While at first imposing, a few simple climbs allowed me to take this off-trail direction up to the plateau above. Only a moderately experienced hiker, my off-trail adventures start with a topo map scouting followed by tracking with two GPS route recorders (Android tablet running Earthmate plus a rather dated but effective Delorme PN60.) I set a few cairns as prudent, and step softly to minimize bio-crust damage.