Randy shows off treasures found in the White Mountain peak register
Early July of this year – I had just discovered my SNAFU with the dates for my Whitney Trail permit and Randy was one of the affected parties. Randy thought he could scramble and still make the trip, but together we arrived at the conclusion that 2 weeks in August would trump one week in July.
Randy arrived at SFO on Saturday 8/13; we picked him up and headed to Tiburon for some lunch and a view of San Francisco from across the bay. Crawling through Saturday afternoon traffic in SF, I was reminded why we’re seldom in SF on a Saturday afternoon in a car. Some lunch, a visit to the railroad museum, then it’s “you want to see more City or something wilder?” – something wilder it is. We headed down Highway 1 towards Santa Cruz, stopping to see a few sights along the way. Dinner on the SC Wharf and then home where Randy crashed after a long, long day – Alabama time being 3 hours ahead of us, he was coming up on 20 hours or so of being awake.
Next morning (Sunday), we went to our climbing gym for a little tuneup – turns out Randy, while a beginner climber, has some good intuition for body movement and climbed some nice routes. We abused him a little with a roof problem, some crack climbing and I think a mantel move or two, and all too soon we were all nicely burned out and ready to move on.
On the way home, we decided to head east and get into the mountains right away. We packed all our gear – and Trebuchet – into the camper and headed out; my plan was to sleep just outside the YNP west entrance and then get into the park early in the morning. As we were nearing our camping spot, just a little after dusk, a mountain lion ran across the highway in front of us. Nice. I would not have been more surprised to see a herd of unicorns.
The Donut Lady
Monday morning, up and out and off to the Tuolumne Grove of giant Sequoias. There’s no picture I’ve seen that does justice to how big these trees are. The best perspective we got was actually an old dead tree lying down – incredible. We headed on east, stopping at Olmstead Point to take a look at some big granite. Nice views of Tenaya Canyon, Cloud’s Rest, Half Dome and other et cetera, but the Donut Lady had her back to all the scenery due to other priorities. Takes a lot of frosted deep-fried simple carbs to achieve that profile, I guess.
We crawled on through Yosemite, parked just outside the East Entrance, and headed out for a little leg stretcher up Gaylor Peak. The map on the signage at the trail head called out Gaylor Peak at 12,750 feet, an amusing mistake. Wandering along, taking our time, taking pictures, looking at stuff, we were on Gaylor about 45 minutes later – ostensibly having gained 2,800 feet in that time, we were definitely in shape for any adventure we could dream up! We contemplated the Gaylor Lakes basin, the Cathedral Range and other outstanding scenery while snacking. We then downclimbed off the north end of Gaylor and made our way up to the old mining works. On the way back to the trail head we discovered the wonders of the mosquito bloom after a late summer. Continue reading → Post ID 1088
Mountaineering /n./ – slow walking uphill while not feeling very well…
Polemonium eximium and Mount Muir
Mount Muir is located just off the Mount Whitney Trail, which means it’s in the Whitney Zone, which means it’s a PITA because of the Whitney Lottery. Last January, I collected names and exclusion dates from 3 friends, picked 10 2-night windows, and then sent in my application – and actually got a set of dates.
I misread the dates, thought it was August, got all the parties lined up for that window, then for some reason picked up the permit again early morning July 2 – while planning a different trip to Colorado and Nebraska – and oh, crap, the dates are in July and only 2 weeks away. Carol was flexible but I lost everyone else; long story short after casting a wide net I found 4 people (Michelle, Hugo, Delia and Justin) to make use of the 6 permit slots.
Another big oh, crap – living at sea level and having done no hiking or aerobic activities at all, we were ill prepared for the 18 miles and 12,000 feet of elevation gain and loss involved in getting from the Whitney Portal to Mount Muir and back – 12 miles and 8,000 vertical feet of that with backpacks.
Sunday 7/10 – packed, loaded Trebuchet in the truck, headed for the Sierra Eastside via Highway 120 through Yosemite. Near Tioga Pass, I said something about “we should at least get out and stretch our legs today”; Carol noticed a sign that said “Mono Pass” so we parked, grabbed gear and headed out. Nice, easy hike (apart from fording some flooded streams) and great views along the way. Camped for the night at one of our favorite spots in the Mono Basin. I won’t say where, ’cause I don’t want to find you there. 😛
Monday 7/11 – Mono Pass looked interesting from the west side; let’s go see what we missed on the east side of the pass. The hike starts at Walker Lake and climbs up through Bloody Canyon. Before we started, I assumed Bloody Canyon was named for the iron oxide in the rocks – not too far in, we decided it was named for all the bloody mosquitoes – Carol got to moving really fast once we hit the mosquitoes (of course our bug shirts were back in the truck). There were beautiful, Douglas Iris-filled meadows, but no one wanted to give enough blood to take pictures, so we kept moving. We ran out of food and water at Lower Sardine Lake, which was well worth hiking up to, and turned around. We had some fun along the way doing a short glissade and wading flooded streams with our boots around our necks (“Do not drop that boot in the water!”).
