"A group of 9 gathered at Lead Gulch for a day of adventure in the high desert. Winnedumah Paiute Monument is a granite pinnacle located in the Inyo Mountains. It can be seen from the town of Independence but has recently become more well known due to its inclusion in Andy Zdon’s book “Desert Summits”. The easiest route to the summit is a single pitch of 5.4, making it the second most difficult summit in the book after the Old Woman Statue (2 pitch- 5.8, A1). We followed an abandoned mining road for the first half of the approach, then went cross country from there, encountering some brush and boulder gardens along the way. Mike soloed the summit block (someone cut the bolts), tied into the chain anchor and set up a top rope. Louie climbed next and by the time I arrived Dylan was already being lowered. I tied in and climbed afterwards, happy I didn’t choose to solo the pitch because the rock was a little grainy. After I was lowered, Paul, Greg, Keith, Daryn and Kathy subsequently climbed the summit block. Afterwards Dylan posted a new route, calling it Sharkbait rating it “old school” 5.8. I climbed next, and after a lot of time and struggling, I made it to the top. Louie climbed af..." — seancasserly • Oct 1, 2022

"Bob B, Matthew H, and I climbed WPM on Sunday. The old Jeep took us up about 1000' and 2 miles to the Wilderness boundary where we followed another old road for about 2.5 miles before going cross country to the monument. Many large boulder and gullys were encountered (with some cl 3/4 scrambling) on the way there. Bob led the 5.5 climb in increasingly bad weather and it started hailing while he was half way up. I wanted to chicken out (hate cold and wet rock) but after Matthew climbed it, I gave in. We did much better route finding on the way back to the old road but encountered flash flood conditions on the road hike back to the Jeep. Our Jeep road turned into raging streams but the old girl had no problems on the drive except for the flat tire I found on the return. Once fixed, we parted ways and headed home." — tombecht • Oct 4, 2015