Returned Sunday evening after 4 days zigzagging over peaks on the Great Western Divide starting at Road’s End in Kings Canyon. On the way to Sphinx Lakes I heard what sounded like a bear running up a tree… sure enough it was a small cub, but no good pics of it.
A few thunderstorms off in the distance, but it had little impact as it was about all I could do to haul my 4 days of food up to the first camp at the base of Mount Brewer.
North Guard in the rain from camp
And camp at sunset
More sunset
Then next morning off to North Guard and the spectacular summit block. I had brought climbing shoes for this and Thunder Mountain, but rather than sit and think about things I just ran on up. Turned out to be more trivial than it looks.
Then up Mount Brewer. Returning to camp my gear was in disarray. Apparently a marmot or something had its way with it, luckily all it did was chew up my hiking poles.
Packed up camp, up and over South Guard, then off to Thunder Mountain for the fourth peak of the day. En route a nice view of Table Mountain.
The route to Thunder’s summit was much spicier than I anticipated. Turns out I went not the best way. Exposed class 4 (in red, showing looking back at the south summit). I returned a much more secure route shown in green, probably the way everyone else already knows to go.
The next morning up Table Mountain (day 3) via the west ridge, then down the southeast face. Luckily a group I met up there (only folks I saw the entire trip) mentioned the chockstone I had otherwise forgotten. I was standing on top of it nearly a minute trying to find a way down before I realized I could crawl under it.
Then off to Midway and Milestone. View of Milestone from the gap in the east ridge of Midway. It was storming to the north but obviously sunny for me.
The chute up Milestone’s east side.
View from Milestone to Midway, Table, and beyond. Brewer and Nouth Guard visible to the left of Midway here. Really enjoyed the scrambling at the top of Milestone, and the views.
By the end of the day I was exhausted. Turns out I have three tough days in me, not four. On day four I managed to drag my butt up Genevra on the way out. I had considered Jordon, I wanted to try a harder summit block, but there was no chance of me bothering with the extra mileage. Below Reflection Lake here is what passed for a trail… just a cairn amongst some flowers. At least it was downhill!