Tuesday – rest day.
Charlie the Mount Dana Marmot
Wednesday – Mount Dana. 13,000 feet, flowers (including one of our favorites, Sky Pilots – one of the Fourteeners, Polemonium Peak, is named for them), pikas, marmots, incredible views from the top – and a great test piece for high altitude acclimatization. We had never failed on a Fourteener attempt if we had climbed Mount Dana first. Great day out, Carol had her best Dana climb yet, snow fields to climb (and glissade on the way down), Charlie the Mount Dana Marmot was there to greet us at the top for the second year in a row. After snacks and some time spent enjoying the views, we made our way back down the mountain. One BIG highlight was getting to glissade down two long snow fields – number one, fun and number two, easy on the legs. Back at the car we headed for Lee Vining and Nicely’s restaurant, which produces the best fried chicken I’ve had anywhere (sorry, Mom) as well as an amazing bread pudding. We’re all about food rewards when we feel we’ve earned them.
Thursday / Friday – rest, drop Trebuchet off for boarding while we’re in the backcountry, meet up with Michelle and Hugo, get permits set up, camp at Lone Pine campground.
“Failure comes not from falling down, failure comes from not getting back up again” – Somebody
The cockscomb profile of Middle Palisade
Middle Palisade. 14,012′. The East Face. Class 3. Rated *** – for Awesome. Peter Croft (“The Good, the Great and the Awesome”) says “This route and the East Ridge of Russell are the best class 3 routes I’ve done in the Sierra.” We don’t have enough experience to agree or disagree with Peter, but we can say – the admission price for this climb is high!
Three years ago, Carol and I tried Middle Palisade, and experienced a perfect storm of poor route finding, insufficient conditioning and – more poor route finding (all on me). We did manage to get on the mountain, but it was late, we were pretty tired and we got on the wrong route; a class 4 chute with loose rock. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to turn around and live to climb another day.
This time, with almost 2 weeks of acclimatization and some success on Cloudripper under our belts, we decided to try again.
We headed out on the South Fork of Big Pine Creek trail, retracing our steps all the way to what I call “Dinky Lake” – it’s NOT Brainerd – then continuing on up to Brainerd Lake. A nice trail from ~7800′ up to 10260′. There is a use trail from Brainerd Lake up to Finger Lake that climbs 500′ of talus – fun with the ‘ol backpack on.
We found a campsite and turned in early (7 p.m.-ish). Our plan was to get up about 4:30 a.m. – we’ve learned that it’s rarely too soon to start climbing. Off by headlamp about 5:20 a.m., we crossed the Finger Lake outlet and headed up – more talus.
I’ll interject here that the nice climbing on Middle Palisade is about the last 800-1000′; before that you’ll climb mostly talus (with a few snow fields and some heinous scree thrown in) from 10,260’ at Brainerd Lake to ~13,000 feet on Middle Pal. Have Fun!
On the third class ledge, ready to climb
We made pretty good time (going uphill while fresh) and were on the mountain in climbing shoes and helmets, ready to climb, by 9 a.m. First ones on the mountain. We started climbing and found it was really pretty easy going. Guidebooks and internet trip reports had called it “sustained” third class; we still wonder what this means. About every 10-15 feet was a ledge where I could stand with my hands in my pockets – this doesn’t seem “sustained” to me.
A word about rock shoes – we brought ours and it made the climb more fun, I think. One thousand feet up and the same down, the extra security of rock shoes was well worth the extra weight, IMO.
