Deb - Jul 6, 2007 3:45 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2007
Swiss Arete
Beautifully warm day to be on a mountain, especially fine Sierra granite! Really fun easy climb, but awful short; simul-climbed all but 1 1/2 pitches. Thanks to hubby for leading, the altitude and my ovaries sapped my endurance.
Rick Kent and I day climbed the V-Notch couloir. Our original plan was to tag both Polemonium and Sill, but reality set in. We skipped Polemonium and tagged Sill (20 hrs car-to-car). Totally wasted.
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Route Climbed: Thunderbolt-to-Sill traverse
Date Climbed: September 9, 2006
Climbed with Javier and DustysDawg. Part of the Thunderbolt to Sill traverse single day push (18 hrs: South Lake/T-bolt to Sill traverse/Glacier Lodge).
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Route Climbed: Swiss Arete
Date Climbed: August 6, 2006
Climbed with Sam Mills.
We did it in 4 pitches as we solo the class 4/low 5th section to gain the arete proper. Started walking out of Gayley camp at 5:10AM and made the summit by 10:15AM. Excellent weather! Also, ran into SP'er graham at the summit, who came up via the North couloir. Left summit a bit after 11AM and were back to camp by 12:40PM (7.5 hrs camp to camp). Then, packed up and left camp at 1:30PM on the slog-back to the trailhead getting there just before 5:00PM.
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Route Climbed: North Couloir
Date Climbed: August 7, 2004
Started at 4:45am from the Glacier Lodge day hiker's trailhead with mdostby. We were both moving slow in the morning....I guess coming up from sea level in less than 12 hrs didn't help either. We got to Sam Mack Meadow at about 10:00am. Took a very short break here and pressed on. Then, around 10:30am, Mike tells me that today he just doesn't have the energy to do the peak (btw, Mike started it all about 2 years ago when he told that we should day hike/climb most of the California 14ers). So, after 10:30am, I was going solo. I pulled out the ice axe and deployed crampons for the section across the Palisade Glacier before gaining the class 3 chute that leads to Glacier Notch. The North Couloir itself was pretty much melted out; there was perhaps 100 feet of snow climbing. Then, I arrived at the supposed-to-be class 4 section. I climbed it with my LaSportiva Makalu mountain boots and it seemed to me class 3, but I guess you can make it class 4 and even class 5 the further climber's left you go. I reached Mount Sill's summit at 2:01pm. I encountered three other people up there who came via Elinore Lake. One of them (Margina Rhyne of Bishop) took my summit picture since I didn't bring a camera. I left the summit at 2:15pm, down the North Couloir, down the class 3 chute back to the Palisade Glacier. I ran into no one from Palisade Glacier to summit back to Palisade Glacier. I then took a ten minute break at the creek 500 below Sam Mack Meadow and then continued on to the trailhead. I arrived at the Glacier Lodge trailhead at 7:50pm, where Mike greeted me with a cold beer. All in all, a huge day!! (more so than we anticipated). Next year I have my eyes on the Swiss Arete.
atavist - Jun 21, 2007 12:09 pm Date Climbed: Sep 4, 2005
Swiss Arete
Climbed Sill solo in '05, then repeated the hill via Swiss Arete in July '06.
Dave S - Jun 21, 2007 2:00 am Date Climbed: Jun 15, 2007
Swiss Arete
Climbed Swiss Arete and then over to Polemonium in a day with JM. Long, but great, day in the mountains!
eggheadsherpa - May 21, 2007 3:25 pm Date Climbed: May 20, 2007
Route Climbed: N Couloir in Spring Conditions
Climbed the N. Couloir route in spring conditions, a lot of snow on the 4th class section, but the traverse was not a problem. See the photo link for conditions (poor man's trip report).
climbed with piotrek., crazy polish dude met on aconcagua.. brought gear didnt
use.. moved quick.. awesome views !
