Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP > Mount Mendel > Climber's LogMount Mendel Climber's Log
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[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
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| Michael Graupe | Route Climbed: East Face Date Climbed: August 8, 2005  | |
| Day 4 of the 2005 Sierra Challenge. Climbed with Ron H. and Rick G. Routefinding on the east face was less problematic than anticipated. Fun class 3/4 climbing on the uppermost part of the NE ridge. | |
| Posted Sep 27, 2005 4:54 pm | ||
| doc K | Route Climbed: Rt. Couloir Date Climbed: Sept 2,2005 | |
| Team of three. Lots of dinner plating but good ice low and into the couloir. Last two pitches were thin to no ice and lots of loose rock. Night fell at top of couloir and forced a bivy with one pitch left...made for a great a.m. summit. Great route. | |
| Posted Sep 7, 2005 2:09 am | ||
| poorboy44 | Route Climbed: Right Mendel Couloir Date Climbed: Sep 4, 2005 | |
| Climbed this in a long day with Charles Ince. My first real ice climb. 9 pitches from the bergshrund to the top. Ice was dinnerplating badly. Not sure where the actual descent goes, we ended up having to do some rappels. The hike out over Lamarck Col was a killer, man I am beat today. ~22 hours tent to tent. | |
| Posted Sep 6, 2005 2:09 pm | ||
| Bob Burd | Route Climbed: NE Ridge (ascent) / East Face (descent) Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2005 | |
| Day 4 of the 2005 Sierra Challenge. The NE Ridge was a fine scramble, but Secor's class 3 rating is seriously sandbagged, or else it is the hardest class 3 I've ever encountered in the Sierra. Trip Report | |
| Posted Sep 6, 2005 12:45 am | ||
| Matthew Holliman | Route Climbed: East Face Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2005 | |
| Fun scramble, better than advertised--mostly class 2 lower down, and then numerous class 4 possibilities to climb the headwall and reach the uppermost portion of the NE Ridge. There's some loose stuff around the class 2 portion, but it was fairly easy to keep to more solid rock too. Never saw anything matching Secor's description around the final headwall, but there were so many options I didn't look for it either--we found at least three ways in all. I climbed a steep (i.e. nearly vertical) lieback and chimney system to gain the ridge directly (spicy); on the descent, we found a huge collection of slings above a very easy 10-foot class 3-4 "downclimb" (not much of a downclimb--you actually just lower yourself down onto the next really huge hold)... quite strange. I hoped to tag Darwin as well, but some very black clouds blew over the notch as I was heading up, so I bailed on that. Return to the car took less than three hours from the Darwin Glacier, so at least it'll be a short day to go back... | |
| Posted Aug 17, 2005 1:15 pm | ||
| Brian Frederick | Route Climbed: Right Mendel couloir Date Climbed: Fall 1982 | |
| This was a great climb. David and I did this on a weekend blast. The first couple of hundred feet were hard Neve, the rest hard ice; dinnerplating but solid. After I spent too long setting up a belay we were passed by a faster team just as it narrowed down. Much falling ice from whoever was climbing meant only one party could climb at a time and the upper party was generous enough to stop after each pitch to let us climb a pitch. Eventually we all four joined up and swapped leads so only one climber had to lead each pitch and the rest could move faster on a top rope. As it was I came up the last mixed pitch in the dark, terrified of planting my axe thru the rope. I remember seeing the sparks when I hit rock with the pick. Bivyed at the top of the couloir just on the other side of the ridge, with moonlight views of the evolution basin. Got to the summit at dawn and hiked out that day. | |
| Posted Feb 24, 2005 11:56 pm | ||
| RSN473 | Route Climbed: northeast face - cl 3 Date Climbed: June 17, 2000 | |
| The northeast face is a maze of possibilites - we found a combination that got us to the top (and down) | |
| Posted Mar 11, 2004 11:16 am | ||
| kullaberg | Route Climbed: NE ridge Date Climbed: sept 2001 | |
| long exposed ridge with some really high quality climbing, and a scary 4th class section low down. another awesome day in the mountains. | |
| Posted Nov 28, 2002 8:25 pm | ||
| asmrz | Route Climbed: Right Mendel Couloir Date Climbed: November 4,5, 1983 | |
| I'm reaching way back for this one. Bill Krause and I climbed the right Mendel over two day weekend. I remember a few pins on the right side of the gully, very good ice and pretty steep upper part. The thing I remember most was the return to Lamarc Col where our tent was. That hill back up to Lamarc felt like 10,000 feet, I remember it like it was yesterday. Great, steep climb. I second Craig Peer's opinion of it, as one of, if not THE best ice couloir in the High Sierra. | |
| Posted Nov 10, 2002 2:34 pm | ||
| Craig Peer | Route Climbed: Right Mendel Couloir Date Climbed: September 2000 | |
| Four of us ( Tim Winiarski, Kevin Jellison, Russ Faure - Brac and I ) climbed the classic right hand couloir. The lower section ( after a tricky bershrund crossing ) was excellent neve and some water ice. The middle section was hard water ice. The last 200' consisted of scary water ice with rocks frozen in place. By far the hardest ice gully I've ever climbed in the Sierra! We were so burnt from this one we were forced to bivy, and decended the west side to Evolution Valley, for a complete total epic ( wouldn't have it any other way )!! You should see the video!! | |
| Posted Sep 24, 2002 11:03 am | ||
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