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Day 2 - Leonard Minaret

Leonard Minaret is a class 4-5 pinnacle in the Ansel Adams Wilderness west of Mammoth Lakes. Most folks found the rating a bit too spicy and opted for Ritter, Banner, or Volcanic Ridge. Seven of them took off around 5:30am heading to Ritter/Banner, so I'm not sure how that all worked out, but I think at least five made it to Banner's summit. Three folks attempted Clyde Minaret but turned back due to lack of crampons/axe. Two of those ended up joining three others at the summit of Volcanic Ridge.

There were seven (Tom G, Sean, Jonathan, Michael, Adam, Ron H, myself) heading to Leonard. We got to Ediza Lake in two hours and then headed more or less directly to the SE side of Leonard. We had trouble making out the several routes described by Secor on the South and SE sides, so we sort of made it up as we went along. The class 4 rating is definitely old school and I would probably put it at 5.4 or 5.5 today. It was a very exciting climb with great exposure that took us something like an hour and half to negotiate (minus Sean who was 40 minutes or more ahead of us). We used the rope on only one short section of about 20ft for one of our party - had we pitched the whole thing out we'd probably still be up there. The register dated to 1992 but had less than a dozen entries - this was probably the least visited Minaret I've been to. Ron was about an hour behind us getting to the base of Leonard, and we saw him on the talus below while the rest of us were on top. He started up just before the lot of us had descended, but ended up turning around before getting to the top. Sean and Tom went on to climb both Turner and Jensen Minarets after descending Leonard, and still managed to get back to the TH barely an hour after the rest of us. Overall, a very enjoyable day. The rain held off until 3pm, allowing about half of us to get back without getting wet. Tomorrow may be a bit tougher weather-wise since we're going over Lamarck Col. We'll keep our fingers crossed...

Best part of a rest day is, well, resting! LOL

Great first two days out, and so wonderful to catch up with the whole SC gang. Weather is looking a bit wicked from town today, so hope they're not getting too wet.

Geared up and ready for tomorrow, whatever it brings.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

Rest days are for those who wish to keep alive and want to enjoy life.

Bob Burd wrote:Three folks attempted Clyde Minaret but turned back due to lack of crampons/axe. Two of those ended up joining three others at the summit of Volcanic Ridge.

There were four of us at Cecile Lake: myself (Matt), Tom, Laura, and Jim (Wolff?). We aborted Clyde Minaret due to the weather. All four of us made it to Volcanic Ridge, even though it didn't count for Laura.

Bob Burd wrote:Tomorrow may be a bit tougher weather-wise since we're going over Lamarck Col. We'll keep our fingers crossed...

Didn't work. A lot of us got pretty wet today.

Matt

well i was still on the North Ridge of Tom Ross when the thunder started. wet, cold and scared, not a good combo. think i'll go clip some bolts tomorrow.

Day 3 - Steven Jay Gould

What a day! Some 15 folks or so at the 6am start for Steven Jay Gould. The peak is just west of Mt. Mendel and the first stop on the Evolution Traverse. Eight of us (Sean, Tom G, Tommey, Michael, JD, Matt Y, Pat and myself) headed to Gould, Adam and Jonathan went to Mendel, the others to Tom Ross or Lamarck. I went over Lamarck Col in 2.5hrs, three others ahead of me. I caught up with Pat down at Darwin Lakes and the two of us headed to Gould together. Sean was the only one ahead of us and by a good margin. He took the direct route up the East Face that looked a bit more than class 3. Pat and I went up the Mendel glacier to its head and started from there in what turned out to be a route-finding debacle. We spent two hours climbing scary stuff (very steep face and chute with obscene amounts of sand and loose rock - the stuff you find where snow normally lies all year and gets uncovered only occasionally in dry years). Sean was already on his way down from the summit and called over to ask what we were doing. "Making a big mistake," I replied. We ended up climbing all the way to the notch between Mendel and Gould thinking we ought to be able to get to either of them from there. No doing, so back down we went to the glacier. JD and Matt had turned back on the way to the glacier, the others had summited and come back down before Pat and I returned to the glacier, and were out of sight. Pat decided to call it a day while I went up the (correct) East Face route, tagged the summit and jetted back down because rain was imminent.

