My dad and I were skiing in Mammoth, so I decided to hitchhike down to Death Valley and go backpacking there. In Death Valley I met up with John Zahorian, Pepperflake and Chance, four hikers with over 10,000 miles of experience, and we planned a 4-5 day trip.
The plan was to follow the crest of the northern Panamints until eventually arriving at grapevine canyon and then heading north from there, trying to follow ridge lines whenever possible.
The first day went smoothly except for a little bit of snow, luckily the weather cleared and we found a perfect campsite on the ridge.
The next day had great weather and we continued along the ridge with jaw dropping views and eventually camped at the mouth of grapevine canyon.
The next day we refilled on water and then headed up little dodd canyon to cut over to the racetrack. Just south of the racetrack we began to traverse the Ubehebe ridgeline. All was going well until it started to snow and the snow started to accumulate.
Luckily we descended down to the Racetrack safely, and it was still covered in snow. We camped by the Ubehebe leadmine that night.
The next morning we faced a decision, continue on into Corridor Canyon or abandon the route and walk out the road. Pepperflake descended into Corridor Canyon well John and I walked out the road. Only a few miles down the road a kind gentleman picked us up and drove us back to our cars.
Anthony Ottati 