Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: Oct. 10 '03
Awsome! Best non-technical climb I have ever done. Exposure was just enough to keep all senses on high alert. Climbing was always fun, with no real difficulty but enough challenge to keep it interesting (unlike other climbs that turn into nothing more than boring scree / talus hiking).
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 23 2003
This was the most rewarding peak I've climbed so far. Did a solo dayhike. It looked intimidating and that's probably what made it so rewarding. It's not as bad as it looks and I never had to go over anything that exceeded class 3. I'll definitely be doing this one again some time.
Route Climbed: Rockwell variation/East ridge Date Climbed: Sept 10, 2003
Another successful solo summit. Though I will have to admit the traverse made me a little nervous at times. The most exhilarating peak I've done to date, finished in 9 hours from the portal(blah).
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 10, 2003
Pretty awesome mountain. Left the portal at 12:30 am Summited at 8:40 am (I spent about 1 hr scrambling on Mt. Carillon), came down the South Face Right Side. From there I climbed Whitney and Muir. 3 peaks in one day on my 33rd birthday. What a party!
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 9,2003
We had a great time climbing the airy east ridge. We downclimbed the South Slope, dropped to Iceberg Lake and had jaw-dropping views of Whitney and Keeler Needle.
Great climb! It definitely has been the most exposed route that I've done to date. I climbed this peak with Suet Fei Li and Joel Wilson as part of a trip with CHAOS.
I've gotta come back to try the Russell-Whitney Traverse that Bob Burd did in the '02 Sierra Challenge.
Route Climbed: E Arete Date Climbed: 28 July, 2001
Ascent #1: Started from Whitney Portal @ 5.22. Got altitude sickness @ Upper Boy Scout Lake, but perservered until attaining true summit. Felt sick as a dog by this point, and veg'ed for an hour and a half. Made it back to parking lot by 21.20- long day. Trip report.
#2: Fishhook Arête with G-Town. Started route @ 9.38, summited at 16.48. An exceptional, superb, exhilirating climb up an amazing peak. Bomber rock, good pro', stimulating exposure! The ridge ends AT the summit (& the technical climbing maybe 15' below)! Can really fly up upper part of ridge as is not as sustained as lower part (most of the upper pitches I placed 3 pieces or less per pitch, & none on one of them). Did in 9 (or was it 10?) pitches to lessen rope drag. Awesome day on a great route with a good friend/climbing partner. There is nothing (required) harder on this route than 5.8.
#3. Traverse from 'Mt. Morgenson.' After starting from the Whitney Portal TH @ 6.14, summited Morgenson @ 10.24. Hung out on the summit for about 1/2 an hour, then followed Bob, Sean, & Rick as they made their way towards Russell. I must point out that as soon as Sean told me they were leaving, I chugged my beer then followed- they were long gone by this point. While the climber in me initially tried to stick to the true ridge, I realized that unless I wanted to take all day, this wouldn't be feasible (at a certain point I would have wanted a rope, too, which I didn't have). So at a certain point I swallowed my pride, dropped down, & just tried to find the easiest way over to the 'base' of Russell. I will iterate that this traverse is non-trivial; in fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. A far more sane thing to do would be to just drop down to the basin below, & walk back along it to where Russell begins. Trust me. "3rd to 4th class" my ass. Regardless, think I summited around 12.50 or so. Departed summit at 13.15, down to the Russell-Carillon col (thanks for the suggestion, guys), to Clyde Meadow (nice to meet up with & hang with you 'til the end, JD), to the Portal! Back at the standard route beginning @ 16.37. . What a f$%!ing day
#4: Mithral Dihedral (6.13.'12)
w/ Faith. Route lived up to the hype & expectations I'd created through the years (which is amazing)- classic climb up one of the coolest & most sustained dihedrals I've ever laid eyes upon... THE dihedral was MONEY!!! The preceding, 'warm-up' dihedral was fun, too. Great day!
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: January 18, 2003
Winter attempt of the East Ridge of Russell, with René Renteria and Chris Burke. Unfortunately, we did not make the summit. We did reach the East summit (the lower one of the two) at 3 pm, and winter days are short. We decided to return to the Russell-Carillon saddle so as to not be taken by the night while on the ridge. Next time we will leave earlier in the morning. The route is long, especially in winter condition when the snow on the ridge requires extra caution. Trip report
Route Climbed: South Face Date Climbed: July 4, 2002
Mt. Russell was peak #3 for the day for ScottyS and I. We started with Muir, continued up the trail to Whitney, descended the north slope of Whitney, and gained the South Face. We ascended both summits, and descended the East Ridge, which was very cool by itself. From there we ascended Mt. Carillon for peak #4, and headed down the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek to the Portal.
Route Climbed: South Face Date Climbed: August 1980
An easy and uneventful way to torture my boss at the time ( who wanted to climb Whitney East face but chickened out ). I smoked a joint on the top just to mock him to boot! Glad i don't do that stuff any more!
