SummitPost.org

Armchair observation from the sideline: this young Eric must be a tough hombre if can keep up with Sean. I am enjoying reading both Bob's and Sean's daily reports, but would much prefer joining in the action. It looks like a large group of folks signed up, but from my past 8 SC's experience you never no exactly how many people will show up at 6am and what training has been done in preparation. Good luck to everyone from the old guy in the northwest corner of the U.S.
Scott

I almost got hit by lightning today too, and I was coming around Lake Sabrina! It hit on the other side of the lake just after 4PM. Definitely not a good day for such a demanding hike. I hope they're all ok too.

Matt

Bob Burd wrote:Bob got his butt kicked today on what was supposed to be an easy day. I have no energy to write much, so I'll just say that Sean and Eric continue to be unreal animals, Jonathan, Pat and Luke proved far more clever than I today. Off to bed. I have to get up at 3am. Ugh. Long outing to Black Divide over Echo Col. This is one of the expected butt-kickers.

Oh my......is vacation making you tired?

toxo wrote:Lol, Bob did not recognize me at the TH this morning. His excuse was that he did not expect me to actually show up at 4 am. Then he asked if it's OK to hug me... and did!

I hope the main group is OK. Lightning struck in that general direction several times today.

Toxo participated in a Sierra Challenge outing??? Pics or GTFO!

Vitaliy M. wrote:Toxo participated in a Sierra Challenge outing??? Pics or GTFO!

She did indeed. DNF'd though. Too bad, she'll be hecka jealous of today's summit photo.

Black Divide proved as difficult an outing as expected. It took four of us 8hrs just to reach the summit. Another 7hrs coming back. Ugh. Little time again for a second day in a row. This is not doing well for my needed beauty sleep. Jonathan, myself, Pat and Daria were together most of the day. Sean and Eric tore it up once again. They got to the summit almost an hour before us, and that was after visiting Black Giant first. Since that wasn't enough, they carried on to McDuffie and still got back to the TH before the rest of us. Sean might have dislocated or broken a finger in the effort. It wasn't looking too good when we saw it back at the TH. Michael Graupe and Tom Grundy also made it to Black Divide for a total of 8 for what was undoubtedly one of the toughest Challenge days ever.

There was something like 20 folks at the Sabrina TH and other half dozen at South Lake with a bunch of other peaks getting climbed including Thompson, Powell, Clyde Spires, Wallace, Haeckel and Picture Peak. The weather was an issue, but not a big one. I think there was more rain and lightning in Bishop than in the hills. There at least three fires burning in the foothills. Unfortunately I'm running late once again and need to sleep. Sorry for the short summary...

toxo wrote:Lol, Bob did not recognize me at the TH this morning. His excuse was that he did not expect me to actually show up at 4 am. Then he asked if it's OK to hug me... and did!

I hope the main group is OK. Lightning struck in that general direction several times today.

How about Daria and Toxo? Photos, hugs?

God, what a lame summary, sleep is over-rated! Post that photo from the summit!

3Deserts wrote:Hey, whoa, stop the presses: what the hell is THAT and why haven't I heard of it and why is there like zero information on this?

We wondered the same thing, but the register had half a dozen enties from from folks doing technical climbs. The most prominent appears to be: NE Ridge 5.8 II, FA Dingus Milktoast & Brutus of Wyde.

^^^I nearly checked that area out myself a couple of times last summer. It looks worthwhile.

3Deserts, it is just too darn far from the glitz of Hollywood with the 13ers, 14ers, Eastern Sierra, Yosemite, Tioga, Virginia Lakes, Green Creek, Sawtooth/Twin Lakes, Sonora Pass, Leavitt Meadows, and Tahoe drawing the crowds before they ever bother going down dusty dirt roads to find dry, dusty, warm, mostly lakeless terrain. I've been to the trailhead and hiked from several surrounding trailheads. It's a nice area for fishing and hiking/scrambling in solitude. I met some llamas, cattle, and horses nearby.

SeanReedy wrote:^^^I nearly checked that area out myself a couple of times last summer. It looks worthwhile.

3Deserts, it is just too darn far from the glitz of Hollywood with the 13ers, 14ers, Eastern Sierra, Yosemite, Tioga, Virginia Lakes, Green Creek, Sawtooth/Twin Lakes, Sonora Pass, Leavitt Meadows, and Tahoe drawing the crowds before they ever bother going down dusty dirt roads to find dry, dusty, warm, mostly lakeless terrain. I've been to the trailhead and hiked from several surrounding trailheads. It's a nice area for fishing and hiking/scrambling in solitude. I met some llamas, cattle, and horses nearby.