CBoldt1010 - Nov 16, 2006 8:18 pm Date Climbed: Sep 5, 2005
Challenging Scramble
Climbed up the Palisade Glacier and up the L-Coulior and up a tough class 3 scramble with all the snow and ice. Had a few moment I wanted to turn around but the views were amazing!
graham - Oct 5, 2006 12:19 am Date Climbed: Aug 5, 2006
N. Couloir
Day hiked Sill and Polemonium via the N. Couloir
RSN473 - Sep 5, 2006 8:05 pm Date Climbed: Jun 3, 2006
Mixed conditions on Swiss Arete
Soft snow on the approach and lingering snow on the route made this climb less fun than it could have been.
dpsiebert - Aug 12, 2006 7:35 am Date Climbed: Jul 22, 2006
North Couloir
Climbed with CMC. Fun group and great mountain.
mjrangel - Aug 4, 2006 7:55 am Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2006
Swiss Arete
My first technical rock route! Four of us climbed together. Two leaders and two followers. A couple of mountain rescue guys from Bishop did the lead climbing and my good friend jsorber cleaned the route. Climbing with a pack full of axes and getting the ropes crossed made things a bit difficult at times. And that "Step Around Move" was very intimidating! I took a fall on the headwall that followed when I was unable to unclip the rope as it was snaged undernieth jsorbers rope while the take was too strong. This was fine after John reached me at the headwall and got some slack on his rope so that I could get around it. After five pitches we reached the simmit and our leader found us a good rapel station but it was difficult to avoid rock fall at the lower end of our last rapel. Glisading the L-Saped snow field turned out to be really fun but my ass was burning the whole way down.
The mixed terrain made things interesting and very enjoyable and the view from the summit was finest view in the Sierra that I have ever seen.
jsorber - Jul 28, 2006 6:50 am Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2006
Route Climbed: Swiss Arete
My first apline climbing experience. Beautiful and fun rock. Tim and Jonathan lead while I followed and took in the great views. Wow what a climb. The step-over is awesome!
Route Climbed: North Couloir Date Climbed: July 22, 2006
Great climb up the L Couloir and challenging rock climb from the top of the couloir to the summit ridge if done free solo. Scrubbed plans to do Polemonium after Sill due to the hour and menacing clouds. Instead, did a quick run up to Gayley following the ridge directly as opposed to the Yellow Brick Road route.
Great celebration of independence day! Great alpine climb.
Mike N - Jul 9, 2006 9:04 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2006
Swiss Arete
Good climb. See detail under Swiss Arete Route Page.
dervin - Jun 20, 2006 3:52 am Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2005
North Couloir
Heavy packs, sun cups, glissading, and post holing does it get any better? Four of us on a two day trip via the north branch of the Big Pine Creek. Cheers.
physics - Jun 19, 2006 2:28 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2006
Swiss Arete
climbed with ttriche from SP; a route with great views and really no harder than 5.6, after free climbing the first pitch or two, we did a running-belay up the remainder. weather was perfect but there was endless postholes waiting for us on our way back down.
asmrz - May 4, 2006 4:20 pm Date Climbed: Feb 19, 1993
Swiss Arete-Winter attempts
Bryan Johnson and I skied to the Mt. Galey Morraine in February 1993 from the Glacier Lodge and next day broke the trail via deep snow all the way to the base of the Swiss Arete. Next day we got on the Arete and climbed several pitches before being forced to rap due to exteremely strong, arctic wind coming from the western side. It was just way too cold, even with our one piece suits, plastic boots and down, we could not continue. That reminds me that Miguel Carmona and I tried the same thing (I guess I don't learn too quickly)in the early 80s and never actually touched the arete, got stormed on and burried in heavy snow fall somewhere at the base. Remember the temperatures were at-17 F in the tent at night. We bailed by skiing the wide gully between Temple Crag and Mt.Galey down to Third Lake.
Deb - Jul 6, 2007 3:45 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2007
Swiss AreteBeautifully warm day to be on a mountain, especially fine Sierra granite! Really fun easy climb, but awful short; simul-climbed all but 1 1/2 pitches. Thanks to hubby for leading, the altitude and my ovaries sapped my endurance.
forjan - Jul 2, 2007 7:56 pm Date Climbed: Jul 1, 2007
Traverse from top of V-NotchRick Kent and I day climbed the V-Notch couloir. Our original plan was to tag both Polemonium and Sill, but reality set in. We skipped Polemonium and tagged Sill (20 hrs car-to-car). Totally wasted.