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: September 14th, 2002
Perfect day for a climb up Russell. Forjan and I did this as a long day hike. Did the Rockwell Variation on the approach, climbed the East Ridge and descended the South Slope and main chute from the Russell-Carillon Saddle back to Clyde Meadow. I must agree with John in re-naming the Rockwell Chute the "Just Shoot Me Now" chute as he describes is his trip report. This is one hell of a loose sand/rock slog that will test your mental endurance for sure. But the climb was worth it. The views and the East Ridge are stellar. All in all an awesome day!
Route Climbed: Fishook Arete Date Climbed: July 10, 2002
Soloed the Fishook Arete (III, 5.8 -- some people say 5.9) this morning. This is one damn fine rock climb. It has everything you could ask for: great exposure, consistent difficulty, fantastic rock, and a spectacular setting. The arete hosts a wide variety of features: face climbing on knobs, splitter hand cracks, knife-edge traverses, and even a squeeze chimney. Some people have called the crux 5.9+ and claim there are several sections of 5.9 and 5.8+ on the route, but they're having high altitude delusions. The hardest move is about 5.7 or 5.7+. The actual climb took 43 minutes. Car to car in just under 6 hours. I hiked up a "different" way so that took some extra time.
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 2001
Such a fun route. We thought we were doing great on the 3rd class ridge. We handled the exposure, and only got on hands and knees once. On the final ridge between the two summits we met a couple guys who had just finished a ropeless ascent of the fishook arete (5.8). We were humbled as they jumped from rock to rock past us mere lowly mortals. Still a fine summit with great views of Willimason and Whitney. Must go back and climb a technical route, maybe Fishook or one of the long dihedral routes.
RSN473 - Mar 4, 2004 11:58 am
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: July 14, 2001Sustained 3rd class climbing at it's best.
Robt - Nov 5, 2003 3:43 pm
Route Climbed: E. Ridge Date Climbed: Oct. 2002TDRoberts - Oct 20, 2003 9:23 am
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: Oct. 10 '03Awsome! Best non-technical climb I have ever done. Exposure was just enough to keep all senses on high alert. Climbing was always fun, with no real difficulty but enough challenge to keep it interesting (unlike other climbs that turn into nothing more than boring scree / talus hiking).
Rick Kent - Oct 9, 2003 3:02 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 23 2003This was the most rewarding peak I've climbed so far. Did a solo dayhike. It looked intimidating and that's probably what made it so rewarding. It's not as bad as it looks and I never had to go over anything that exceeded class 3. I'll definitely be doing this one again some time.
Guilty - Oct 7, 2003 8:37 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: 08/25/98 and 09/30/00Solo from trailhead. Roundtrip under 7hrs in 1998, and traverse to Whitney in 2000.
thebeave7 - Sep 11, 2003 7:32 pm
Route Climbed: Rockwell variation/East ridge Date Climbed: Sept 10, 2003Another successful solo summit. Though I will have to admit the traverse made me a little nervous at times. The most exhilarating peak I've done to date, finished in 9 hours from the portal(blah).
Zzyzx - Aug 11, 2003 11:52 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 10, 2003Pretty awesome mountain. Left the portal at 12:30 am Summited at 8:40 am (I spent about 1 hr scrambling on Mt. Carillon), came down the South Face Right Side. From there I climbed Whitney and Muir. 3 peaks in one day on my 33rd birthday. What a party!
Dave K - Aug 10, 2003 7:47 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 9,2003We had a great time climbing the airy east ridge. We downclimbed the South Slope, dropped to Iceberg Lake and had jaw-dropping views of Whitney and Keeler Needle.
PellucidWombat - Jul 8, 2003 12:13 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: 7/5/03Great climb! It definitely has been the most exposed route that I've done to date. I climbed this peak with Suet Fei Li and Joel Wilson as part of a trip with CHAOS.
I've gotta come back to try the Russell-Whitney Traverse that Bob Burd did in the '02 Sierra Challenge.
Diggler - Mar 18, 2003 8:07 am
Route Climbed: E Arete Date Climbed: 28 July, 2001Ascent #1: Started from Whitney Portal @ 5.22. Got altitude sickness @ Upper Boy Scout Lake, but perservered until attaining true summit. Felt sick as a dog by this point, and veg'ed for an hour and a half. Made it back to parking lot by 21.20- long day. Trip report.
#2: Fishhook Arête with G-Town. Started route @ 9.38, summited at 16.48. An exceptional, superb, exhilirating climb up an amazing peak. Bomber rock, good pro', stimulating exposure! The ridge ends AT the summit (& the technical climbing maybe 15' below)! Can really fly up upper part of ridge as is not as sustained as lower part (most of the upper pitches I placed 3 pieces or less per pitch, & none on one of them). Did in 9 (or was it 10?) pitches to lessen rope drag. Awesome day on a great route with a good friend/climbing partner. There is nothing (required) harder on this route than 5.8.
