The last weekend of May, some friends and I headed to down to Mammoth for some mellow peak bagging fun. “Mellow” by their standards, less so for mine. First stop on our list was Red Top Peak outside of Mammoth Lakes.
The trailhead began at Devils Postpile National Monument. We followed the John Muir Trail for some time before heading off trail and up Red Top Peak. There was some fun scrambling to be had. The trail was fairly straight forward to the summit at 10,522′.
From here, we descended down the back side on some awful, awful scree, and managed to add a few extra miles and elevation gain. If I were to do this again, I would backtrack and head back down the exact same way we came up. It was so much easier.
In late May, we’d brought along ice axes anticipating some snow. There was no snow, except on a tiny section of the Red Top Summit.
For other adventures in the Mammoth Lakes area, check out Convict Canyon or the hot springs!
Gear: Mountain Hardwear Scrambler 30, Outdoor Research Constellation Hoody, Icebreaker Tech T Lite, Black Diamond Raven Pro Ice Axe, Norrøna Bitihorn Softshell Pants, Salewa Alp Flow Mid GTX Boots
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