Using the last of my mammoth flight pack.
I was going to hike to yosemite and take YARTS back, but my plans were dashed when i called them and found out that their schedule changes in sept to weekends only.
i might instead just take the JMT to 1000 islands lake and then the PCT back to mammoth.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
August 18th Whitney via the Mountaineer's Route
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This was the main target we had driven up for, Emerson was an acclimatization hike of sorts. I had not been up the mountaineer's route before, but Chris had done it a couple times. Chris' coworker had obtained lottery permits for Monday and had a sweet condo in Mammoth. After the Emerson climb we spent the night in Mammoth and headed down to lone pine (at the whitney portal family camp) for Sunday night. The group of hikers were all really cool people and we had a good time on our rest day, including a wonderful chicken rotisserie dinner, which is one of the best meals i've ever eaten while camping.
We made plans to start hiking around 4, and were only 8 minutes off our goal (started at 4:08). We made the turn off at the north fork lone pine creek crossing (right before the crossing), and were at the lower boyscout lake just after sunrise. From here as we continued up the route, I stayed too far too the left (and everyone followed me); At the time this felt like the safest option in the talus/scree, however we ended up paying for it when we were literally hedged in by TONs of shrubs (willows? they had a bunch of white cottoney things on em like dandelion seeds). We were able to navigate through the shrubs on what appeared to be use trails, but it definitely took much longer than if we had stayed on the rocks/talus to the right.
We got to Iceberg lake (and the sweet view of Russell) at 830. Here we refilled on water and food and got ready for the climb (helmets). We had chosen to not bring a rope, gear or harnesses. The third class up to the notch was mostly uneventful, the piece that i remember was that one of the group had decided to do an "icebucket challenge" so we filled our helmets up with corn snow near the top (~13000ft) and dumped it on him. There was one section where it appeared a large chock stone was blocking the gully, but we were able to ascend on climber's left via slabby stuff.
When we hit the notch, the group decided that they did not want to ascend the first chute to the left as there was ice on much of it. I think if we had brought a rope and some anchor stuff (to use as a hand line) the others would have been fine ascending the chute, so I'll take this as a lesson for future trips. Bring a rope if someone in the group might need it. Due to this, we contoured around the mountain to the left. After a couple hundred feet, we followed a leftward ramp up and were able to join with the whitney trail to the summit which we reached shortly after 1245.
The group consensus was that we should take the trail down instead of the mountaineer's route and we started down at around 115. Having a group of 6, and staying together for the most part meant that the descent took a fair amount of time. At Mirror lake however, we decided to just go out without waiting; Chris and I reached Whitney portal at 6:30. This worked out wonderfully as there was a group of hikers there that needed their picture taken; and were extremely generous with their food and cold beer.
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This was the main target we had driven up for, Emerson was an acclimatization hike of sorts. I had not been up the mountaineer's route before, but Chris had done it a couple times. Chris' coworker had obtained lottery permits for Monday and had a sweet condo in Mammoth. After the Emerson climb we spent the night in Mammoth and headed down to lone pine (at the whitney portal family camp) for Sunday night. The group of hikers were all really cool people and we had a good time on our rest day, including a wonderful chicken rotisserie dinner, which is one of the best meals i've ever eaten while camping.
We made plans to start hiking around 4, and were only 8 minutes off our goal (started at 4:08). We made the turn off at the north fork lone pine creek crossing (right before the crossing), and were at the lower boyscout lake just after sunrise. From here as we continued up the route, I stayed too far too the left (and everyone followed me); At the time this felt like the safest option in the talus/scree, however we ended up paying for it when we were literally hedged in by TONs of shrubs (willows? they had a bunch of white cottoney things on em like dandelion seeds). We were able to navigate through the shrubs on what appeared to be use trails, but it definitely took much longer than if we had stayed on the rocks/talus to the right.
We got to Iceberg lake (and the sweet view of Russell) at 830. Here we refilled on water and food and got ready for the climb (helmets). We had chosen to not bring a rope, gear or harnesses. The third class up to the notch was mostly uneventful, the piece that i remember was that one of the group had decided to do an "icebucket challenge" so we filled our helmets up with corn snow near the top (~13000ft) and dumped it on him. There was one section where it appeared a large chock stone was blocking the gully, but we were able to ascend on climber's left via slabby stuff.