I got back to the Mendel Glacier just after 1pm when the rain started. It never stopped until everyone was off the trail. The boulder fields all the way back to Lamarck Col were soaked, but at least not slippery. I caught up with Tom, Michael and Tommey just below the west side of Lamarck Col. and jogged back down the trail on the east side with Tommey and Pat who we met about a mile east of the col. Everything I had on and everything in my pack was soaked by the time I got back. Stuff is still drying out. Staying warm basically just meant keep moving which all of us did - made for some fast times!Speaking of which, Sean was back from Gould in under seven hours. Not a drop of rain on his head.

More weather is expected tomorrow, but the outing to Thomson Ridge should be significantly shorter.

"Making a big mistake," I replied.

Ah, lightning? The rain won't necessarily kill ya. But the lightning.

40% Chance of TSers relates to 100% of the same and most likely worse of what you all experienced today beginning 1-2 hours sooner. Current atmospheric readings/conditions are dictating some really nasty shit tomorrow.


Now what is that saying old Clint said in one of his Callahan movies...

"A man's got to know his limitations..."

i was still on the North Ridge of Tom Ross when the thunder started. wet, cold and scared, not a good combo. think i'll go clip some bolts tomorrow.

Now there's a smart man.

Yeah, we should all sit around in the air conditioning, raise a few glasses, and sing songs of the glory days of yesteryear.

Hell, Bob's already been lit up once or twice. It's where he got his superpowers.

It's his glow that also helps all the rest of us blind cows get around out there.

Moooooooooooovin' out!

BSHC1(Bishop Pass) recorded 2.3" of precip between 1245 and 1400 yesterday.



Be careful up there... Stupidity will indeed be painful..... Lightning and rockfall from heavy intense TS squalls, will kill ya. Fact.

I only got half a point today, but it was easily my favorite challenge day so far.

Today, I heard the funniest thing you will ever hear in the wilderness. At the perfect swimming lake near Thompson Ridge, this was echoing off the walls:

Laura wrote:I LOST MY UNDERWEAR!

A5RP wrote:

"Making a big mistake," I replied.

Ah, lightning? The rain won't necessarily kill ya. But the lightning.

No, just went up the wrong way. Everyone was off the summits before the rain/lightning started.

Have a good time. Everything else is secondary.

After dodging thunderstorms all weekend, I leave the Challenge for a week of work and have to dodge thunderstorms flying from Miami to Jacksonville. I hope the weather gets better for those hard core weekday climbers ... and those weekend warriors (like me).

Day 4 - Thompson Ridge

A fun and relatively easy day today. Thompson Ridge is the long ridgeline descending from Mt. Thompson, running between the Sabrina and South Lake drainages. We had two summits over 13,000ft along the ridge as our targets, each worth 1/2 a Challenge peak. The highest is unofficially called Ski Mountaineers Peak.

We had 25 participants at the start at South Lake, almost all of them making it to Thompson Ridge or other peaks. Several climbed Trapezoid and Johnson, while two (Karl and Avery) did the class 3 ridge traverse between Ski Mountaineers and Mt. Thompson. The cross-country from the Treasure Lakes Trail to Thompson Ridge was surprisingly scenic, lots of meandering creeks flowing with water, green alpine meadows and 4-5 unnamed lakes in an area seldom visited. Some folks went up Ski Mountaineers first, while others chose the northern summit, some did just one while others did both. This had folks criss-crossing back and forth across the basins, making it fun to run into other parties at various times throughout the day. A small party stopped to swim in one of the lakes, others napped. A bonus peak a short distance north of the two summits had a class 5.6 summit block that six of us managed to scale. The rain came earlier but much lighter today, drops starting around noon but never soaking the rock or ourselves. Most of the participants were off the trail by 2pm with a few late stragglers.

Tomorrow we're heading over Bishop Pass for a tour of the back side of the Palisades, hopefully reaching Barrett Peak near Polomonium. Some are planning shorter outings to Isosceles, Agassiz, and others. We'll still be watching the weather carefully, but it should start to improve some if the reports can be believed.

I sure hope everyone gets back safely from Barrett Peak today. I got back just before 1PM from Sky Haven, and then just after 1PM it was raining pretty hard, and even hailing too. On the drive back to Bishop, I could see a huge thundercloud covering much of the area up there. I'd start praying for their safety...

Matt