Mt.Williamson in 3 long days

The long trip

Mt.Williamson was my first Sierra 14er having already done White Mountain and Shasta. Maybe all the Sierra 14ers have similiar routes but I hope not. One word. Talus.

My trip began with my girlfriend, Jessica, in Sacramento. 6 hours of driving got us to the trail head. We camped at the trailhead, not sure how legal that is, in one of the very few flat-ish spots. I think we were on the trail by 7am. Winter 2010-2011 had a very large and drawn out snow year and I was weary of the amount of snow we would encounter on the trail but by late July the snow crossings were short and clearly worn along the Shepherd's Pass Trail. However, the stream crossings were a little tricky having to take off our boots early in the hike to wade across, we avoided 2 other bootless corssings by bushwacking and finding alternate routes. The trail meanders about the stream until it begins the some 53 switchbacks (counted on the way down to keep us occupied off the pain). After cresting the shoulder the trail descends in soft sand/gravel. The trail stays fairly exposed until you reach Anvil Camp which is the oasis of trees you'll see as you hike in the sun. We reached the sign for Anvil Camp in just about 8 hours which was our goal.
Passing Anvil Camp you quickly hit the glacial morraine with a fairly worn maze of a trail that leads to the base of Shepherd's Pass. No real trail going up the Pass with signs of tiny collapsing switchbacks here and there. Loose talus abounds but this is just a warm up for what's to come. Topped out after 10.5hrs hiking, also our target.
I was under the impression from other reports, guidebooks and the backpackers we passed on the trail that at the top of the pass there would be obvious camping near a lake and you can approach Mt.Williamson from here. WRONG!!!! Although you may be able to camp at the top area of the pass it was not obvious where tents had been set up, nor was it obvious how to get down to the lake which was protected by lots of ice/snow/rock. So we continued on looking for the "obvious" campsites. 1.5 hours later of slow uphill hiking and we were standing at the edge of Williamson Bowl 12,400ft. Not where you want to descend/camp unless you're bivy-ing. Back tracking led us to a closer lake with a sandy shore with no signs of previous camping. This campsite was 15min from the edge of Williamson Bowl vs the 45min away sites at the top of Shepherd's Pass. Why would you have base camp so far away?!? It got cold enough to refreeze 0.5in of the lake but we were fine in the tent.

Summit Day
Having hiked 12hrs the previous day we did not get an alpine start, hit the trail at 8am. This is the part no one else mentions. There is no trail from Williamson Bowl on. It's obvious where you need to go (Black streaks) but the giant talus blocks of the bowl and multiple ups and downs are ardous and time consuming. Crossing the Bowl took almost 2hrs. Upon reaching the base of Williamson its obvious that it is made of talus. Every step loose, shifty, dirty, unstable and wobbly. It's not that we couldn't handle it, we just were not aware/mentally prepared for it. The class 2/3 chute is obviuos from the black streaks. Some guidesbooks say it's easy to get off route but if you get lost on this route you should probably stick to watching Nascar from now on. You eventually hit a small ridge that drops quickly away, this is where the class 3 or 5.5ish climbing starts. Both my girlfriend and I are avid climbers but I have much more experience with exposure then her. For this I brought a 40ft section of 8mm rope, two webbing slings for harnesses, helmets and belay device. After getting up the awkward bulging crack I belayed Jessica without incident and we finshed off the last 30ish feet fine. WARNING!! After the climb you are NOT done. You'll look up at what seems to be the summit but it is false. Climbing up the car size talus only revealed I was 100yrds away from the true summit. You can walk the plateau keeping the talus to your right and head straight up it towards the end of the palteau. I think this would be faster/easier then the talus hop to the summit. 5hrs 45min to the summit. Register signed, pics taken, morales punched in the face knowing we have to now descend.

The Descent
Down climb the class 3. I belayed Jessica in the same spot as the approach, again without incident. It is very important on the way down that you stay very aware of your partner. We needed to yell rock many times as bowling ball size rocks tumbled down. 30ft of space seemed sufficient to not take each other out with rocks. The talus is not loose/soft enough to boot ski down, but instead requires all the extra stability and energy to navigate. Because we started late it was early afternoon and there was no shade except the few spots we could crawl under rocks. Lame. We both ran out of water on the descent when we got to the Bowl, I had brought 3liters. The climb out of Williamson Bowl looks worse then it is but it still is a lot of work. We thought 8hrs round trip but it took us 10. At camp we sucked down water and gatorade and made dinner. After eating dinner we realized we had maybe eaten 1000cal all day. Not wanting to start our hike out on day 3 from a top Shepherd's Pass we quickly packed up camp and began descending more. 45 min of light got us to the bottom of the pass and another 45 min by headlamp got us to a stream crossing just outside Anvil Camp. We managed to find a flat spot on the granite slabs and set up camp after an 11.5hr day.

Day 3 We're outta here
On the trail by 7am with fresh cold stream water pumped we made quick work of the trail until we hit the long uphill section. There are 2 false shoulders you will summit before you hit the tallest one which leads down the switchbacks. And even though the switchbacks are all downhill they are still long. We counted, Jessica in Spanish and myself in French/English, the entire way down as a way to pass the time and ignore the pain. We managed 2 stream crossings by hoping rocks and gladly took off our hot boots for the last one. WOW did the cold water feel good on our feet! A few more minutes and we hit the cars in 6hrs. Drive to Bishop, take showers at the Laundry mat for $5 and happy hour with half off entrees at Whisky Creek and we were two happy campers :)

Summary
The West Face of Mt.Williamson is not an inspiring route. The views are great but the route is a horrible talus slog, just be prepared. If you have trouble with exposure/class 3 bring a rope for the 60ft climb. Only camp near Shepherd's Pass if you want an extra long summit day. And I wish we had another day to summit Mt.Tyndall 14,018ft which is right next to Mt.Williamson. Kind of silly not to do both in one trip, I regret it. I hope my next Sierra 14er leaves me more inspired with less talus and more exposure under my feet. The end.

Images

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