Here are several links to the still ongoing search for Matt:
- https://www.facebook.com/findmattgreene/
- http://www.highsierratopix.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=12843
- http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2195321/Missing-friend-in-Mammoth-Lakes-area
Our day was 15 hours car to car, one of my longest days in the Sierras yet. Matt being in good shape shook it off as another day. We chatted almost all day while we could. He was a school teacher from Pennsylvania who would take a road trip every summer out west. He had interesting insights to philosophical and spiritual ideas which made our long day seems to fly by. In particular, he was a long distance running and at that time, I was just about to run my first half marathon race. I accredit our conversation that day to taking my running to a whole new level. He alone put the idea in my mind to run a full marathon in which I did about six months later.
Truth be told, I wasn't even aware that he was missing. I was aware of a missing person and the associated hype when the event happened. Many people going missing in the Sierras every year, some found, some never. Honestly, the name didn't ring a bell for the first year, only until I starting realizing this was the "teacher from Pennsylvania" did I realize who it was.
Anyhow... this is the story of our day on the North Arete of the Bear Creek Spire.
The Bear Creek Spire (13,720') is one heck of an iconic peak in the Sierras. I think it rivals mountains like Temple Crag and the east face of Whitney. The background logo to one of my favorite beers is the Bear Creek Spire. Check it out, Epic IPA. Located along the Sierra crest it makes the headwaters of course the Bear Creek which flow west towards the San Joaquin and Rock Creek which flows east down towards the Owens.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say about 99% of people approach this mountain from the east side (Rock Creek).
- In August 2015, I did a 4 day backpacking trip through the region on the west side of the BCS. Check it out.
The Mosquito Flat trail head sits at 10,260' making it the highest point (trail head that is) in the Sierra Nevada and one of the highest public access roads in the US. From the trail head the approach involves 3.5 miles on very nice trail through the Little Lakes Valley which is incredibility scenic. This is a very popular destination for fisherman and backpackers alike. After the trail dies out, one must climb another 2.5 miles cross country across some tedious boulders just to reach the base of the mountain.
There are several routes that go up the BCS, but generally speaking two stand out as classic routes in Sierra alpine climbing. Those two routes are...
- North Arete 5.8 - 800' height of route.
- Northeast Ridge 5.5 - 1200' height of route.
After making contact with my climbing partner Matt online, I switched my route from the NE ridge to the North Arete as Matt agreed to lead the 5.8 pitch.
Thursday June 28th 2012:
I awoke at 5:00am in the East Fork campground located 10 minutes down the hill from the Mosquito Flat trail head. The evening before I drove back from Fresno over Tioga pass and made my way into an empty campsite around 10pm. A quick bowl of oatmeal and coffee and I was off the meet Matt at the trail head by 6am.
Above: The BCS rises above at the end of the Little Lakes Valley.
Below: Matt leads the charge after leaving the trail at Gem Lakes.
Above: The BCS basking in morning sun. 3 prominent routes are seen, East Ridge (5.7) dropping from the summit down left, The North Arete (5.8) dropping straight down from the summit, and the Northeast ridge (5.5) dropping down and left off the summit.
Below: Looking back down the Little Lakes Valley (Rock Creek).
We arrived at the base of the North Arete by 9:30am, about 3 and a half hours after leaving the trail head. The final portion of the approach did involve crossing a final snowfield to the head wall of the route. This can be seen in the pictures above. It was a little spicy trying to cross the bullet hard snow without an crampons but the sun cups allows a somewhat non slip surface to cross. In the annotation picture below, the first pitch was covered by snow, We began our first roped pitch at the section labeled "5.7".
Above: Annotated route picture - Photo Credit: Mark Thomas
Below: The North Arete was quite the site and really intimidating!
Here is a breakdown of the climb for us:
- Snow covered.
- Follow: 5.7 sustained james and stemming.
- Lead: Steep flakes lead to a low angle chute with bad rope drag.
- Follow: Blocky low angle arete.
- Lead: Low angle corner.
- Followed: Crux pitch, not that bad. Just chimney/stemming.
- Lead: Tunnel through pitch, low angle.
- Followed: Low angle, lots of rope drag.
- The rest of the climb we unroped and soloed. Too blocky with drag.
Above: Looking up Pitch 1.
Below: Matt being from the east coast had.....tri cams (gasp!)
Above: The crux pitch 5.8
Below: Halfway up the route the Northeast ridge joins.
Above: Looking back from our pitch 8 I believe. The crux pitch passed the tower on east side, after that is honestly pretty low angle terrain from there on out.
Below: Eventuality, the North Arete and Northeast ridge join up to finish at the summit. Seen below is flakes and block madness until the summit. Since we had unroped long ago we opted for the 4th/Easy 5th bypass on the west side of the ridge.
Above: 3pm - Summit. The summit boulder is an unprotected 5.6 mantle. I tried for 5 minutes trying to figure out a piece of protection on to find it pointless. Matt is seen waiting patiently for me to summit and come back down.
Below: From the summit looking north towards Merriam Peak, Royce Peak, and Feather Peak.
Above: You'll have to excuse the summit photo. This was my "Go Pro" phase. Where are the videos you ask? I'd like to know myself...can't find them anywhere.
Below: The descent involves a rappel of the summit block down about 100' back to 3rd class ledges. From there its about 800' of talus and scree on the west side of the BCS towards a notch in which you can either rappel again of take your chances in a very dirty loose gully. Seen below is Matt after we finished the last rappel and began the 2 and a half miles of talus back towards the trail.
The photo above was taken almost at 4:30. This was last photo I took for the day and from there time really started to blur. We eventually reached the Mosquito Flat trail head at 9:00pm, 15 hours after starting. Only my day on the West Face of Mt. Williamson which was 17 tent to tent was longer. The last hour out was via headlamp and I recall the mosquitoes by the lakes being horrendous! Matt and I parted ways at the trail head. I had the long trek of driving home in front of me. I stopped at the McDonald's in Mammoth and ate 2 Big Mac burgers in my car. I don't think I had ever done that before nor have I done that since. Now one of the strangest things happened to me on the drive home that night. When I tell this story to some people, they think I was hallucinating due to my extreme fatigue from the day... no way man... this happened.
I crossed the Tioga Pass gate entrance around midnight and there was zero traffic on the road that night. Somewhere past Tenya lake, I was driving down a straight section and I see some people flagging me down with flashlights. I begin to slow and see that their car is broken down and perhaps 5 of them are standing out by it. As my lights being to show more of them I can see they're all wearing dark monk outfits. Seriously, I can even see the light reflecting on their crosses around their necks. This was obviously a strange sight to be seen at 1am on the middle of nowhere. I slow down and roll down my window and one of them politely asks for a ride to one of the campgrounds where others are waiting. I agree and 3 of them pile in my car and we take off towards a campground. They explain they're from El Paso TX on a road trip meeting others. After about an hour I arrive at a campground where strangely there are other monks there awake and excited to see them. I bid them farewell and drive off home. Strange huh? It happened.
Stats:
Car to Car time: 15 hours
Roped pitches: 8, could probably solo the last two.
Distance: 12 miles round trip, 5 being XC
Rack: Half Rope, gear to 3" lots of double length slings.
Gain: 3,700'
