Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:The peaks around Mt. Whitney have the best and most beautiful granite in the High Sierra

Granite Park! And walls off of Ruby Peak.... There's so many more areas that are impressive other than the wore out Whitney zone. Pull a ticket and pick up someone else's poo bag while you're out there.

Matt?

OK, back to the OP.

Yes, favorite/easy/fun is highly subjective. Here's a quick-hit list for mostly "easy" and fun from north to south off the top of my head.
Some of these California County Highpoints and all are hikers peaks. Yes, there's a Northern California bias here. Most of these are on my list for the views/unique areas (lots of BANG for your hiking/effort buck)...I think all of these have Summitpost pages.

Eagle Peak (South Warner Wilderness)*
Black Butte (Shasta City)
Mount Eddy (views of Shasta)
Mt. Fiske
Mt. Konocti (Lake County)
Brokeoff Mt. (Lassen National Park)
Sierra Buttes
Sutter Buttes (private property)
Mt. Tam
Mt. Diablo
Mount Vaca (Solano County)
Mount St. Helena (Sonoma County)
Loma Prieta (near Santa Cruz)
Signal Peak (off I-80)
Black Buttes (off I-80)
Devil's Peak (Royal Gorge/Donner Pass)
Mt. Rose (not CA Tahoe, but worthly of this list)
Freel Peak (South Shore Lake Tahoe)
Mokelumne Peak*
Stevens Peak (off Carson Pass)
Fremont Peak (near Salinas, CA)
Bishops Peak (SLO, class 4+ moves, short hike)
Round Top (Carson Pass)
Silver Peak (Ebbetts Pass)*
Sonora Peak/Levitt Peak (Sonora Pass)
Mount Conness (south slope)
Mt. Dana (Yosemite NP)
Mt. Hoffman (Yosemite NP)
Mt. Dade (Hourglass couloir)*
Mt. Tom (Owens Valley)
Carson Peak (Silver Lake>Spooky Meadow)
Moro Rock (Seq/Kings Canyon NP)
White Mountain*
Keasarge Peak (Owens Valley)
Dantes View (Death Valley NP)
Ryan Mountain (Joshua Tree NP)
Kaiser Peak (Kaiser Peak Wilderness)
Blue Angels Peak (Imperial County, WTF!?. Just go hike it. File it under "sociological research"..
Mt. San Jacinto*

*not easy, but a remote hike with great views

Shasta and Starlight Peak stand out to me.

The first because it really is a magical place. It's hard not to feel the energy the mountain has. There's beauty in pretty much every route there. I've been there a bunch of times, probably failed to summit as often as I have succeeded. Proposed to my wife at the summit. A volcano standing pretty much alone in the middle of nowhere. Glaciers. Red rock. Snowfields, ridges, crevasses, glaciers, sub-peaks (Shastina) Many routes and variations. The isolation of the east side. The big cracks on the Hotlum. The super narrow traverse above the Whitney bergschrund on Cascade Gulch. And so much more.

The second is Starlight Peak, and the Clyde Couloir route in particular. We got lucky in 2012 and climbed awesome water ice going up it. I've been enchanted by that climb since, trying to figure our why it was so amazing. Some of the best alpine scenery in the Sierra on the approach. Remote, makes you work to get to it. A sick ridgeline with 5 14ers in a row staring at you. Awesome snow and ice climbing in a narrow couloir that invites and scares you at the same time. Fantastic steep ice crux. Enjoyable rock above to get to an *insane* summit block (the Milk Bottle) with million dollar shots on top of it. Crazy exposure from the top, standing on a pinnacle not much wider than your butt, with 1000 foot drops on both sides to beautiful basins and the largest glacier in the Sierra. Has it all. Not sure how you beat that... Here's our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQTNjjj3IyU

i loved the traverse from boundary peak to montgomery peak. easy to find either a class 2 or class 3 route, depending on what you're looking for.

the west face of williamson was an epic trip. not really difficult, but committing. camping at lake 3733 between williamson and tyndall was one of my best nights in the backcountry.

brewer's east ridge was another really fun route. again, not too difficult, but long and committing with tremendous views.

i agree with the comments on shasta's vibe. conditions on our route last summer were pretty sloppy, but it's hard to bitch about a 1,000' glissade, and the whole feel of the mountain was just awesome.