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Route Climbed: Thunderbolt-to-Sill traverse
Date Climbed: September 9, 2006
Climbed with Javier and DustysDawg. Part of the Thunderbolt to Sill traverse single day push (18 hrs: South Lake/T-bolt to Sill traverse/Glacier Lodge).
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Route Climbed: Swiss Arete
Date Climbed: August 6, 2006
Climbed with Sam Mills.
We did it in 4 pitches as we solo the class 4/low 5th section to gain the arete proper. Started walking out of Gayley camp at 5:10AM and made the summit by 10:15AM. Excellent weather! Also, ran into SP'er graham at the summit, who came up via the North couloir. Left summit a bit after 11AM and were back to camp by 12:40PM (7.5 hrs camp to camp). Then, packed up and left camp at 1:30PM on the slog-back to the trailhead getting there just before 5:00PM.
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Route Climbed: North Couloir
Date Climbed: August 7, 2004
Started at 4:45am from the Glacier Lodge day hiker's trailhead with mdostby. We were both moving slow in the morning....I guess coming up from sea level in less than 12 hrs didn't help either. We got to Sam Mack Meadow at about 10:00am. Took a very short break here and pressed on. Then, around 10:30am, Mike tells me that today he just doesn't have the energy to do the peak (btw, Mike started it all about 2 years ago when he told that we should day hike/climb most of the California 14ers). So, after 10:30am, I was going solo. I pulled out the ice axe and deployed crampons for the section across the Palisade Glacier before gaining the class 3 chute that leads to Glacier Notch. The North Couloir itself was pretty much melted out; there was perhaps 100 feet of snow climbing. Then, I arrived at the supposed-to-be class 4 section. I climbed it with my LaSportiva Makalu mountain boots and it seemed to me class 3, but I guess you can make it class 4 and even class 5 the further climber's left you go. I reached Mount Sill's summit at 2:01pm. I encountered three other people up there who came via Elinore Lake. One of them (Margina Rhyne of Bishop) took my summit picture since I didn't bring a camera. I left the summit at 2:15pm, down the North Couloir, down the class 3 chute back to the Palisade Glacier. I ran into no one from Palisade Glacier to summit back to Palisade Glacier. I then took a ten minute break at the creek 500 below Sam Mack Meadow and then continued on to the trailhead. I arrived at the Glacier Lodge trailhead at 7:50pm, where Mike greeted me with a cold beer. All in all, a huge day!! (more so than we anticipated). Next year I have my eyes on the Swiss Arete.
atavist - Jun 21, 2007 12:09 pm Date Climbed: Sep 4, 2005
Swiss AreteClimbed Sill solo in '05, then repeated the hill via Swiss Arete in July '06.
Dave S - Jun 21, 2007 2:00 am Date Climbed: Jun 15, 2007
Swiss AreteClimbed Swiss Arete and then over to Polemonium in a day with JM. Long, but great, day in the mountains!
eggheadsherpa - May 21, 2007 3:25 pm Date Climbed: May 20, 2007
Route Climbed: N Couloir in Spring ConditionsClimbed the N. Couloir route in spring conditions, a lot of snow on the 4th class section, but the traverse was not a problem. See the photo link for conditions (poor man's trip report).
ripper333 - Apr 21, 2007 12:26 am
swiss areteclimbed with piotrek., crazy polish dude met on aconcagua.. brought gear didnt
use.. moved quick.. awesome views !
