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| Climbing | 11.00 Miles |
8,183 AEG |
| | Climbing | 11.00 Miles | 19 Hrs | | 0.58 mph |
| 8,183 ft AEG | | | | |
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| Solo IV • 3rd Granite Excellent • 800 Feet | | |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | | Pro: none | I met up with my climbing partner Russell from Summitpost.com and we started up the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek at 9:15AM on Saturday the 8th. We got to Upper Boyscout Lake (UBSL) around 1:30PM and deposited our packs before we continued on to the Russell-Carillon Saddle via the Rockwell Variation. It was a slow, painful slog up moraine, talus, sliding scree, and rolling rocks that seemed to take forever. We made the saddle a little after 4PM and rested there a while before we started the east ridge. Route finding was a little tricky at first, and we wasted some time getting off route. Before we knew it, it was after 5PM and we knew we had to turn around, even without summiting. We started back down the way we came up. Down in scree is much faster than up and we were back at Upper Boyscout by 7:30PM. Having not summited Russell on day one, a second attempt on day two meant Whitney and Muir were out of the picture. Oh, well. Been there, done that.
Day two we headed up the standard route that leaves from just above Upper Boyscout. There are some rough use trails that ascend scree on the northeast side of the lake. They take you up to a gully of scree that leads to the Russell-Carillon Plateau, or to a gully of slabs and boulders which is much better. The scree gully is good for a speedy descent. This time, we made the summits. We got off route at one point on the east ridge, which was apparent because difficulty exceeded class 3, but a little route finding got me down to where we were supposed to be. Russell was faster than me on this, and we made our summits separately, but that made for some good pictures. The view from the top was well earned and enjoyable. We descended as we came up, and were down rather quickly and back at UBSL by 4:20PM- just in time! Russell wanted to get home to San Diego, and he left that night. I spent a relaxed evening at UBSL and descended the North Fork on Monday the 10th. Going up the ledges is not too difficult with a 46 pound pack, but it is a real pain to descend them with that pack weight.
The elevation gain is so high because I climbed to 13,800' or a little above on the east ridge twice from UBSL. That added 2,462' to the normal 5,721' from the portal to the west summit. Actual elevation may be several hundred feet more, but I don't know for sure so I am being conservative.
This was a great Sierra climb and even though it was very exposed and unnerving at the time, it gets better with memory and I would like to do it again some day. I recommend it, if you like exposure. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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