Relief Peak Climber's Log

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Themuffinman430 - Oct 26, 2020 9:38 pm Date Climbed: Oct 1, 2020

incredible hike to what I thought was Relief Peak turned out to be un-named 10530 peak  Sucess!

The hike started around 10am at relief reservoir. My father and I hiked down to the Kennedy Lake fork where we began a short grade upwards. We eventually reached the bridge where we got water from the hopefully pure stream which tasted great and looked fine giving me no issues. We continued along the trail which ran adjacent to the Kennedy Lake Creek, and tried to imagine how to scale the grade 3 granite formations on the other side of the creek beginning the ascent of the peak. After following the trail for about perhaps 2 miles from the fork, night cap was at about 8 o'clock from a dry creek bed leading directly to Kennedy creek, which seemed like a good spot to start the climb. It must have been 11:30am, 74 degrees, and 7000 feet when the climb began and my father and I parted ways, taking some deep breaths. Climbing began with granite with good grips but maybe 20 foot max exposure onto more granite. Then the forest thickened and no trail. Mostly flat for a quarter mile over gradual grainte slopes and forest. Then real climb followed, as the tree-line went up very steep. Too many pine needles made the climb slippery, so the best way found was to climb up the creekbed, which was still incredibly steep, but seemed the most direct upwards having more grips and steps. The first 1000ft climb up granite, creekbeds and scrambling up tree-line lasted maybe an hour and a half, note 'maybe' because no watch was available. At last after constant climbing, a small granite plateau presented itself with some campsites looking out over the valley with tremendous elevation as well as Nightcap Peak. Looking straight over to similar peaks suggested the ascent was 1/3 complete. After a couple sips of water the scale up to the top of the treeline continued. Ok more climbing blah, there's a path finally, up and to left. It leads to just above one of the most beautiful lakes at 8600 feet, Sharon Lake. This looks at the SW face of this shale mountain. Moving to the right, following the foot of the loose rock ascent, there forms a ridge on the rh side leading directly to the top of this peak which is ~10500ft and is all steep shale scrambling and grabbing onto the occasional shrub of some sort for support over nearly 2000 feet of vertical elevation gain in just over a mile. But it's much more doable than the free solo adventure ridge to the left. The ridge looks over Sharon lake to the left and the steep valleys and drop offs to the right. By around 330 the highest point was achieved in the nearest 2mi radius. The hike down was confusing and ended up another 3 miles further up the trail than started, and scared my dad beyond belief as it was nearly pitch dark when I returned. There was not a single soul besides myself on this mountain. NOT RELIEF PEAK BUT A PEAK W OF IT. Only 200 feet less than Relief peak, but with a beautiful lake. Lucky to be alive, can't wait to do it again.

MarkRenicker - Jul 31, 2018 2:21 pm Date Climbed: Jul 12, 2018

Father-Daughter Climb up Relief  Sucess!

My daughter and I scrambled up Relief from the North side on a warm clear morning. We meandered around in awe of the view but we could see heavy cumulus clouds rapidly building nearby and soon decided to beat a retreat. We were disappointed to find no register as we have climbed the mountain several times before and were looking forward to meeting old friends and even our own names there from several decades earlier. This peak is absolutely worth the climb as one can see God's fingerprints all over the earth.

jonmeek16

jonmeek16 - Jul 18, 2012 6:12 pm Date Climbed: Jul 14, 2012

Dayhike Loop from Relief Res  Sucess!

Left our camp at 10:30am on the point at Relief Res. Bushwacked straight up the hillside until we hit the Grouse Creek Trail. Hit the summit at 3:30pm and descended into Soda Canyon. A little trouble route finding out of the canyon (almost walked right over the 2nd waterfall off a cliff) but eventually ran into the Kennedy Lake trail and took it back to the fork and eventually back to our base camp. A great day hike with some fishing in the morning at the lake. See my photo of the SPOT tracker points

Alpinist

Alpinist - Aug 19, 2007 10:45 pm Date Climbed: Aug 12, 2007

North Slope  Sucess!

I should have read the summit log before my trip. I made the same mistake as thebeave7 by attemping the ridge directly south of the tarn. I was stopped by the same deep notch and had to go back around the tarn to climb the ridge directly north of the peak. Beautiful day to be on the summit though... This is an extremely dry year. Both Grouse Creek Lake and the tarn west of the summit were completey dry. However, there was ample water in the smaller tarn to the SW of the summit.

thebeave7

thebeave7 - Jul 6, 2006 2:56 pm Date Climbed: Jun 29, 2006

Dayhike from Kennedy Meadows

Climbed up via Grouse Creek and tried to obtain the NW ridge that goes over point 10659, got blocked by a deep notch at 9800ft so had to descend back to 9400ft and climb the snow slope up the N face. Definately better as a snow climb. Views are spectacular from the summit.

lakenyon - May 14, 2006 10:44 pm Date Climbed: Aug 27, 2005

S Ridge  Sucess!

Good area, good views, but it would be better as a snow climb.

Matthew Holliman

Matthew Holliman - Jul 17, 2005 10:38 pm

Route Climbed: Northeast Ridge (ascent) / Southeast Ridge (descent) Date Climbed: June 3, 2005  Sucess!

Dayhike out of Kennedy Meadows; gained Relief Peak's NE Ridge from Grouse Creek and continued around over Molo Mtn. and Kennedy Peak, returning via Soda Canyon and Kennedy Creek. This was a longer day than it had looked on the map, with some truly awful scree to gain Relief's NE Ridge (a snow climb of the north face would be more enjoyable) and some tedious sidehilling on the way to Molo--but fortunately with some fantastic views that more than made up for the poor climbing.

derbilly

derbilly - Jul 6, 2005 2:08 pm

Route Climbed: Traverse from Kennedy Date Climbed: July 4, 2005  Sucess!

From a small lake to the west of Kennedy Pk, traversed up sun cupped snow slopes to a notch to the west of the large volcanic spire. Now on the south side of the ridge, I followed the ridge to Relief Pk. I took the ridge back and down to the Summit Creek head.

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