Agreed. The Bighorn range in WY gets the same treatment. Sick alpine rock but no one wants to make 30 mile round trips to climb a 2,000ft face on a 12k peak. They want the 14ers, which is fine......I get solitude here.

Bob Burd wrote:Sean might have dislocated or broken a finger in the effort. It wasn't looking too good when we saw it back at the TH.

Peak bagging will continue, but blogging will be limited.

Today's easy day was actually easy. Nice to get a break before things get tough again tomorrow. I'll try to summarize the past three days.

Day 2 - Twelve Flag / Adamson
These 13ers are located in the same area as Mt. Morgan South. Twelve Flags is immediately NE of Morgan and most participants climbed these two. Adamson is located several miles to the southeast of Twelve Flags along a brutal ridgeline that includes Broken Finger. I had been on Broken Finger before and thought the ridgeline from Twelve Flags to Broken Finger to be class 3. It turned out to be class 4-5. Eric and Sean blew threw like it was nothing. Jonathan took one look and dropped off a chute on the north side of the ridge, then up to Broken Finger. Pat and Luke did similarly on the south side of the ridge, bypassed Broken Finger and climbed the old mining road up to Adamson. Most everyone else called it a day after Morgan and Twelve Flags and went home. Luca and I spent almost three hours negotiating the ridgeline. By the time we got to the saddle with Broken Finger we were too tired to continue on the ridge. We then dropped down the south side and followed Pat and Luke up the old road several hours behind them. Troubles were not quite done - the descent route I had drawn on the map to get down to Tamarack Lake turned out to be harder than I expected. Again, poor memory. The better route, loose class 3, was closer to Broken Finger. The others figured this out, but I went down the crappy class 4 chute I had thought would be easier. Ugh. 7 folks made it to the two Challenge peaks.

Day 3 - Black Divide
Between McDuffie and Black Giant on the Black Divide is an unnamed 13er we simply called Black Divide. It is way out there. Of the eight participants that made it to the summit, they took anywhere from 15 to 18.5hrs. We were 4hrs in getting to Echo Col by 8am, after which we split up. We all dropped down to the JMT, then Sean and Eric went north towards Muir Pass to climb Black Giant and then follow it to Black Divide. The rest of us went south and took a horrible boulder field 1.5miles-long on the east side of Black Divide to climb the peak from the east. Everyone decided that dropping west off the summit was better than going back that awful boulder field. Somewhere around Black Giant Pass we had some hail and rain for about 20 minutes, but then it subsided and was quite nice until about 7pm. Sean managed to exit first, followed by Jonathan, Pat and myself on either side of 7pm. Eric's map had blown away while he was near the JMT and got confused as to where Echo Col was. He struggled some, but manage to get back around 7:30pm. Daria, Michael G and Tom G were several hours later and got rained on for hours. A very tiring day...

Day 4 - Keyhole Plateau
Keyhole Plateau is located between Mt Lamarck and Piute Pass, another unnamed 13er, but this one fairly easy. Most of the 20 participants made it to the summit and back before the afternoon thunderstorms are set to begin. There are several ways to approach Keyhole Plateau. Most folks hiked up to Piute Pass and approached from the NW. Three of us went up to Lower Lamarck Lake and then through Wonder Lakes to climb it from the east. This turned out to be the faster route (several miles shorter), but not by a whole lot. Another route goes to Upper Lamarck Lake and the to Sky High Lake to also climb it from the east. 6 or 7 of us used this latter route for descent since it had a nice sand/scree descent to Sky High Lake. Unfortunately between Sky High Lake and Upper Lamarck Lake is a mile-long boulder field that made it a poor choice.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Red Lake TH to climb another 13er (unofficially named Twin Peaks) near Mt. Prater. Weather is supposed to continue to be poor tomorrow. 5am start should help us get up and down before the worst of it.

Bob Burd wrote:then Sean and Eric went north towards Muir Pass to climb Black Giant and then follow it to Black Divide.

Tom G. did as well.

Also, given more information about my 5th metacarpal, peaks will probably not be bagged for a little while. Sorry, folks...