Mt. Tyndall : Historic North Rib with Daniel and Rob

15 year old Daniel , and 50 year old dad

My brother Rob and I had climbed in the Sierras for a week via Sheperds Pass in 2004, and we needed to go back. My son had recently turned 15, so it seemed only natural to invite him, and turn him on to one of my true, deep loves: The Sierra range. So a trip was planned (July 29-Aug 5, 2006) with one clear order from his MOTHER. We have to be able to telephone her EVERY night! We all know that there are no cell phone towers in these mountains, so I had to rent a sattelite phone... UGH, an extra pound in my pack. BUT, no phone, no trip... so the phone went into my pack and mom was happy.
DAY 1 : Sheperds Pass trailhead by 7:30 AM and up over the Williamson saddle. DO NOT let other trip reports fool you...THIS IS A SLOG (my pack weighed 44lbs, Robs was 42 and my son Daniel's weiged in at 40lbs). We did bring sandals, bourbon and what we thought was too much gas (3 - 22oz bottles), but we were determined to live comfortably while in the mountains.

Anvil camp and over Sheperds Pass - DAY 2

After arriving at Anvil by 3:00 PM, we did all the usual camp stuff and were in the sack by 8:30PM (after our first sattelite call to home) and up and out of camp by 7:30AM on DAY 2. The pothole was our first destination, and we were surprised to find a few nice campsites there, and then on to the pass. We had heard that there was a small snowfield on the pass, and sure enough there was snow at the very top (only about 40-50 feet to cross). The snowfield is still scary, as it is a LONG slide to the bottom of the pass, and I was responsible for the safety of my 15 year old!

This is Rob crossing the snow at the top of Sheperds pass... (trail clearly continues above to the crest). As Mt Tyndall came into view, it re-kindled Rob and my need to summit it on this trip, as our 2004 effort, we came up short of the summit. In 2004 we had hiked around and over Rockwell pass and had tried to climb Tyndall from the Wrights Lake side. I really felt determined that we would summit Tyndall on this trip. But that would have to wait as our goal on DAY 2 was to get into the Wallace Wales Basin. So, we pushed on to Rockwell pass and over the snow field at the top of that pass... Our 2nd 12,000 foot pass in the same day! We still had a LONG way to go, and after crossing the entire Wrights Lake basin we headed East towards the lower slopes of Mt Barnard which we hoped to contour around, and easily get into the Wallace Basin.
OOPS... we headed east, but too soon, and up and up, but we were sure we were cool (after studying the TOPO) but it started to become obvious that we were actually climbing Mt. Barnard! This was some true "bushwhacking! We finally could see the basin below and started down. We had a long and tough scramble down, but soon discovered our destination "Waterfall Meadow"

Wallace-Wales Basin DAY 3

DAY 3 was supposed to be a "rest day" although we hiked about 5 miles round trip to Wallace Lake. The lake proved difficult to find as we again got off our route( more compass practice BEFORE our trip would have served us well!)
We enjoyed the HUGE waterfall above the meadows and continued up to the lake via many more spectacular meadows.
This photo is "Waterfall Meadow" and it was directly next to our amazing camp site.

Also below :Daniel relaxing at Wallace Lake.

DAY 3 ended and we headed back DOWN to camp. This next photo is the view from above our campsite looking down onto the meadow. You can see the "canyon" to the left of our campsite which is where the waterfall drains.

Day 4...Time to decide what we'll do about Tyndall

We decided to head back to Wrights basin and the largest of the Wrights lakes (WL3645) at the base of Tyndall's southern slopes. This is where Rob and I had failed to summit back in 2004. As we got closer to Rockwell pass where we would veer east and up to the lake, we made a tough decision: to leave Wrights Lake basin, go back over Rockwell Pass (giving up the southern approach to Tyndall), and try for Tyndall's North Rib on DAY 5 instead. That turned out to be a great call (brother Rob's wisdom). So we went over the pass and back UP the long valley (NE) towards Sheperds Pass. We got close to the unnamed lake near Sheperds Pass and found a GREAT camp site west of the lake just on the opposite side of the stream and the trail. We spent a LOT of time working the gravel so we would have FLAT places to set up our 2 man, and 1 man tents. As a result, we slept well there!

Day 5 is going to be our big Mt Tyndall day, and we were all a bit nervous about the Class 3 North Rib... The same HISTORIC route taken by KING and COTTER in 1864 on the first recorded ascent of Tyndall...but that is tommorrows adventure!

