Twin Mountain Archives – GlassMountains Trip Reports

On Saturday, July 25, I climbed Twin Mountain in the Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City. Twin Mountain is one of “Oregon’s 100 Highest Peaks“, a list first published by Jeff Howbert in the May 1996 issue of Pack & Paddle magazine. Peaks on his list have at least 500 feet of “clean” prominence (rising at least 500 feet above any saddle connecting it to anything higher). I know of three people who have climbed all 100 peaks, Pam Otley, Jay Avery, and Troy Baker.

Twin Mountain rising to the east from Peak 8428 in July 2012

The High Cascades include many of Oregon’s highest peaks. These fueled my original interest in climbing and I focused on them for many years. In 2007 I started working on my remaining Oregon’s 100 Highest Peaks, making slow but steady progress on these peaks over several years. Thirteen of the 100 peaks lie in the Elkhorn Mountains northwest of Baker City; as of 2015 I had climbed twelve of them. The last one, Twin Mountain, rebuffed my exploratory 2015 attempt due to difficult access. Since then it had been easy to defer returning to try again as I became distracted by Oregon’s prominence peaks. It was finally time to return.

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In mid September I hiked and scrambled up Red Mountain and Crown Point in the Elkhorns of NE Oregon. We are blessed with many diverse and scenic destinations to explore in Oregon. I felt renewed by the experience.

I began my trip by driving from Bend to Baker City on September 16 and checking with the Forest Service there about road conditions along the North Powder River. This is the access route I planned to use for Red Mountain and it is a popular 4WD route, though reportedly quite rocky. The prospect of driving roads like this to access peaks was the reason I purchased a Jeep Wrangler last year. The people I spoke to at the Forest Service were 4-wheelers, themselves, and described driving through the flooded road with water up to the windows. They cautioned that there might still be some flooding on the road. I left expecting an adventure.

Twin Mountain, Oregon, July 2020

Elkhorn Peaks, September 2014