Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Two Days, Two Peaks




So, my mission to climb some mountains, and the decision to find inspiration by starting with California's 14ers, led me to target Mount Tyndall (14,018') and Mount Williamson (14,375). These two peaks lie within spitting distance of each other on the Sierra crest just west of Independence, CA and a few miles north of Mount Whitney. Neither of them are very technical, with the most difficult sections being very short and rated Class 3 at most. In fact, many reports list the hike in to the base of the mountains as the crux of the climb. The approach takes the Shepherd Pass trail for 10+ miles and reaches the Sierra Crest at Shepherd Pass (duh) which is just north of Williamson and Tyndall. The trailhead is at about 6200', so with a few ups and down on the trail and two 14ers to climb there is a lot of elevation gain involved in climbing these peaks.





My attempt on the mountains began in my bed in Sherman Oaks at 4:45am on a Monday. I had packed my backpack the night before and was ready to hit the road quickly. I tore my head off the pillow and dragged myself to the bathroom to get ready. Eventually, I was on the road making good time to Lone Pine to get wilderness permit at the ranger station. The ranger station opens at 8am and it takes about 3 hours for me to get there from my apartment. I got my permit quickly, right after 8 and hopped back int he car to see how close I could get to the trailhead. The road to the trailhead has about a two mile section that is listed as high clearance/ 4wheel drive and my honda civic is neither of those. I was expecting to have to park over a mile away and take the stock trail from an even lower elevation. However, I missed the parking for the stock trail and after about 5 mintues of driving along a relatively rough road (which was my no mean the worst I had been on in my car) I realized with some excitement that I was almost at the higher trailhead.



I started hiking right around 9:15am. The Shepherd Pass trail actually starts out heading up along Symmes Creek to avoid some big cliffs at the bottom of Shepherd Creek Canyon. After about a mile you switchback for a long time up and over a ridge that separates Shepherd Creek and Symmes Creek. Once you leave Symmes creek the terrain gets pretty dry and stays that way for a long time. A long stretch of sandy trail leads up above Shepherd Creek to Anvil Camp (10k ft), which is basically just a nice place to camp under some trees along the creek. It was at Anvil Camp that I managed to get myself off trail. For some reason, I was sure the trail stayed on the north side of the creek and as such I wandered off to the north looking for a trail that (in my head) continued from a turn off that I missed.



So I wandered off trail through some talus and meadows until I rejoined the trail at the Pothole (10,800'), another small camping area. Fortunately this wandering led me to some of the best wildflowers that I saw on the hike. Lots of my favorite, columbine, growing in the talus.




Once I rejoined the trail, I made good progress up to the pass, although I did encounter patches of snow with more frequency. Just below the pass the trail was partially covered with snow and I happened to lose the trail again. I did not see that the trail switched backed up to the pass off to the right of the snow chute. Only the left most corners of the trail were covered with snow. Not seeing this detail, I decided to follow what appeared to tracks that went straight up the snow chute. I was prepared for snow travel so this was not even an issue, it was hard steep going but I didn't even need to put on my crampons for secure footing. A few minutes later I arrived at the top of Shepherd Pass and began heading cross country towards the base of Tyndall.



My original plan was to hike in on the first day and camp near the base of Tyndall, get up early the second day, climb both Tyndall and Williamson and then pack up and head back down to the car. However, I arrived at a suitable campsite around 4:30pm after about 7:15 on the trail. I decided that this would leave me plenty of time to summit Tyndall on the evening of the first day and leave only Williamson for day two. The weather looked perfect, so after a brief break I took off for the North Rib route with a wonderfully light pack.



The North Rib route is not too steep and doesn't involve a lot of difficult climbing, mostly what people describe as scrambling. However, "not too steep" is a relative term in the mountains, and in this case it means that I generally felt comfortable standing at just about any point on the climb, but I gained elevation quickly and had to take a number of breaks to catch my breath. As often happens in the mountains, I felt as if I was getting my butt kicked by the climb, but I reached the ridge at the top of the Rib and very soon after the summit. I checked the clock and discovered that it had only taken about 70 minutes from my camp to the top.





And holy crap, what a day on the summit! It was absolutely gorgeous, warm air with no wind, clear skies and the sun drooping towards the horizon lending wonderful color and shadows to the landscape. I spent nearly an hour on the summit, taking pictures, making phone calls, shooting videos and just hanging out enjoying everything about being on the summit.



The trip back to camp was even faster, and I went to bed excited to climb Williamson the next morning.