Up through the initial couloir, then there’s a LH chute vs RH chute decision to make – I chose the RH chute as the rock looked cleaner. We fairly quickly found ourselves on steeper ground, but the rock was good and the climbing was easy. You just DO NOT want to fall, because pretty much any injury at all will become serious here 6-7 miles and 5,000 feet above the trail head.
frack-a-whack-a-ding-dong, there's the real summit
Topping out, I climbed up onto what I hoped was the summit blocks and – oh, frack – the summit is actually over there, a couple hundred feet away. Some pretty spicy down climbing off the other side and a traverse, then up toward the actual summit. A couple fun bouldering moves to haul up onto the summit blocks and we’re there; it’s about 11 a.m. First climbers of the day to reach the top. Just awesome views.
To the north, the North Palisade complex is in view – Mt Sill, Polemonium, North Palisade, etc. To the south, Split Mountain seems just a traverse away, and it was easy to pick out the profiles of Mount Tyndall and Mount Williamson. Glaciers, peaks, basins for forever. Amazing.
We goofed around, taking pictures and videos, eating and drinking, signing the peak register, watching other climbers approach us for a good 30 minutes or more. A perfect day, no wind, forever views – doesn’t get any better.
With only half the climb done (there’s the whole getting-down-safe thing, too), we sadly departed the
good times on the summit block of Middle Pal
peak and started the long, long way back to camp. We went down via what would have been the LH chute going up, and found we were right – the rock was cleaner in the RH chute. Down climbing 1000′ of third class rock with scree on every ledge waiting to ball bearing your foot off the ledge – requires lots of attention and careful movement.
About 1 p.m. we were off the mountain, onto the glacier and starting the long trip back. The glacier was fun, then the talus and scree started again. Going downhill on unconsolidated talus with relatively tired legs – our progress could have been tracked with a sundial. But, whatever, I much prefer to go slowly and carefully and finish the day uninjured.
After what seemed like forever (4 hours back to camp), we arrived in camp around 5 p.m. 11 1/2 hour day, but we took it easy on the way up to save energy for peaking, and took it easy on the way down just because. As much as I am not a big fan of simple carbohydrates, the GU’s and Skittles a couple miles from camp helped bring me home.
Back at camp, we dug into the bear canister (Carol calls it “that heavy MoFo”) and ate the heaviest things we could find – so we (I) didn’t have to carry it out. Food, water, a little stretching and we crawled onto the tent around 6:30 p.m. I slept for almost 12 hours.
morning in camp at Finger Lake
Up at the COD, we broke camp and headed out. Somewhere around noon, we dropped packs and I went and fetched the truck. Shortly thereafter, beer, cheese, meatloaf, chips went down and then a quick trail head nap.
We packed up, headed into Big Pine and stopped at Carroll’s Market for our ice cream treat we had been discussing for, oh, about 3 days. It was 100 degrees in Big Pine and when the clerk asked us if we “were ready for it to get hot” we were kind of confused – apparently, it got hotter later that day – we got outta town.
Stopped at Von’s in Bishop to buy yummy things to eat, then off to the Mono Basin (20 degrees cooler) for an awesome evening.
A great trip, a great Fourteener.
Click here for Middle Palisade Pictures (best viewed as a slideshow).
Be careful reading online Middle Pal trip reports. Some writers, I think, over-dramatize the climb (clearly, I have never / would never do that!). The climb on the mountain was really pretty straightforward (ideal conditions); we just were careful not to fall.
We got some beta that you could not approach the start of the third class climb over the glacier without crampons / ice axe. This is not true when the snow is soft, like it was for us. The glacier was one of the easier parts of the climb.
You’ll read about the terrible bergschrund – we had no trouble. I stepped right across; I gave Carol a hand both ways just because her reach is smaller.
IMO, the hardest part of the climb is the approach and exit. Climbing on the mountain (apart from being above 13,000′) was a cruise.
Carol and I like the wide open places. Places like the tops of mountains where you can see the curvature of the earth. We also like to share our experiences through our photography – guess you might call us “serious amateur photographers”. It’s somewhat impossible to do justice to the big places with single snapshots; combining multiple photos into panoramas can work.
I often have discussions with friends and family about cameras. Ideally it would be nice to have a good digital SLR, with full manual modes and so forth. However, my bottom line is always “the best camera is the one you have with you”. This is what keeps us in the dust proof / water proof / point-and-shoot regime. We can take them anywhere (wet canyons, oceans, wind-driven sand on dunes, in the rain, etc.) and have hardly a care about them continuing to operate.
The (current, no doubt being solved somewhere) downside of this class of camera (small, waterproof, point-and-shoot) is that they do not have real manual modes. Therefore, it’s unlikely that multiple exposures (like for a panorama) will be consistent enough that there will not be a noticeable difference in contrast / lighting / color / etc. The problem this creates is that – in the past – when stitching pictures together to form a panorama, those parameters needed to be consistent across all the photos in the panorama.
