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Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:22 am
by Turtleggjp
fedak wrote:It was squalling as I drove down from Tioga Pass today, must have just been local


I was watching the NWS radar today, it looked like the rain was north of where they were hiking today. That seems to be confirmed by Bob's description of the day.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 11:50 pm
by Bob Burd
Day 8 - Indian Rock

Indian Rock is a 12,200-foot feature on the long ridge descending from Mt. Baxter between the Baxter Creek and Sawmill Creek drainages. The easiest approach is up the Sawmill Pass Trail, about 20mi round trip with 8,000ft+ of gain. The trail has a reputation for being long (12mi to the pass) and hot (starting elevation: 4,500ft, the lowest of the Eastern Sierra THs). We found the trail far more pleasant than anticipated and enjoyed the outing a great deal.

We started at 5am in anticipation of heat and incoming weather. There were only seven (Kevin T, Sean, Pat, Michael, Jonathan, Tom, myself) at the start, attrition taking it's toll by the 8th day with plenty of no-shows. Phil started early at 3:30am to tackle Colosseum instead from the same TH. The weather cooperated far better than we might have hoped. It was mostly overcast at sunrise which gave us only bit of sun around 6:15am, then perhaps an hour or so later in the morning. The cloud cover kept things quite pleasant for the entire day, never raining more than a few drops in the early afternoon. The trail rises more than 2,500ft in the first three miles, all sand and desert and not all that pleasant going up. This was the part we did mostly by headlamp. The fourth mile descends gently into Sawmill Canyon where trees are first encountered. After the fourth mile the trail crosses a few creeks and stays in a very pleasant belt of forest for more than four miles. This section is extremely pleasant, far better than the narrow belt of trees encountered on the Taboose Pass Trail.

I made it to Sawmill Lake in about 4hrs with Jonathan. Sean and Pat were somewhere ahead, the others somewhere behind. While Jonathan stopped for a nature break and waited for the others, I headed up the rubble-strewn cirque south of the lake. It was a monstrous boulder climb up to the ridge, topping out some 200ft above the top of Indian Rock. One then downclimbs 400ft before the final 200ft of class 3 climbing on the West Face and SW Ridge of Indian Rock. From the high point on the ridge I spotted Sean and Pat just reaching the summit about 20 minutes ahead. They had found another route to the summit, climbing higher on the trail before cutting south towards the ridge.

It took me 5.5hrs to reach the summit. There is a fine view of the Owens Valley, and more peaks than one might have guessed for a lower summit east of the crest. Williamson and University dominate the view to the south, Mary Austin, Black and Diamond to the southwest (with Clarence King just poking up behind them), Baxter to the west, and north as far as Split Mtn. We found no register and left none. As I was descending Indian Rock with Pat and Sean, the other four started up, within a few minutes of each other. We went back down the Sean/Pat approach route, taking little more than an hour to reach Sawmill Lake - a better route than the one I had picked out.

The descent from Sawmill Lake was the most pleasant running trail we've seen in the Sierra. Nearly all of it was free of nasty rocks and small boulders, compact and smooth for the most part. Sean was back before 2pm, Pat and I about 20min behind him. The continued cloud cover kept the temperatures reasonable and the jogging descent a pleasure.

I really looking forward to tomorrow's romp up George Creek. Until last year, this route was closed for most of the year and all summer. There are a number of peaks that are all most easily approached via this route, including Williamson, Trojan, Barnard, Barnard East and Carl Heller. Should be great fun with a large crowd heading up this classic bushwhack by headlamp.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:19 am
by Bob Burd
TinOmen wrote:Also, I love it when people like Marm who barely get out narc on the trolls who actually hike and climb orders of magnitude more than him.


I don't really see how it matters how much one climbs. A troll is a troll, and in this case, not a very good one. Having an outstanding climbing resume doesn't give one a free pass. I wasn't the one to clean up the thread and don't know who did, I was happy to simply ignore him. So it goes. Come out and join us next year toxo - I'm sure you'd have fun.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:06 am
by Vitaliy M.
Lol..toxo and sierra challenge. That's a good one. Maybe squishy is also participating?

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:21 am
by kevin trieu
Bob, Jonathan found the summit register inside a bandage box buried underneath some stones placed there by Carl Heller in 1962. The peak has seen about two dozen visitors in the past 50 years. There was a gap of about 15 years where nobody climbed the peak. Tom took a few pictures.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:32 am
by Bob Burd
kevin trieu wrote:Bob, Jonathan found the summit register inside a bandage box buried underneath some stones placed there by Carl Heller in 1962. The peak has seen about two dozen visitors in the past 50 years. There was a gap of about 15 years where nobody climbed the peak. Tom took a few pictures.