I had made the decision to carry my heavy/warm sleeping bag along on this trip and I slept quite comfortably. Somehow, I managed to wake up quite early anyway and after a few attempts to go back to sleep I decided to just get going towards Williamson. I started walking around 5am and I had my head lamp turned off almost immediately. the approach to the base of my route up Williamson's west face crossed most of the Williamson Bowl. Crossing the Bowl involves quite a few up and downs which I had expected and they were no big deal. For the trip across the Bowl I left my ice axe and crampons at camp on the advice of some folks I had met on the trail the previous day. This was almost great advice, I had no need for my snow equipment for 99.99% of the route. Unfortunately, that .01% was a 30' section of steep snow that appeared to be unavoidable. And at 5:30am the snow was frozen solid and for the life of me I could not kick steps in the snow with my boots. I spent about 15 minutes trying to descend that 30' snow slope, standing on tiny divots in the snow, trying to dig my fingers into the ice and generally crapping my pants. In the end I slid the last 10 feet to a bar of rock and sand, landed safely and breathed a big sigh of relief.




After that, I crossed the rest of the Bowl in the predawn light without incident and started up the West Face route. To be honest, the west face route is not too interesting, there is some loose stuff in it, but it is possible to avoid most of it. It was easy to avoid the remnants of snow in the chute and I quickly reached the short class 3 chimney section at the top. I topped out the chimney and scampered over to the top of the peak, reaching the top right about 8am.






It was much windier on top of Williamson but just as warm and sunny as Tyndall. I spent a bit less time up there but I still took my time and enjoyed myself. The descent was much faster than the ascent, because I could take advantage of the loose rock to jog/slide down the slopes. Crossing the Bowl back to camp was much easier, the snow had softened enough that I strolled right up the slope that had so terrified me on the way down.

Once I reached camp around 10:45, I packed up my stuff, had a nice long lunch break, and took off back towards the trailhead. I didn't take any breaks longer than few minutes on the way down and got back to the car right at 4. Somehow I managed to avoid seeing anyone the whole day except for one guy I spotted down the trail a bit. But when I got to the spot I had seen him he was gone and I never saw him again.



Williamson and Tyndall are great peaks and I am sure I will return to climb them again by new routes that will undoubtedly provide even more adventure. But for some reason I really do love making quick strikes into the mountains to climb peaks, moving fast, and seeing as much of the land as I can while I am out there. This trip was all of that for sure.

Up next The Palisades.
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Monday, August 8, 2011

Some time to Climb

So, my work on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" wrapped up in the middle of July and I have decided to take this time between jobs and rectify the mistake that I felt most keenly from last summer. Namely that I did not get out into the mountains enough. I saw pictures of a friend of mine climbing some of the California 14ers (mountains over 14,000' of elevation) as early as May and June in this high snow year, and I decided I had no more excuses.

The thing that most prevented me from getting up into the mountains last summer was a desire to avoid heading up solo. I don't have tons of backcountry partners, and this limited my options. This year I resolved to head out to the peaks regardless, and seeing a friend rapidly knocking off 14ers gave me some inspiration. I decided to do more peak scrambling than just mountain wandering, and not knowing where to start I found a few lists to help me set some goals.

Solo peak scrambling is slightly more dangerous should an accident occur, but having a partner rarely prevents accidents and it would be a rare partner indeed that could move you to a position of safety and go summon help in time to do any good should you be so seriously injured that you could not help yourself. But these types of climbs rarely involve a rope and sometimes loose rock makes your partner even more of a danger than the mountain.

When scrambling solo you can move at your own pace and pick your own path. You have no one to blame or resent should you not make your summit, you can push yourself as hard as you like, rest for as long as you want, change goals, or routes on a whim. You are free. Also you are free of companionship, mental and emotional support, a second set of eyes to find the correct route, and someone to take pictures of you doing something awesome. When you go solo you are alone with all the advantages and disadvantages of that simple state.

From 2011-07-26 Tyndall & Williamson


The first list I used to form some peak scrambling goals is the 14ers. In California, 12 mountains top 14,000 feet, and three other peaks get honorary membership in the club despite not meeting the requirements of being a real independent mountain. Before this summer I had already climbed 5 of those peaks (Langley, Whitney, Muir, Split and North Palisade). My first target peaks for adding check marks to my list were Williamson and Tyndall. These two peaks lie barely a mile apart on the Sierra Crest just west of Independence, CA.

Afterwards, as the weather started to get warmer, I realized that if I were to have a chance at good snow conditions in the Palisade region I needed to get up there as soon as possible. There are 5 14ers located around the Palisade Glacier in the mountains west of Big Pine, CA and my plan was climb to the 4 summits I had not been to before.

My next two posts will be detailed trip reports on my two solo trips to the Sierra to climb 7 of California's 14ers.
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