When we hit the notch, the group decided that they did not want to ascend the first chute to the left as there was ice on much of it. I think if we had brought a rope and some anchor stuff (to use as a hand line) the others would have been fine ascending the chute, so I'll take this as a lesson for future trips. Bring a rope if someone in the group might need it. Due to this, we contoured around the mountain to the left. After a couple hundred feet, we followed a leftward ramp up and were able to join with the whitney trail to the summit which we reached shortly after 1245.
The group consensus was that we should take the trail down instead of the mountaineer's route and we started down at around 115. Having a group of 6, and staying together for the most part meant that the descent took a fair amount of time. At Mirror lake however, we decided to just go out without waiting; Chris and I reached Whitney portal at 6:30. This worked out wonderfully as there was a group of hikers there that needed their picture taken; and were extremely generous with their food and cold beer.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Aug 16 Mt Emerson via the South East Face.
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map: http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=37.23391,-118.62924&z=14&b=t
Drove up with Chris on Friday night, leaving SD at 8pm (late). We stopped in BLM land near Independence for the night around 1:30am and slept. We randomly ran into a couple of guys in a truck that were looking for a place to stay as well (they said Onion Valley was full), so we let them know that we were on BLM land, and that sleeping there was ok.
In the morning we got up just after 6 and continued on to Bishop.
Gearwise: we had a 30m dynamic rope (~9.8 mm), and 100ft static pullcord(7mm), we also brought a set of Hexcentrics and 5 cams (red link cam, red + yellow camalots and 2 master cams), We brought climbing shoes and real harnesses as well, and of course helmets. I was wearing altra lone peak 1.5 shoes, which i enjoy for their comfort, but were REALLY shredded after this one trip.
We were at North Lake trailhead and on the trail just after 830. Having been on the Piute Pass trail less than a month ago (for Mt Humprhey's), I knew what to expect, it's really nice! We got to the turn off for Emerson's South East face (at the tiny 3rd stream crossing, right as the trail starts going up rock stairs) in about an hour. From here, we headed towards the visible chimney (the start of the route).
(picture here)
At the base of the climb I noticed that there was someone just above us, Yelled "hi" but didn't hear a response. The first pitch was supposed to be the crux of the climb and it was, this was basically the only vertical section. it's roughly 80-100 feet of fairly easy (rated 5.4) facey climbing in a chimney. There are big solid placements for hands and feet if you keep your eyes open. We looked at this from the base and decided to not rope up, but we did put on climbing shoes.
After the first ~100 feet, there's a flattish platform and then more chimney climbing, however it's much less vertical and more slabby. We started moving to our right onto the slab as the chimney area was damp and had a little trickle of water in it. After climbing the next 100-150 feet we ran into the climber from above. I was trailing ~10 feet behind Chris, but i was able to hear a response of "Do you guys have a rope?".
The climber was planning on soloing the route however was experiencing some cramping and needed help bailing. He didn't accept any of our food or beverages, just wanted to be lowered. He did not have a harness or much gear (i think he had had 4 carabiners, but nothing to attach them to). On the platform that we were standing, there was not many good placements (on the route in general actually), But Chris was able to find a spot for a good red camalot and a mastercam, which he backed up with a link cam (on a long extension), while i tied a webbing harness (patient pick off) for the climber. The climber said he was comfortable being lowered, so i did not go with him. We lowered him to the first platform from our anchor by tying our ropes together and passing the knot via using 2 ATCs + a prussik. At this point we were starting to plan to build anchor to lower him the rest of the way when another climber appeared in the chimney. She seemed really confused (and a little unhappy) to see what was going on at first, but the climber explained the situation, and she was really helpful by the time i went down to see what was going on. She explained that she was at the end of her 60m rope just below the platform, so that it wasn't likely we could get him down in one rap with our franken rope, and didn't trust her anchor for lowering. She then belayed up her partner who built an anchor lower in the chimney (on much better placements) and lowered the climber the rest of the way on their 60m rope. Chris and I were really lucky that they showed up when they did, as it allowed us to get back to climbing, without having to build 2 more anchors and lowering him.
We resumed climbing after this, which ended up being about a 2 hour delay. The immediate next sections were mostly in the chimney, but it eventually flattened out and was a lot more of a scree chute. At this point we switched out of climbing shoes. For the most part we followed the chute (going right to avoid a large chock stone) until we got to the part where it hits the ridge. Follow a steep right sloping ramp to the ridge.