Convict Lake, February 2010. Arriving at the scene, and climbing down into the lake’s outlet area, I was struck by the raw beauty. I took a hand held panorama, then thought “why not give this opportunity the chance it deserves” and went and fetched the tripod. I set up the tripod on top of the thin layer of ice on the outlet and took a series of shots in landscape mode (camera horizontal). I looked through the pictures, looked at the scene and noticed that in landscape mode I was not getting the full reflections of the peaks in the water. I reshot the entire scene in portrait mode / infinite focus with plenty of overlap between shots.
At home, as I was catching up with my Google Reader, there was an article about “the best panorama stitching software” the writer had tried out. I followed the link, downloaded a couple of trial versions and quickly converged on the same answer – and now own a copy of PTGui Pro.
I let PTGui do its magic with the raw, unedited photos. I’m really happy with the resulting panorama. If you want to appreciate the technical accomplishment of PTGui, pan and zoom around in the picture and look for errors in the skyline or water where the pictures have been merged. I did this and can’t find anything.
A few tips if you want to do your own awesome panoramas:
Use a level tripod – if possible.
Force your camera to make the fewest possible choices – i.e., force infinite focus, single white balance, whatever you can accomplish. Read The Friendly Manual.
Lighting will be important – sometimes you won’t have a big choice (for instance, we were somewhat surprised to even make it to the top of Split Mountain, let alone plan for lighting), but if you have a choice, use the best lighting.
Be sure to get enough overlap in your pictures – some writers recommend 1/3 of the scene or so on each side.
You decide – lug around a heavy, fragile digital SLR and use lightweight panorama software, or carry a lightweight camera and use heavyweight panorama software…
Here’s wishing you the best in your photographic endeavors!
I had been planning to do this trip to bag my 9th Fourteener with mi amigo BOB, but that didn’t work out this time. I had already contacted my nephew Mat about going on the trip with BOB and me, so Mat and I went off on our own. Mat had also signed up to go to Utah with Carol and me afterward for some canyoneering, hiking and sightseeing. Mat had never been to southern Utah, so we knew he was in for a treat…
Fired up by our recent successful Mount Willamson trip, Carol and I headed back to the Eastern Sierras with the goal of summiting another 14’er as part of our goal of climbing all of California’s 14’ers. On our primary hit list for this trip are Mount Muir, Mount Russell and Middle Palisade.
After arranging with neighbor Rick S. to serve Her Highness while we were away (Thanks, Rick!) and spending a few days packing the truck and making food, we were off. Continue reading → Post ID 1088
Mountaineering /n./ – slow walking uphill while not feeling very well…
Carol and I have been wanting to climb Mount Williamson for some time as part of our goal of climbing all of California’s 14’ers. Mount Williamson is the most remote of all the California 14’ers, using the same approach up Shepherd Pass as for Mount Tyndall, but with the additional pleasure of hiking across the Williamson Bowl to approach the climb.
Carol and I had an attempt together last June 2006 that didn’t work out. I subsequently tried again in July – and that didn’t work out. It’s demoralizing to do the work to climb Shepherd Pass whilst acclimatizing to altitude and then not peak. Sigh…
07/09, Monday – Day One. Finish packing truck, head off for eastern Sierras via Lee Vining. Dinner at Bodie Mike’s BBQ where I was served the smallest 1/2 barbequed chicken I’ve ever seen – it might actually have been 1/2 of a blackbird. Spent the night in the desert south of Mono Lake.
07/10, Tuesday – Day Two. Breakfast at Nicely’s then off to the Mono Lake visitor center. Rangers there tell us we can’t get a permit for Shepherd Pass because of all the fires in the Owens Valley. Great. We head off to Bishop. At the ranger station there, sure, no problem, the fires haven’t affected the Shepherd Pass trailhead. OK, we get a permit for the next day then decide to head for high ground in the White mountains for a day of acclimation. Up, up, up out of Big Pine. We wind up at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest for the afternoon, go on a small hike, are entertained in the parking lot by the local rodents – chippies, squirrels, etc. For the night, we went to the Grandview CG – I say “Grandview? We’re sitting in a bowl and can’t see anything but other campsites!” so we head back up and wind up parking off the road in a lovely spot – above 9,000 feet so that’s good.
