West Slope from Bishop Pass

Approach

Follow the directions on the main page to Bishop Pass. The approach takes roughly 2-2.5 hours from South Lake.

Route Description

From the pass, there appear to be many possible routes up the peak, and it is not immediately obvious which choice is preferred. Just about any of them will take you up to the summit, but with varying degrees of difficulty--none of them should be more than third class.

The 'usual' route, judging from footprints and occasional cairns, follows the low-angle left-side of the face, as viewed from the vicinity of the pass. This is a straightforward, if boring, hike up stable talus (easy class 2), with no particular route-finding challenges.

A more enjoyable option, albeit less direct (and, needless to say, substantially slower), is to follow one of the right-hand chutes. The first and second chutes from the right feature some enjoyable third class scrambling in places (a good deal of it optional, some of it not), with a mixture of ledges, friction slabs, and boulders to surmount. I followed the second chute from the right up to a headwall part-way up, where a couple of easy third class moves led to the rightmost chute. (A class 2 exit to the left chute may also be possible for those looking to keep the difficulty down). Follow the rightmost chute up a system of ledges, keeping to its lefthand side to stay on solid rock. This eventually leads to an exit to the summit ridge, where you head left over seemingly endless class 2 talus to the summit. Don't drop the register on the summit, or you could spend a few minutes trying to retrieve it from in between the boulders. I speak from experience. :-)

This description is a little imprecise, but the exact details probably aren't important. Just about any route should go with just a little route-finding.

Essential Gear

None required during the summer months.

Miscellaneous Info

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