i have a soft spot for grinnell in the sgwa. i've done it four or five different ways, and any route not on trail is really nice. they're short, varied terrain, easy access, and the xc nature of them means you likely won't see a soul.

lastly, the cat's out of the bag after the bear canyon trail washed out, but register ridge on baldy used to be the best kept hiking "trail" secret in socal. short, strenuous, phenomenal views; it's just a great little route.

polioter..Dave. Is that you?

polioter wrote:Don't worry about Deb, she is all talk. Just like the bike hey Deb. The granite in the whitney zone would have to be close to the best. Thor, Lone Pine and Russel have the best Alpine rock I have ever seen. But that stands to be corrected just like when you told her I was a little shit hey Deb. Just like when you didn't look after her for me and let her go to Utah with that creep when you said you would go hey Deb. Pfff talk about unreliable.

You are quite the piece of shit, aren't you Mr Kiwi-man?! You speak through your ass. Let's back up to YOU sending me messages in different names telling me what a liar and user Daria is...blah blah blah....and I stood up for her to you. THEN she's just got to go and lie to YOU about me, so fuck you both!! At what point in my life was I supposed to "take care of her for you" when you were bad-mouthing her?! Yes, you are quite the piece of shit. Get over yourself and get a grip on real life fukn looser.

Polioter loses major points w/me for not having a cute avatar. Where's our moderator?

Deb wrote:

polioter wrote:Don't worry about Deb, she is all talk. Just like the bike hey Deb. The granite in the whitney zone would have to be close to the best. Thor, Lone Pine and Russel have the best Alpine rock I have ever seen. But that stands to be corrected just like when you told her I was a little shit hey Deb. Just like when you didn't look after her for me and let her go to Utah with that creep when you said you would go hey Deb. Pfff talk about unreliable.

You are quite the piece of shit, aren't you Mr Kiwi-man?! You speak through your ass. Let's back up to YOU sending me messages in different names telling me what a liar and user Daria is...blah blah blah....and I stood up for her to you. THEN she's just got to go and lie to YOU about me, so fuck you both!! At what point in my life was I supposed to "take care of her for you" when you were bad-mouthing her?! Yes, you are quite the piece of shit. Get over yourself and get a grip on real life fukn looser.

This is why I don't post on this site anymore...

So Po-toileter is the same creep that sent Daria a million messages about stealing his surf board, wet suit, who cares and blah blah blah... Apparently he gets one login blasted, so he makes up another one. pfffffft
I apologize to everyone, except him, for my outburst....I will henceforth ignore that maggot.

Thanks for sharing guys! I'm happy this thread's gotten a little attention; gives me great ideas for this summer and gleans into what makes climbs fun for you guys.

Plus the vitriol takes me back to when I was fifteen and started going on message boards, learning what blameless shit talking was all about. Well done.

well that escalated quickly.

tedryan10 wrote:Thanks for sharing guys! I'm happy this thread's gotten a little attention; gives me great ideas for this summer and gleans into what makes climbs fun for you guys.

Plus the vitriol takes me back to when I was fifteen and started going on message boards, learning what blameless shit talking was all about. Well done.

The conclusion is obvious. The most fun/favorite CA peak is the magnificent, mysterious, beguiling Mount “Daria”. To inspire such devotion and pathologically* unexpurgated enviable raw emotion, I know now that I shall, nay I must, never rest until I have explored its lush valleys, bathed unabashedly naked in its deep limpid pools, and mounted its exquisitely fine summits.


* the earnest appreciation and study of trails.

polioter wrote:Relax Deb, you don't need to swear or call people names. Is it ok in Californian culture to lie? If so then lying about the bike is all good I guess. Why can't both of you just stop lying? Is it that hard?

i have resisted asking this for the longest time, but i have to know:

you were chasing someone who calls themselves "the top troll". what exactly were you expecting to happen? that's kinda like a deer walking out of the woods and then getting pissed about being shot.

Usually a thread that mentions Daria is more than just 3 pages.

Back to the subject at hand. There are lots of little peaks in CA -- Sierra and desert-- that are just fun. I happen to like shorter days and obscurity. But my best peak experiences are with other folks who share their favorites. I'm sure this peak is familiar to lots of you.