CBoldt1010 - Nov 16, 2006 8:18 pm Date Climbed: Sep 5, 2005
Challenging ScrambleClimbed up the Palisade Glacier and up the L-Coulior and up a tough class 3 scramble with all the snow and ice. Had a few moment I wanted to turn around but the views were amazing!
graham - Oct 5, 2006 12:19 am Date Climbed: Aug 5, 2006
N. CouloirDay hiked Sill and Polemonium via the N. Couloir
RSN473 - Sep 5, 2006 8:05 pm Date Climbed: Jun 3, 2006
Mixed conditions on Swiss AreteSoft snow on the approach and lingering snow on the route made this climb less fun than it could have been.
dpsiebert - Aug 12, 2006 7:35 am Date Climbed: Jul 22, 2006
North CouloirClimbed with CMC. Fun group and great mountain.
mjrangel - Aug 4, 2006 7:55 am Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2006
Swiss AreteMy first technical rock route! Four of us climbed together. Two leaders and two followers. A couple of mountain rescue guys from Bishop did the lead climbing and my good friend jsorber cleaned the route. Climbing with a pack full of axes and getting the ropes crossed made things a bit difficult at times. And that "Step Around Move" was very intimidating! I took a fall on the headwall that followed when I was unable to unclip the rope as it was snaged undernieth jsorbers rope while the take was too strong. This was fine after John reached me at the headwall and got some slack on his rope so that I could get around it. After five pitches we reached the simmit and our leader found us a good rapel station but it was difficult to avoid rock fall at the lower end of our last rapel. Glisading the L-Saped snow field turned out to be really fun but my ass was burning the whole way down.
The mixed terrain made things interesting and very enjoyable and the view from the summit was finest view in the Sierra that I have ever seen.
jsorber - Jul 28, 2006 6:50 am Date Climbed: Jul 16, 2006
Route Climbed: Swiss AreteMy first apline climbing experience. Beautiful and fun rock. Tim and Jonathan lead while I followed and took in the great views. Wow what a climb. The step-over is awesome!
Augie Medina - Jul 26, 2006 1:00 am
Route Climbed: North Couloir Date Climbed: July 22, 2006Great climb up the L Couloir and challenging rock climb from the top of the couloir to the summit ridge if done free solo. Scrubbed plans to do Polemonium after Sill due to the hour and menacing clouds. Instead, did a quick run up to Gayley following the ridge directly as opposed to the Yellow Brick Road route.
tradmonkey - Jul 19, 2006 4:43 pm Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2006
N. Couloir - SDMRT Team ClimbSnow almost all the way from Sam Mack to the 4th class rock section.
tb00957 - Jul 11, 2006 4:53 pm Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2006
swiss areteterrific. Worth repeating.
mekwise - Jul 10, 2006 9:29 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2006
Swiss AreteGreat celebration of independence day! Great alpine climb.
Mike N - Jul 9, 2006 9:04 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2006
Swiss AreteGood climb. See detail under Swiss Arete Route Page.
dervin - Jun 20, 2006 3:52 am Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2005
North CouloirHeavy packs, sun cups, glissading, and post holing does it get any better? Four of us on a two day trip via the north branch of the Big Pine Creek. Cheers.
physics - Jun 19, 2006 2:28 am Date Climbed: Jun 17, 2006
Swiss Areteclimbed with ttriche from SP; a route with great views and really no harder than 5.6, after free climbing the first pitch or two, we did a running-belay up the remainder. weather was perfect but there was endless postholes waiting for us on our way back down.
asmrz - May 4, 2006 4:20 pm Date Climbed: Feb 19, 1993
Swiss Arete-Winter attemptsBryan Johnson and I skied to the Mt. Galey Morraine in February 1993 from the Glacier Lodge and next day broke the trail via deep snow all the way to the base of the Swiss Arete. Next day we got on the Arete and climbed several pitches before being forced to rap due to exteremely strong, arctic wind coming from the western side. It was just way too cold, even with our one piece suits, plastic boots and down, we could not continue. That reminds me that Miguel Carmona and I tried the same thing (I guess I don't learn too quickly)in the early 80s and never actually touched the arete, got stormed on and burried in heavy snow fall somewhere at the base. Remember the temperatures were at-17 F in the tent at night. We bailed by skiing the wide gully between Temple Crag and Mt.Galey down to Third Lake.