The ridge is awesome, it's really long and really knife-edgey, it's definitely the highlight of this climb. There isn't much actual climbing on the ridge, (e.g it's kinda flat), but it's definitely long, and there are several pillars of stone to pass over. At one point while I was testing my weight onto a large stone, it came loose and hit me on the knee before dropping down, but most of the rocks were solidly in place. One thing to note is that you can clearly see the descent gully while on the ridge (it's the chute directly below, towards Piute Pass).
The scree gully descent is just typical sierras, there's not really anything to add, We were able to see all the way down to the water from basically the entire way, it's fairly long, but there isn't anything tricky to it. The descent is longer than the approach, as you exit off the Piute pass (west) side of the mountain, as opposed to starting on the other side. However once you hit the trail (and water) it's pretty easy.
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map: http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=37.23391,-118.62924&z=14&b=t
Drove up with Chris on Friday night, leaving SD at 8pm (late). We stopped in BLM land near Independence for the night around 1:30am and slept. We randomly ran into a couple of guys in a truck that were looking for a place to stay as well (they said Onion Valley was full), so we let them know that we were on BLM land, and that sleeping there was ok.
In the morning we got up just after 6 and continued on to Bishop.
Gearwise: we had a 30m dynamic rope (~9.8 mm), and 100ft static pullcord(7mm), we also brought a set of Hexcentrics and 5 cams (red link cam, red + yellow camalots and 2 master cams), We brought climbing shoes and real harnesses as well, and of course helmets. I was wearing altra lone peak 1.5 shoes, which i enjoy for their comfort, but were REALLY shredded after this one trip.
We were at North Lake trailhead and on the trail just after 830. Having been on the Piute Pass trail less than a month ago (for Mt Humprhey's), I knew what to expect, it's really nice! We got to the turn off for Emerson's South East face (at the tiny 3rd stream crossing, right as the trail starts going up rock stairs) in about an hour. From here, we headed towards the visible chimney (the start of the route).
(picture here)
At the base of the climb I noticed that there was someone just above us, Yelled "hi" but didn't hear a response. The first pitch was supposed to be the crux of the climb and it was, this was basically the only vertical section. it's roughly 80-100 feet of fairly easy (rated 5.4) facey climbing in a chimney. There are big solid placements for hands and feet if you keep your eyes open. We looked at this from the base and decided to not rope up, but we did put on climbing shoes.
After the first ~100 feet, there's a flattish platform and then more chimney climbing, however it's much less vertical and more slabby. We started moving to our right onto the slab as the chimney area was damp and had a little trickle of water in it. After climbing the next 100-150 feet we ran into the climber from above. I was trailing ~10 feet behind Chris, but i was able to hear a response of "Do you guys have a rope?".
The climber was planning on soloing the route however was experiencing some cramping and needed help bailing. He didn't accept any of our food or beverages, just wanted to be lowered. He did not have a harness or much gear (i think he had had 4 carabiners, but nothing to attach them to). On the platform that we were standing, there was not many good placements (on the route in general actually), But Chris was able to find a spot for a good red camalot and a mastercam, which he backed up with a link cam (on a long extension), while i tied a webbing harness (patient pick off) for the climber. The climber said he was comfortable being lowered, so i did not go with him. We lowered him to the first platform from our anchor by tying our ropes together and passing the knot via using 2 ATCs + a prussik. At this point we were starting to plan to build anchor to lower him the rest of the way when another climber appeared in the chimney. She seemed really confused (and a little unhappy) to see what was going on at first, but the climber explained the situation, and she was really helpful by the time i went down to see what was going on. She explained that she was at the end of her 60m rope just below the platform, so that it wasn't likely we could get him down in one rap with our franken rope, and didn't trust her anchor for lowering. She then belayed up her partner who built an anchor lower in the chimney (on much better placements) and lowered the climber the rest of the way on their 60m rope. Chris and I were really lucky that they showed up when they did, as it allowed us to get back to climbing, without having to build 2 more anchors and lowering him.