Day 5 Up early and to the RIB !! August 2nd 2006

The North Rib is the obvious hump in the center of the North face of MT TYNDALL. The East face is the famously sheer face, the part of the mountain that you can see as you drive up out of Independance. We were really pumped as we departed camp at 7:30. We did not get to the base of the Rib until 9AM. Then Up,Up,to the narrow snow field to the right of the rib. We had calculated that the top of the snowfield was halfway up, so that was cause for a short celebration. Now remember that I was responsible for my 15 year old, so I was being very careful. My brother Rob did the route finding, Daniel climbed in the middle and I followed at the bottom (so I could catch my 140lb son as he fell??!!). There were great holds, BUT ar least twice there was snow and ice and there were places that I felt our asses were hanging out over the edge... but up we went. The greater the risk, the bigger the reward, right? By about 12:30 in the early afternoon we were almost to the top, but we had stayed to the right of the Rib, and could not find any "easy" way to poke through to the summit ridge. Rob proposed that he find a way to rope up and try to find a crack somewhere, but Daniel did not like the idea putting his life on "the line" so we kept searching for the chimney that could get us through unroped. Soon, Rob found a way through and I heard his whoop when he identified Mt Barnard and the huge views to the south. The final climb to the summit was a victory dance for all three of us, and Rob and Daniel suggested that I go to the top alone, as I had been the one with the Tyndall Monkey on my back....but we all summited together.

Tyndall Summit

We finally summited at 1:30PM ....6 Hours after leaving camp. Those people that climb Williamson AND Tyndall in one day are crazy or full of beans, I don't know which.... but Tyndall is a MONSTER to climb!
I did not know what to do upon arriving at the summit. I needed to eat, drink, take photos etc. The views of course were splendid, but I still was amazed to be standing in this truly remarkable place!
I was so elated...and then I remembered the register, which Daniel had found and was already reading some of the entries, one of which spoke of a son who dedicated his climb to his father who had nearly died on Tyndall in 1949. I think all three of us began to tear up and get emotional at this point...Much to be thankful for in our lives!

After only 30 short minutes, we decided to get going. We looked at the NW RIDGE and started down it, soon to retrace our steps back to the Rib. The NW Ridge is full of huge gendarmes and towers and is VERY exposed at the top.
Not for us! We were happy to slide down the RIB on our BUTTS, and it was a quick 2 hours down. At one point, one of our Nalgene bottles was dropped, and all three of us watched in amazement as it accelerated down the face, and finally exploded! Our pace down slowed after that! Still, it really is easier to go down than up! The final hike back to our camp was a joyous celebration. We felt like the conquering Musketeers as we swashbuckled our way back to camp and enjoyed a HUGE dinner and some bourbon and a Gorgeous sunset over Diamond Mesa. A day to always remember.

DAYS 6 and 7 : To Mahagony and out AND CONCLUSION

After our success on Tyndall, all of the rest was gravy, and we were very relaxed as we dropped down Sheperds Pass, collecting beautiful rocks and enjoying the stunning black-blue sky. By the end of the week we figured we had hiked 50 miles with 12,000 total feet of elevation gain... not bad for a 50 year old, a 44 year old (or a 15 year old!) We blew past Anvil camp and found a nice site at Mahagony Flat... and had our first camp fire. Nice way to end the trip!
Finally down to the trail head on DAY 7. We met some hikers on the trail that reported seeing a "Trail Runner". We met the runner at the parking lot. He had run ROUND TRIP to Sheperds Pass and back! Way out of our league... but he snapped a photo of our beat up gloves after a week of hard climbing.

CONCLUSION: In August of 2004, Rob and I had encountered a wide eyed 50ish hippie climber coming down (Evan) - as we were on our way up towards Sheperds Pass. That first day of our trip was the beginning of a perfect week of CLEAR sky for us (not one cloud the whole week). Evan recounted that his 6 days in the High country had been quite different. He had experienced severe storms during the entire trip. He told us he had witnessed the hand of GOD, as lightning struck a tree in his campsite while he looked out of his tent in stunned amazement. Evans words to us still resonate with me now:
"You guys are about to enter SACRED GROUND".
I now know that he was absolutely right.
The Sierras are a fabulous and wonderous place, and when I'm not there I long for it, and dream of it, and when I am there, I can't believe how quickly the time flies by.
Sierras, I hope to see you again soon! Matt Karr

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