White Mountains Winter Traverse. In February 1974 Dave Sharp, George Miller, Jay Jensen and I made the first winter traverse of the crest of the California White Mountains. The trip was mostly on skis, took 16 days, and was at an average elevation of 12,500 feet for a distance of 80 miles. Lack of shelter from the wind on the open slopes above timberline was the main hazard and we descended to timberline to wait out a severe 4-day storm that recorded winds over 100mph. A nearby lodgepole pine, two feet in diameter, was broken off twenty feet above the base and flung more than forty feet from its stump. The fresh snow from this long storm was in some ways a large benefit, making skiing possible all the way to Westguard Pass above the town of Big Pine. The principal summits reached were Boundary Peak (13,140 feet), Montgomery Peak (13,441 feet), JumpofF Mountain (13,484 feet), Mount Dubois (13,559 feet), Peak 13,908 feet, White Mountain Peak (14,246 feet), and Mount Barcroft (13,040 feet).

Galen A. Rowell