Yeah, I heard that later. Sorry I missed that one!

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:30 am
by Bob Burd
Day 9 - George Creek

George Creek is described by Secor thusly: Any enthusiastic Sierra mountaineer should climb up George Creek at least once. It is one of the classic bushwhacks of the High Sierra. Until recently the route up George Creek was only open for a month around December and another month around Apr/May. But with the removal of the restrictions last year, we were able to use this route during the Challenge for the first time. There are five summits accessible from George Creek - Williamson, Trojan, Barnard, Barnard East and Carl Heller, all of which were acceptable targets for today's outing. It's not a very long outing - 16mi round trip for the longest, but the elevation gain exceeds 7,000ft for all of them.

Unbeknownst to me and most of the others, the driving route starting from the north end of Manzanar was washed out sometime in the last year, making this the crux move of the day. Jonathan ran into trouble finding this out, getting a large dent on his back bumper and a driver's side door that no longer closes for his efforts last night. Rick Kent showed up to help him out and find the southern route around Manzanar. Others used the climber.org directions that go past the Shepherd Pass and Blair Creek THs, bypassing Manzanar altogether. We had ten folks out of 30 that had signed up for the 5am start.

The bushwhacking all takes place in the first mile and a half and we accomplished much of it by headlamp. Others (Michael, Rick) had been up several times and myself four times previously, which helped some in knowing approximately where to cross the creek. Still, downfalls and conditions change each year, making it a new adventure each time. I got behind near the end of the bushwhacking by staying too long on the north side of the creek, thinking I'd found a good trail the others had missed. It ended badly and I had to retrace my steps back and spend 15 minutes catching up with the others. Sean fared even worse, getting lost in a morass of willow and heavy brush and was almost an hour in catching up with us. He was very unhappy about the adventure at this point, declaring no peak was worth such trouble.

We were three hours in reaching the main fork in the canyon. Sean, Tom and Jen took the left fork to head for Carl Heller, the rest of us taking the right fork for Trojan and Barnard East. From the fork at 9,000ft we still had more than 4,500ft of climbing - this was not an easy day. We climbed another 1,500ft up from the fork (and the only good camping area in the canyon) through forest, talus and boulders to the unnamed lake. We went up the sand/talus funnel leading to the large cirque between Barnard East, Barnard and Trojan. Michael and I curved left and climbed 2,000ft of boulders to Barnard East's summit, the others (JD, Paul, Pat, Jonathan and Rick) heading right to Trojan.

There was a tiny film cannister register on Barnard with a single entry from 2006 by Brian French. The Trojan register was reported to back only a few years, supplemented with the requisite Trojan condom. The weather today was most cooperative, much like yesterday. We had little sun for most of the morning as clouds gathered slowly overhead. By the time we reached the summit they were gray and growing darker. The top 200-300ft of Mt. Whitney were in the clouds. We did not spend much time at the summit as it looked like rain might start anytime. There were a few drops that fell periodically on the descent, but not enough to wet the ground at all.

Pat was the first to summit today and was well down the canyon before I caught sight of her hours later. It was only because she was unsure of the route that I caught up to her at all. Along with Michael, the three of us finished between 2:15pm and 2:30pm. Jonathan made his way out of the jungle another ten minutes later, the others later still (we left shortly after Jonathan returned). All in all, a good day. Tomorrow we venture up to Shepherds Pass, with various folks going after Tyndall, Tyndall West, Junction, Keith and possibly others. It'll be good to rest up after the last day. If you're in Independence tomorrow, feel free to stop by Rays Den and join us for beers on the veranda around 6pm.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:40 am
by Bob Burd
Day 10 - Tyndall West

Tyndall West is a 13,500-foot summit located - wait for it - west of Mt. Tyndall. It lands on the CA 13er list with something like 450ft of prominence, which seemed as good a reason as any to put it on the Challenge. That and I happen to like the Shepherd Pass Trail.

