seano wrote:Turtleggjp wrote:I'd start praying for their safety...
No one has melted yet.
Rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Day 5 - Barrett Peak Barrett Peak is an unofficially named, almost-14er located a short distance east of Polomonium Peak in the Palisades area. At 13,962ft it's the highest peak we've been to so far. The easiest route isn't so easy, involving a long hike over Bishop Pass, then cross-country across Dusy Basin and Thunderbolt Pass, then across Palisades Basin to Potluck Pass, then a 2,000-foot climb up to the peak - 18mi roundtrip and almost 6,000ft of gain. Acres and acres of wonderful boulders to keep you on your toes.
We started off at 5am with only six heading to the peak - Sean, Jen, Jonathan, Andrew, Tom and myself. Michael had started at 4am to get a head start. I stopped to take some nighttime photos near Long Lake and got behind, in fact losing the whole group in the first half hour of the hike. I spent two hours getting to Bishop Pass, another hour to Thunderbolt Pass and another hour to Potluck Pass. Despite all the boulders it was a very enjoyable ramble across the two basins. From Thunderbolt Pass I stayed high, at roughly 12,000ft to avoid dropping down to the lakes. Fine views looking south as I traversed around the base of Thunderbolt to Polomonium. I never say any of the others that I kept thinking must be right in front of me. Around 10:30am I found myself at the summit of Barrett where I found Michael who had arrived sometime earlier. There was no sign of the other five. Where could they be? Michael and I didn't stay up there long - weather was starting to build. We photographed the register contents dating to the 1980s and beat a retreat. Half an hour later we came across Sean about 400ft below the summit. He and the others had gone to nearby bonus peak Peak 12,698ft first and were now heading to Barrett. We came across the others one by one, Jen in the rear starting to run out of gas. She decided to head back with Michael and I due to weather concerns.
When we got near Potluck Pass, Michael dropped low to cruise along the slabs and lakes while Jen and I stayed high to avoid the climb back to Thunderbolt Pass. It was again a very enjoyable traverse despite the endless boulders, with great views. All the time, the clouds were darkening over the to the north. We looked for Adam and JD on Isosceles, but didn't see them. Turns out they were up there having finished with the roped climbing and were starting down. They returned about an hour after us. We reached Bishop Pass at 1:15pm at which time the rain started up. And holy cow, did it let loose. Hail, rain both light and hard, the trail turned to creeks. Today I discovered the pack cover in the little zipper pouch at the bottom which did a great job keeping my stuff dry. And I used the $0.99 rain poncho (a step up from Sean's garbage bag) which also performed quite well. So well, that I had to take off my fleece which I had donned because I was too warm. We met Avery (who had climbed Columbine) at the pass and the three of us half jogged our way down the trail. Sean caught up with us and beat us back to the TH by ten minutes.
Karl climbed Agassiz with another participant (sorry, forgot his name) whose small dog accompanied them to the summit. Karl then went on to climb Goode since he had some spare time before the rain would began. Pat, Kevin and Matt climbed Sky Haven and reported it a very fine outing. Scott H went to Vagabond and gave up on Cloudripper because of the coming weather.
All in all, I thought it was a great day. I really enjoyed the rain element that keeps things interesting. Tomorrow we're heading to Big Pine for a climb of
Big Kid.