We resumed climbing after this, which ended up being about a 2 hour delay. The immediate next sections were mostly in the chimney, but it eventually flattened out and was a lot more of a scree chute. At this point we switched out of climbing shoes. For the most part we followed the chute (going right to avoid a large chock stone) until we got to the part where it hits the ridge. Follow a steep right sloping ramp to the ridge.
The ridge is awesome, it's really long and really knife-edgey, it's definitely the highlight of this climb. There isn't much actual climbing on the ridge, (e.g it's kinda flat), but it's definitely long, and there are several pillars of stone to pass over. At one point while I was testing my weight onto a large stone, it came loose and hit me on the knee before dropping down, but most of the rocks were solidly in place. One thing to note is that you can clearly see the descent gully while on the ridge (it's the chute directly below, towards Piute Pass).
The scree gully descent is just typical sierras, there's not really anything to add, We were able to see all the way down to the water from basically the entire way, it's fairly long, but there isn't anything tricky to it. The descent is longer than the approach, as you exit off the Piute pass (west) side of the mountain, as opposed to starting on the other side. However once you hit the trail (and water) it's pretty easy.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
8/9 - 8/10 Three T's
Overnighter to test out some hammock stuff. starting from icehouse canyon TH sometime today.
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My goal for the weekend was to test my hammock, setting it + the tarp up, sleeping in it and etc. However i couldn't find my knife, and thus ended up hiking without a knife. having brough 30+ feet of cordage that i intended to cut to the appropriate lengths meant that the setting up tarp goal of the trip was an epic bust. However everything else went pretty smoothly, the new shoes i was using Altra lone peak 1.5 were really comfortable.
I started hiking around 3pm on saturday after taking some hikers back to their car at manker flats. Due to flooding the week before the trail is washed out in many places. I took the cedar glen trail instead of the regular ice house canyon trail thinking that this would avoid most of the trail damage (this climbs up immediately and traverses to the saddle). The washed out areas on the trail are all really well marked with lots of trail tape. Past the cedar glen campsite the trail traverses over to the saddle, and here there were tons of flood damaged chutes. For the most part they're easy to get around, but there are some unsafe spots, the sediment left over in the chutes is actually really firm (i thought it would be soft), kind of reminiscent of avalanche debris, but is really slick.
I hit the saddle around 6pm and continued up to timber mountain. On the summit ridge of the mountain were tons of well situated trees so i just set up here. Due to the full (super?) moon, it was really bright, so i did not sleep as well as i would have liked, however that was going to happen just about anywhere. In the morning i decided not to go to telegraph and thunder, and just hiked out instead. On the way out i took the icehouse trail instead of the cedar glen. This trail is easier to follow for the most part, except for one HUGE washout near where the trail departs the creekbed and starts climbing.
Fortunately for me, there were some timely hikers coming up so i followed their voices to find the trail.
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My goal for the weekend was to test my hammock, setting it + the tarp up, sleeping in it and etc. However i couldn't find my knife, and thus ended up hiking without a knife. having brough 30+ feet of cordage that i intended to cut to the appropriate lengths meant that the setting up tarp goal of the trip was an epic bust. However everything else went pretty smoothly, the new shoes i was using Altra lone peak 1.5 were really comfortable.
I started hiking around 3pm on saturday after taking some hikers back to their car at manker flats. Due to flooding the week before the trail is washed out in many places. I took the cedar glen trail instead of the regular ice house canyon trail thinking that this would avoid most of the trail damage (this climbs up immediately and traverses to the saddle). The washed out areas on the trail are all really well marked with lots of trail tape. Past the cedar glen campsite the trail traverses over to the saddle, and here there were tons of flood damaged chutes. For the most part they're easy to get around, but there are some unsafe spots, the sediment left over in the chutes is actually really firm (i thought it would be soft), kind of reminiscent of avalanche debris, but is really slick.
I hit the saddle around 6pm and continued up to timber mountain. On the summit ridge of the mountain were tons of well situated trees so i just set up here. Due to the full (super?) moon, it was really bright, so i did not sleep as well as i would have liked, however that was going to happen just about anywhere. In the morning i decided not to go to telegraph and thunder, and just hiked out instead. On the way out i took the icehouse trail instead of the cedar glen. This trail is easier to follow for the most part, except for one HUGE washout near where the trail departs the creekbed and starts climbing.
Fortunately for me, there were some timely hikers coming up so i followed their voices to find the trail.
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