7/3/14 - 7/6/14 Shepard's pass peaks

Going up with SDMRT folk for mountain climb training.  Planning to hit some combination of Williamson, Tyndall, Junction and Keith.
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Departed SD ~5pm on Thursday afternoon, picked up a permit from the lone pine ranger station's overnight box (they had provided us the wrong code, but we were able to get our permit out anyway) and arrived at the Shepard's pass trailhead by around 11pm. 

Due to my having seen the conditions at nearby Lone Pine Peak last week, I did not take crampons or an iceax.  The only technical gear that I carried was my helmet. 

7 of us (6 SDMRT + 1) got up around 6 and were on the trail by 6:30.  Due to the low snow year the first few crossings of Symmes creek were fairly straightforward, however after the 3rd (maybe 4th) crossing, we messed up a bit and stayed in the creek drainage instead of following the (washed out) trail up and to the left.  This was quickly remedied, as there was really nowhere to go along the drainage.  The trail was in pretty good condition and really easy to follow besides at that last crossing and at the big drainage between mahogany flat and anvil camp.  This second washed out area was navigable by heading up the drainage to a visible flattened section and then crossing. 

We took a short break at anvil camp for lunch and water.  The creek is flowing very nicely, and although it is fairly wet, there were not that many mosquitos, which is really nice for this time of year.  Moving on up to the pothole area, the creek is flowing nicely, and there no major trail issues.  From the pothole to Shepard's pass, the trail has moved a bit since I was last on it (2011), but is still there and fairly easy to navigate, there was one ~100ft section of snow near the very top that was really soft and fairly easy to cross (~5pm). 


Crossing the snow section near the top of Shepard's pass

Once atop the pass, we set up camp and decided to start hiking by about the same time in the morning, our plan was to hit Williamson first and then go to Tyndall time/weather permitting. 

Heading up to Williamson was very dry, there were a couple patches of snow, however it was never required to walk on it.  The lakes all had water and there were numerous streams throughout the Williamson bowl. 

This was the 3rd time I have climbed the "Black stain" route up Williamson, and this was by far the driest.  No snow for crampons means lots of talus and scree.  On the way up, once past the black stain (most easily bypassed on the right side) I found that by sticking to climbers left of the gully, I could use the granite wall for support, and some class 3 as opposed to staying in the sloppier scree/talus in the center.  The chimney section near the top is one move of class 4, and is easy to protect by fixing a line from the top or midway.

Due to the extra scree and talus slogging it took us a fair amount of time to reach the summit, so we took our time up there enjoying the views and talking to some new friends we had met along the way.  We also had really clear wonderful weather with very little wind, so there was little fear of thunderstorms. 

Team descends into Williamson Bowl, Mt Williamson in the background
 

Our descent was basically along the same route back, I managed to snap one of my trekking poles (carbon rei/komperdell) when I jammed it between some talus while descending.  This was a little disappointing, but I wanted new ones anyway :P. 

We were back atop Williamson bowl at 5, leaving us with not enough time to properly attempt Tyndall so we just headed back to camp. 

At camp, we had some excitement when the snowfield by the lake calved off a huge section into the water. 

Snow calves off and falls into lake, Mt Tyndall in the background

In the morning, It appeared our weather luck was finally running out, dark ominous clouds were everywhere.  This killed any lingering thoughts of hitting Tyndall on the way out.  We packed up camp and headed back to the trailhead.  I wasn't keeping track of exact times, but I think we got out fairly fast (<5hours).  Overall, it was a good weekend trip.  As a mountain climb training I think it went fairly well, everyone had a voice in our decisions, we didn't exceed anybody's safety margins and we all made it to the summit and back in one piece.