[Justus S.]

September 5, 2006 Destination: Persindex (Peak 5360+) Well, my initial plan was to scramble Baring, but as I was driving up to Barclay Lake a truck comes burling down the road. The driver tells me they are going to be closing the road for maintenance. Bummer, what to do? I decided to go pay a visit to Persindex. This little peak lies about halfway on the Persis / Index ridge. I remember there was a report on this peak by Stefan, and he had mentioned going straight up. I, however, forgot that he also mentioned the BRUSH. I also remember as a kid looking up this basin, hmmm, why not give it a go and see how it is. I drove past the turn off for the Persis trailhead. At the horseshoe shaped curve I parked where an old road branches off and heads east into the basin. The hike wasn’t bad up the old road. After leaving the road the going became steadily worse. The brush was terrible and of the worse kind, thorny and unpleasant. I wanted to retreat, but I had already spent a good deal of time pushing through. I continued and needless to say I got pretty scratched up. I did, occasionally, find dry streambeds to scramble up. Anyway, I eventually made it to the alpine and was rid of the brush. I managed to reach the summit in 2:45, not bad. The views were pretty hazy, and I decided to take a little rest to see if things would change. One hour later I decided to get up. It was beginning to get warm. I took some pics and explored a bit. Ok, I needed to head back, but how? I knew that I didn’t want to go through the brush again. I contemplated going over to Persis, but eventually settled on heading for the road high on the connecting ridge to the southwest. I could see the road and figured this was a shorter route. I passed some lovely tarns on the way. There are bunches of tarns up here. I traversed the south side of the ridge and came to a cliff. Here, I dropped steeply toward a 4800+ saddle (0.5miles southwest of the summit). I descended a nice gully (obvious on map) to talus fields on the north side of the ridge and began traversing below the impressive cliffs. The talus fields run almost to the road. The road is slightly overgrown but not bothersome, and I quickly made it to the car. Well, another interesting exploration completed. Notes: Trip time 7hrs. Down time was 2:30. After the horseshoe shaped curve one can drive the road about another .25 - .5 miles.

tree

persis

peaks

index

traverse talus fields on the north side of the ridge, note the road

basin from road on hike down

tarn

[Oren]

Just noticed the TR. This picture was taken from Persis as I was doing the Persis-Index traverse. Mostly for beta.

view from Persis enroute to Index

By your description would Persindex be the high point in the picture left of the saddle in the middle? There are some beautiful tarns in that area. I heard someone refer to one of the pictures of a tarn they posted as " the perfect place". I really enjoyed that scramble, but it was a long day. I fiddle-farted around on both the summits and at the tarns. I need to get Merchant done so I can complete my list for that group. Persis, Index, Baring and Gunn. Did they say how long the road would be closed?

[Justus S.]

Oren, I think you are right with the location in the picture. Just in case though, here it is on topo(Persindex). Yes, there are some nice tarns up there. It is a nice place to wonder around in. I think the road to Barclay Lake should have re-opened by now.

[Fred_Beavon]

My condolences with the brush. On the return, after doing the ridge to Index from Persis, I didn't feel like redoing Persis, so I went down the way you went up. The road below looked so close and it seemed like a quick route down at the time, but what a big mistake that turned out to be! I, also, was in a very narrow dry creek bed for part of the way, until a stream and cliffs appeared. The brush WAS bad, and I wished I'd followed my route back over Persis.

[Oren]