Message posted by JB737 on March 16, 2007 at 17:43:31 PST:
I got the traverse idea when standing on GLR not far from Mailbox Road. I took a detailed panorama of the Tikaboo Range from there, and it all looked pretty close and pretty climbable. Some of the peaks looked like a really fun place to be, albeit a bit lower than Tikaboo. Sort of like Lhotse and Nuptse vs Everest, you likely won't find as many empty turista bean cans on them. And who knows, maybe something interesting will be found there or on the way. Later, I did some "flying around in Google Earth" and discovered that (barring ground obstacles, a major "if") the distances and elevation changes are reasonable even from the Hancock Summit / Horneys Rest area to Tikaboo. Surprisingly, it is only about 5-1/3 miles by air and 2500ft elevation gain plus some modest ups/downs. A lot worse than from Badger Spring, but still OK to my taste, especially if a mostly-hard-rock route exists. Avoiding loose rock can make up for a lot of elevation change. I've always preferred climbing bigger rock routes than smaller talus routes. If I can find, climb, and document an easy enough route from there, it will also make for a much shorter (and almost completely downhill) escape route on foot from the Tikaboo/Badger area in case of car trouble near Badger, etc. There is a peak about 1.8 miles north of Tikaboo and only about 120ft lower. Plus there is one about 1.6 miles south of Tikaboo and only about 210ft lower. Those are rough Google numbers, which I'll refine with more USGS topo work, or just taking my own GPS readings there. They seem like good candidates for stereo photography (remember your Viewmaster reels as a kid?) to get a 3-D view of Freedom Ridge in relation to Groom. One picture from Tikaboo, preferably at the same elevation, and one from there...and bingo, a stereoview. When stereoviews become the rage instead of panoramas, remember you heard it here first. :-) Actually, you'll get little or no additional useful info out of it (mostly things like "yes, the water tower is vertical and closer than the background mountains"; or "wow, Freedom Ridge is bigger than I thought"), but just triggering your brain with stereoscopic info adds realism and impact to photos.
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