we were munching away and looking over our pictures, we had to look up how much 10,000 Dong is in USD.  Uh, are we going back up there... we joked.