8. Wildcat

Wildcat is the inconspicuous summit just north of Dingleberry. Instead of the long west ridges which characterize most of the peaks of the Central Organs, it has a blunt SW Side, terminating in an overhanging face, and a steep, rounded W Buttress. (This unclimbed Buttress is one of the interesting problems remaining in the Organs.) Relatively inaccessible, it is rarely climbed.

Principal Routes

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8a. Normal Route

Class: 3

3� - 4� hours

First ascent: ?

The best approach to Wildcat starts from the Cuevas. From the NW end of the Cuevas strike due north across the level desert, or toward the dark green slash (Wildcat Gully) which runs up the West Side to Wildcat Peak. After some 30 minutes you cross the old Modoc Mine road at the point, marked by a huge squarish boulder, where it begins to zigzag up the welt to the south. Start up a nonconforming welt which begins at this point. and runs north rather than northeast like most of the others (Wohlt's Welt, the highroad to the Central Organs). Wohlt's Welt eventually swerves to the northeast and abuts on the West Side in the neighborhood of a pretty rock buttress with a smooth, slabby SW Face.

The left hand gully is Wildcat Gully, running up all the way to the Organ Ridge; the right hand gully is very short and gives access to the brushy wilderness on the West Side bounded on the north by Dingleberry, above by the Organ Ridge, on the south by Lost Peak, and below by the rock rampart which is really the continuation of Lost Peak's W Ridge. Near the top of Wohlt's Welt, traverse into Wildcat Gully and bushwhack up it, eventually stepping over a narrow saddle, on whose left rises a sharp, small spire, into a wide valley running down west under Wildcat's SW Face (the Swale). Continue up to the Dingleberry-Wildcat Saddle on the Organ Ridge. (Wildcat can also be approached from Topp Hut by using the Razorback approach (see Route 9a) and then climbing over the bottom of Razorback's W Ridge., but this is perhaps longer.) From just under the Saddle climb northward up easy rock to the summit.

Return by the approach route.

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8b. NW Gully

Class: medium 4

4� - 5 hours

First ascent: 1957(?); D. Schluter, ?.

Approach as in Route 8a as far as the narrow saddle giving onto the Swale. Drop down the Swale, around the W Buttress, and climb up the steep rock gully between Wildcat and Razorback for a short way until the deep NW Gully is revealed. Climb up this to where it emerges on the SW Side just above the overhanging lower part of the Face. Then head up the SW Side by any of a variety of 4th Class routes to the summit.

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8c. SE Gully

Class: medium 4

4 - 4� hours

First ascent: December 1963; R. Ingraham, E. Redford, C. Bell.

Approach as in Route 8a, but instead of going all the way to the Dingleberry-Wildcat Saddle turn into the SE Gully, which runs up just behind the steep lower SE Face. Mount the gully or, preferably, the narrow ridge on the left to a platform above the lower SE Face, where Route 8b is joined,

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8d. Guardian Buttress, S Ridge

Class: medium 4

3� - 4 hours

First ascent: 1964(?); R. Ingraham, D. Ferguson.

This large buttress low down on the West Side below Wildcat has a nice triangular 300 foot SW Face. Take the Wildcat approach (see Route 8a) but turn out of Wildcat Gully to the left at the altitude of the bottom of the Buttress's SW Face. This is roughly at the height of a tall pine standing all alone on the brink of a beautiful cliff on the left aide of Wildcat Gully. Traverse around on a bushy ledge to the bottom of the S Ridge, near this sentinel pine. Follow a route up the SW Face close to the Ridge, crossing over and pursuing a rock gully on the SE Side which providentially reveals itself when the difficulties on the Face or up the Ridge become severe.

Return by walking off the back side of the Buttress and scrambling back to Wildcat Gully.

This material is from "A Climbing Guide to the Organ Mountains", Copyright by R.L.Ingraham, Privately published, 1960's.