We had about a dozen folks for the 5am start, heading to various summits besides Tyndall West, including Tyndall, Junction, Keith and Polychrome. Everyone that started out made it to the summit, a few added Polychrome (just southeast of Shepherd Pass) as a bonus. I'd write more but already had a few too many beers on the veranda this evening. But it was a beautiful day with large, dark clouds that made for pretty pictures but little threat - just a few drops were all we got out of it. Despite the uncertain weather most days, we had a successful ten days. Awards as follows:

Yellow Jersey:
1 - Sean O'Rourke
2 - Bob Burd
3 - Michael Graupe
4 - Tom Grundy

Polka Dot:
1 - Sean O'Rourke
2 - Tom Grundy
3- JD Morris

Green:
1- Jonathan Bourne
2 - Pat Hadley
3 - Phil Donehower

White:
1 - Kevin Pabinquit
2 - Jen Blackie

Thanks to everyone that came out and made it great fun. Already looking forward to 2013.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:21 am
by Kahuna
The bushwhacking all takes place in the first mile and a half and we accomplished much of it by headlamp. Others (Michael, Rick) had been up several times and myself four times previously, which helped some in knowing approximately where to cross the creek. Still, downfalls and conditions change each year, making it a new adventure each time. I got behind near the end of the bushwhacking by staying too long on the north side of the creek, thinking I'd found a good trail the others had missed. It ended badly and I had to retrace my steps back and spend 15 minutes catching up with the others. Sean fared even worse, getting lost in a morass of willow and heavy brush and was almost an hour in catching up with us. He was very unhappy about the adventure at this point, declaring no peak was worth such trouble.


OK, any takers on signing up to do some foundational trail work next year on this jungle fest approach? BOB?

VM keeps progging me but I am not going at it alone. Hopefully VM will be the first in line to grab a pair of shears. Let me know via PM.


Hats off to ya'll that stayed safe throughout this event and kept plugging along each day. The weather most certainly was not conducive to a "fun" time by most.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:33 pm
by Vitaliy M.
Sierra Challenge consists of many folks, some local to CA some not. I had the pleasure to meet some in 2010 when I participated in this event. Many get out to Sierra often. I feel like it is reasonable to give back to a place we love. If there is serious planning and green light for volunteers to help with building a trail through George Creek I would love to help, and would encourage others to do so as well. If there is solid plans I believe we could gather a lot of people to help. I can contact many people through other internet groups and we can even involve AAC with notifying climbers to come out and help. There are lots of gems climbed and unclimbed up that creek. Great potential for ski touring as well.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:04 am
by Bob Burd
I have mixed feelings concerning trail building in George Creek. It appears that there is hardly more traffic since the removal of the Sheep closure than before when it was open for only a few months. A huge part of the draw (to me) is the wild nature of the route. A trail will both tame and draw more folks. I don't really feel that the Sierra needs more trails.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:21 am
by boyblue
Way back in my 'noob' years I thrashed my way up George Creek and somehow bungled my way to the summit of Williamson. This was in late December. (I didn't want to violate the sheep restrictions.) I had no beta about the approach except for the word, "arduous" found in Roper's guide. (He was right, IMO.) At the time it was one of the best adventures of my life and I would hate to see that wonderful and once wild canyon 'tamed'.

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 4:40 am
by Vitaliy M.
Bob Burd wrote:I have mixed feelings concerning trail building in George Creek. It 1) appears that there is hardly more traffic since the removal of the Sheep closure than before when it was open for only a few months. 2)A huge part of the draw (to me) is the wild nature of the route. A trail will both tame and draw more folks. I don't really feel that the Sierra needs more trails.


1) Hardly more traffic because not many regular folks want to trash their way through the thing. Although personally we were glad to go there 'legally' to do that winter ascent of Carl Heller.
2) Thought about that myself. I will admit, I kind of want others to go through the same bushwhack to reach the beauty that lies up the canyon. I went through it twice myself. Once 'in my noob days' (although I believe my noob days are not behind me :) ) for Williamson, and once in winter for Carl Heller. Big part of the draw towards Carl Heller was the lack of many people in the area- sense of real adventure. If hardcore climbers of the past were able to haul loads of gear up to the base of the climbs they put up through GC, than I guess the ones who have the will to suffer just a bit, will have enough to get them where they want to be. And ones without it, don't deserve the beauty of what it has to offer. Maybe you are right. I don't know. Have mixed feelings myself. A trail to that part of Sierra may bring more tourists to the town of Independence though. More skiers, more hikers, more climbers. That canyon has a lot to offer to all kinds of people...

Re: 2012 Sierra Challenge Aug 10-19

PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:23 am
by madeintahoe
I have not yet had the pleasure to explore going up George Creek and beyond...have just read about the trek on a few trip reports..and what I have read states there is a faint use trail....would this use trail not be good enough to just leave as is? I am curious what the reason is to go in there and make a more visible trail?

I understand that some areas can get multible trails all in the same area..and new ones get made if a fallen tree blocks the trail and is not removed..than people start going around it which makes a new trail..which is not good....but it does not seem like GC has these multible trails in there..but I am not sure since I have not been there?

For those of you who have been up GC...are you seeing more multible trails starting?
I do not like the idea of possible having to remove native plants/vegatation just to make a trail more visible to people.