Russell on Mount Russell

You've been to Mount Russell you say? Yes, you're correct, remember my ascent of the East Ridge in June 2013? If you don't recall that, then give that a read over. You'll learn all about Mount Russell (a California 14er) and the most excellent East Ridge route. Russ, having not been too Russell yet was not liking a solo venture up the exposed 3rd class route, thus I agreed to climb it again with him. Our plan originally was....

• Drive in the first day.
• Car-to-car climb Russell.
• Day 3, ascend the Shepard Pass trail to anvil camp.
• Day 4, summit Mount Tyndall and hike plus drive home. 

The problem with this plan? - We're old and fat now. As we found out, the summit of Russell alone killed both of us. We then decided to pass on another 14er right away. So the list remains unfinished. Together our sole remaining California 14er is Mount Tyndall. That was a lot to keep track of, let's get on to the pictures...

Tuesday July 12th 2016:

We drove in and spent the night at the Lone Pine Campground. Just like 3 years earlier when Kristine and I stayed there, I awoke at 4am to get the day started. Oatmeal and coffee and we where on our way up the hill to Whitney Portal. We hit the trail right at 5:15am and again like last time, got to watch an amazing eastern Sierra sunrise over the desert while climbing out of the canyon!

Here come the highlights since my full write up was in my June 2013 trip report. You'll recall the Eschbacher ledges and of course the sucker trail? Well this time we flew by those with no problems.

Above: The trail navigates a waterfall just below the Eschbacher ledges.

Below: I wave back on the Eschbacher ledges.

Above: The use trail cuts here across the stream to the slabs on the far side. No bushwhacking and wet shoes this year.

Below: Looking back down on Russ ascending the scree slope to the Russell-Carillon Pass. Still 1,500' of scree, that hadn't changed from last time.

Above: The eastern face of Mount Whitey. Routes seen here are The East Face (5.7), The East Buttress (5.7), and the Mountaineers Route (Class 3).

Below: Looking at the East Ridge of Russell.

Above: Altitude exhaustion caught up to me at the pass. I took about a 30 minute nap to recharge and then we were off to climb the ridge. Pictured above is the northern aspect of the ridge line. 

Below: Approaching the first tower where difficulties are bypassed on the right side (north).

Above: Just past the 2nd tower looking up towards the eastern summit. Our route would be the same as my decent route 3 years ago. The gully with snow in it has a low notch at the top. We passed through that to bypass the eastern summit.

Below: Looking back on the first tower from the second tower.

Above: The tunnel through notch bypassing the eastern summit.

Below: From notch, more 3rd class traversing over to the true summit of Russell.

Above: Climbers on Fishhook Arete.

Below: 2nd Summit of Mt. Russell at 2:00pm, 9 whopping hours after hitting the trail head. One of my slowest paces yet! With that said, excellent conditions and a casual break were taken on the summit.

Above: A detailed shot of the eastern massif of Whitey. A little taste of Patagonia right here!

Below: Lolzzz... In the summit register can Russ found that paper, figured it was a cool shot.

Above: At 2:30pm, we started our long and slow decent of the east ridge. It took about an hour and a half to reach Russell-Carillon Pass and then another hour back down to Upper Boy Scout Lake. The views of Whitney did not disappoint!

Below: The slab section of the use trail where it crosses back to the northern side of the creek.

It took us over 15 hours car-to-car to climb this route. This was a solid 2 hours slower from just 3 years ago but non the less it was fun to be back out in the hills with Russ. After eating dinner in Lone Pine and crashing out in the Alabama Hills for the night we made the decision to pass on Mt. Tyndall for this trip.

Thoughts on the route: This a superb alpine route! No sticky rubber shoes required but it should be noted that this is a summer-only route. Snow does linger on the north side of the ridge which would drastically change the climb! I've seen photos of the route in winter conditions making for a pure epic. 

Until next time.....