#3. Traverse from 'Mt. Morgenson.' After starting from the Whitney Portal TH @ 6.14, summited Morgenson @ 10.24. Hung out on the summit for about 1/2 an hour, then followed Bob, Sean, & Rick as they made their way towards Russell. I must point out that as soon as Sean told me they were leaving, I chugged my beer then followed- they were long gone by this point. While the climber in me initially tried to stick to the true ridge, I realized that unless I wanted to take all day, this wouldn't be feasible (at a certain point I would have wanted a rope, too, which I didn't have). So at a certain point I swallowed my pride, dropped down, & just tried to find the easiest way over to the 'base' of Russell. I will iterate that this traverse is non-trivial; in fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. A far more sane thing to do would be to just drop down to the basin below, & walk back along it to where Russell begins. Trust me. "3rd to 4th class" my ass. Regardless, think I summited around 12.50 or so. Departed summit at 13.15, down to the Russell-Carillon col (thanks for the suggestion, guys), to Clyde Meadow (nice to meet up with & hang with you 'til the end, JD), to the Portal! Back at the standard route beginning @ 16.37. . What a f$%!ing day
#4: Mithral Dihedral (6.13.'12)
w/ Faith. Route lived up to the hype & expectations I'd created through the years (which is amazing)- classic climb up one of the coolest & most sustained dihedrals I've ever laid eyes upon... THE dihedral was MONEY!!! The preceding, 'warm-up' dihedral was fun, too. Great day!
Romain - Jan 24, 2003 12:54 am
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: January 18, 2003Winter attempt of the East Ridge of Russell, with René Renteria and Chris Burke. Unfortunately, we did not make the summit. We did reach the East summit (the lower one of the two) at 3 pm, and winter days are short. We decided to return to the Russell-Carillon saddle so as to not be taken by the night while on the ridge. Next time we will leave earlier in the morning. The route is long, especially in winter condition when the snow on the ridge requires extra caution. Trip report
agorokhov - Jan 3, 2003 3:22 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 2002rmjwinters - Oct 6, 2002 6:35 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: July 5 2002Beautiful weather and quite a slog up. East ridge was easy and pleasant. See trip report for more details.
bearbnz - Sep 27, 2002 6:36 pm
Route Climbed: South Face Date Climbed: July 4, 2002Mt. Russell was peak #3 for the day for ScottyS and I. We started with Muir, continued up the trail to Whitney, descended the north slope of Whitney, and gained the South Face. We ascended both summits, and descended the East Ridge, which was very cool by itself. From there we ascended Mt. Carillon for peak #4, and headed down the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek to the Portal.
Craig Peer - Sep 23, 2002 12:50 pm
Route Climbed: South Face Date Climbed: August 1980An easy and uneventful way to torture my boss at the time ( who wanted to climb Whitney East face but chickened out ). I smoked a joint on the top just to mock him to boot! Glad i don't do that stuff any more!
mdostby - Sep 15, 2002 3:36 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: September 14th, 2002Perfect day for a climb up Russell. Forjan and I did this as a long day hike. Did the Rockwell Variation on the approach, climbed the East Ridge and descended the South Slope and main chute from the Russell-Carillon Saddle back to Clyde Meadow. I must agree with John in re-naming the Rockwell Chute the "Just Shoot Me Now" chute as he describes is his trip report. This is one hell of a loose sand/rock slog that will test your mental endurance for sure. But the climb was worth it. The views and the East Ridge are stellar. All in all an awesome day!
John - Aug 27, 2002 2:17 am
Route Climbed: East Ridge + 5.4 Approach Date Climbed: August 24, 2002Nice day with Bob's 2002 Sierra Mountaineers Challenge group. See my SP Trip Report for more detail.
scottyb - Aug 26, 2002 10:56 pm
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: July 2, 2001Fun day hike from the Portal
Josh - Jul 10, 2002 5:57 pm
Route Climbed: Fishook Arete Date Climbed: July 10, 2002Soloed the Fishook Arete (III, 5.8 -- some people say 5.9) this morning. This is one damn fine rock climb. It has everything you could ask for: great exposure, consistent difficulty, fantastic rock, and a spectacular setting. The arete hosts a wide variety of features: face climbing on knobs, splitter hand cracks, knife-edge traverses, and even a squeeze chimney. Some people have called the crux 5.9+ and claim there are several sections of 5.9 and 5.8+ on the route, but they're having high altitude delusions. The hardest move is about 5.7 or 5.7+. The actual climb took 43 minutes. Car to car in just under 6 hours. I hiked up a "different" way so that took some extra time.
darinchadwick - Apr 2, 2002 5:15 am
Route Climbed: East Ridge Date Climbed: August 2001Such a fun route. We thought we were doing great on the 3rd class ridge. We handled the exposure, and only got on hands and knees once. On the final ridge between the two summits we met a couple guys who had just finished a ropeless ascent of the fishook arete (5.8). We were humbled as they jumped from rock to rock past us mere lowly mortals. Still a fine summit with great views of Willimason and Whitney. Must go back and climb a technical route, maybe Fishook or one of the long dihedral routes.