07/11, Wednesday – Day Three. Wake up early; it’s overcast and raining. Rain in the White Mountains in the summer – such a novelty that we stay in bed and just enjoy the rain. Back down to Bishop, breakfast at Jack’s (we got the surly waitress this time) and then on to the ranger station to get our permit changed. No problem. Now what? Off to McGee Creek for lunch and a hike. Then went to Upper Gray’s Meadow to camp for the night. Wow, there is fire damage right down to the edge of the campground. I have no idea how you fight a fire in that terrain.
07/12, Thursday – Day Four. Up at 5:15 (yeah, Ay freakin’ Em.), finish packing, we’re at the Shepherd Pass trailhead and hiking by 6:30. Hmm, it appears that the packs are heavier than we’re used to and we’re not really in mountaineering shape. Long day ahead. We’re in Anvil Camp and essentially crashed by 4 PM. No one wants to be outside ’cause there are plenty of skeeters and who carries repellent?
07/13, Friday – Day Five. Up early and off to Shepherd Pass. We scurry to get above the trees and out of skeeterville then take a break to dry out and have breakfast. Camped at the top of Shepherd Pass by 11 AM. There’s no shade and the sun is blasting so we throw our sleeping quilt over the top of the tent to improve it’s shade-throwing capabilities. Works pretty well, but I still feel sun-sick by the end of the day.
07/14, Saturday – Day Six. Peak Day. Up and hiking early. Climb up to the edge of the Williamson Bowl and yikes! It’s a long talus descent into the bowl and then lots of up and down on talus to cross the bowl. I’m starting to wonder if the peak is going to happen. I do NOT want to have done all that work to get up here and then not peak. Finally we’re at the right lake, watering up and then beginning to climb upward. I make a little route finding mistake and we have to traverse quite a way to the left, then we’re in the big chute on the West Face.
Now it’s just climbing the talus / scree slope until we get to the 3rd Class chimney. It doesn’t sound that bad in the guidebook, but someone passes us carrying a rope. Uh-oh. We continue on; Carol is starting to have a really hard time – she’s climbing without an Achilles’ tendon in her left leg (Kaiser, our brain-dead HMO finally admits this) and this is an unwanted increase in the DOD. We’re finally at the chimney, another group is ahead of giving blow by blow instructions to each other and setting a rope. I climb it just to scout for Carol; it’s easy. Up the chimney, onto the peak plateau and then find our way to the top.
The usual – hugs and kisses, pictures, sign the peak register, eat and rest a while. Then it’s time to head down – all day we’ve been watching the West as a front is moving thru. We get windblown and sprinkled on on the way back to base camp. Finally at camp, eat, drink, hit the sack and anticipate getting out tomorrow.
07/15, Sunday – Day Seven. Up early, camp broken and hiking by 6:30 am. All I can think about is the food and (hopefully) cold beer waiting for me at the trailhead. Hey, everyone has to find their own motivation, OK? Down, down, down; one last picture of the Shepherd Pass trailhead and we’re at the truck. My carefully wrapped cooler still has ice! Cold beer, a Nadine level dose of Vitamin I, cold juice, cold drinks, it’s a party. After a little sittin’ around time, off to Bishop to find more food. We park at Millpond and watch the lightning and rain hammer the Palisade crest – beautiful – especially since we’re snug in our truck. Off to Mono Lake to camp for the night.
07/16, Monday – Day Eight. Up early, breakfast in the desert, head for home. We’re sad to be leaving for home, but we’ll be back soon…
Pictures here. I’m so bummed about my pictures – my camera was set at ISO 800 for the whole trip so all my pictures are grainy and look really bad…
Random Stuff:
Food – I discovered I could tolerate protein shakes – protein powder, milk powder and water – and practically lived on this the whole time in-country. As the end of the trip neared, I found I could not chew and swallow food – I think the problem is that the taste / smell of bars, etc are nauseating and make me gag then worse. It turns out I can drink a protein shake while not breathing or tasting so it’s down the hatch before I can react.
As we were struggling up the last 1,000 feet of Williamson, a group came by that was day hiking the peak from the Shepherd Pass trailhead. Back at base camp, someone said they peaked Tyndall on the way down. More power to them – a vanishingly rare combination of genetics, luck and willpower.
A Lazuli Bunting pair brightened our day as we were making the last creek crossings on the way out. Beautiful.
It dawned on me why being near Mono Lake is so rejuvenating – no power boats, jet skis or any other such crap – peace, quiet and beauty.
