To date I've summited:
- Mount Whitney
- Mount Shasta
- Mount Williamson
This trip was also an opportunity to get in a car camping trip with Kristine and our dog. My plan was to get in a car-to-car summit of Mount Russell via the famous East Ridge route while Kristine spent the day hiking around the Whitney Portal area. We would then continue along on our camping trip afterwards.
Mount Russell sits at 14,086' and is directly across from Mount Whitney. Although located very close to Whitney it is climbed via a completely different drainage and only shares the Whitney trail for the first mile out of Whitney Portal. Many popular technical routes ascend Russell's south face such as:
However, all those routes were out of the question since I was doing a car-to-car solo of the mountain. My objective would be the East Ridge route. This route is generally considered the BEST 3rd class route in the entire Sierras. In my readings, I have perhaps found only one person say the East Face of the Middle Palisade a little bit better.
- Russ and climbed the East Face of the Middle Palisade the following month. Trip Report Here.
SuperTopo's description of the East Ridge is as follows:
- "With a striking line, big exposure, and great rock, the East Ridge is one of the best 3rd class routes anywhere....overall this one of the best 3rd class routes you will ever do."
Peter Croft's The Good, the Great, and the Awesome:
- "This is one of the very best class 3 climbs that I've done anywhere..."
This mountain is not a give-me by any means, especially when done car-to-car. This route involves over 5 miles of cross country travel with 6,000' of elevation gain from Whitney Portal. I was expecting this to be a huge day but felt up to the task being in great shape from climbing and lots of running.
Friday June 28th 2013:
Kristine, Nala (our dog), and I drove over to the Owen Valley that afternoon. I knew that the Whitney Portal campground was long ago sold out so I planned on us staying at Lone Pine campground. We had no problem getting a spot when we arrived but there was a reason for that. The campground is located still in the Owens valley and consequently it was still very hot in the desert that afternoon. The only relief came from afternoon thunderstorm clouds over the Sierras.
- A word about the photos in the trip report. I just got a Go Pro the previous month from Kristine for my birthday. I was still playing around with it. Some photos are cool, some not so much. But the only photos I got for this trip come from Go Pro.
Although mega hot, it eventually cooled down enough in the evening to relax. Kristine made an awesome spread for dinner that night.
Saturday June 29th 2013:
I awoke from out still warm tent at 4am to silently eat my oatmeal and coffee. I awoke Kristine and she drove me up to the Whitney Portal trail head and by 5am I was off hiking up the hill. The temperature was warm for that altitude and knew this was going to be a hot day.
The route to Russell ascends the North Fork of Line Pine Creek. For those of you who are familiar with this area, the Mount Whitney trail actually ascends the south fork of the creek. After one miles (2nd creek crossing) on the Mount Whitney trail, the "cross country" portion of the trip begins. Except that this is such a popular location to go to since assess to not on Mount Russell of all the technical climb of Whitney plus the uber popular Mountaineers Route are all on the North Fork "use trail". I found this trail better than some maintained trails I've hiked on in the Sierras and route finding was a breeze.
The sun came up with in 45 minutes of hiking a I could feel the temperature begin to climb as well. I attempted to make the best pace I could to beat the low elevation heat. This first cross country crux so to speak comes fairly quickly while ascending the North Fork. Although the use trail is in good shape there is a section know as the "Ebersbacher Ledges." This a about a 200' section of 2nd to 3rd class ledges which climb the northern wall of the drainage to a higher bench. The logic behind this is that the willows and undergrowth in the canyon become to dense to make forward progress. The route is heavily marked with cairns.
By 6:30 I had arrived the Lower Boy Scout Lake (10,330') and I took my first break of the day while continuing to watch the sunrise.
Following my break at Lower Boy Scout Lake, the use trail begins the fad and then reappear in several different sections. This is because as time goes on more and more parties pick and choose different approaches. I was aware that the 2nd route find crux was approaching on my hike to Upper Boy Scout Lake (11,500'). With that said, I fell for the 'old sucker use trail'. Let me try to describe to you what these are. Anytime you're on a use trail it's always important to remember that aggressive turns or stream crossings are not marked in any shape or fashion. Again, it's standard practice that people will leave small rock cairns to mark the way or change in direction. However, if the change in path is too commonly missed then the bulk of people continue traveling on making a well defined path. But.... as time goes on more and more start piecing it all together that they missed the 'turn' so to speak. At this point they turn around and the path is not so defined anymore. Only those who have not figured that out yet press on. But the trail keeps getting worse and worse until on the most "navigationally challenged" are left bush wacky wondering where the hell the trail went. By this time you're so far past trail change that when one begins to backtrack they can't actually tell where real use trail comes back in. This is know as a sucker trail.
Well, I got suckerd... even the guide book warned against it. I knew that the path eventually crossed the creek to the north side but with that said, wasn't sure how high up it did that and my "path" was so well used. Even as it began to fad (hint hint) I thought I was on the path.After bushwhacking a little to again find the path (huge hint!) I thought I was about to cross the creek. Finally, I reach a 10' tall thicket of willows and realized it was game over and I had followed the sucker trail. How many poor souls before me had done this?
Instead of backtracking perhaps 500' back down this path to hopefully find the correct path, I made the executive decision to just barrel directly across the Willows. From my vantage point high on the south side of the drainage, I assumed they were perhaps 4 to 5 feet deep. I spent the next 15 minutes in initially waist deep brush followed by 10' deep willows with creeks running though them. Visibility was almost zero trying barge forward though this massive thicket. After getting both shoes soaked and burst out the north side of the thicket on the slab to see rock cairns marking the path. I had to take time to collect myself and let my shoes dry out. This whole process set me back over an hour on my pace.
Seen above: Looking back at the brush thicket that I crossed. The water fall across on the cliff was my entry point. Lordy... that was rough in there.
After drying out my shoes and getting some more food, I was back on the path to Upper Boy Scout Lake. The next challenge in the approach to the East Ridge comes in the form of a 1,500' scree gully up to "Russell-Carillon Pass" which is class 2. Combined with the high elevation, this is one of the more exhausting scree climbs I've seen in my time. Pictured below is looking down on the end scree. Way across is the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak (12,949').
4 and a half hours after leaving the trail head I arrived upon the high plateau that ascends to Russell-Carillon Pass. The views of the eastern face of Whitney and massif were amazing!
Below is an annotated topo of the Fishhook Arete on Mt Russell, however, it does does the extended East Ridge coming off the high point summit. The Russell-Carillon pass is located just right off the photo and the route climbs westbound along the ridge. Mount Russell has two summits but the west point is the technical high point meaning a long traverse for me.
(Photo Credit: Mark Thomas)
By 11:30, I was on the ridge proper and was completely amazed how quickly the exposure picked up. The ridge has tremendous drop offs on both the north and south sides. Per the guide book, all technical impasses could be bypassed on their right (north side) to keep the route class 3.
Above: On the East Ridge looking across to the North Face of Mount Whitney.
Below: Somewhere on the East Ridge
Above: Looking back towards Tulainyo Lake (12,848').
Below: Just before 1pm, I made the west summit making for my 4th California 14er summit! Whitney is pictured in the background.
Although I had made pretty good time up to the summit (7 hours), the altitude and exhaustion had kicked in so my descent was much slower than I wanted. It took almost two full hours to descend back to the pass. From here it was another 6 long hours back down the hill to Whitney Portal. On the plus side I did get a chance to notice exactly where the use trail crossed the stream below Upper Boy Scout Lake. A HUGE building size boulder passes near the trail, turns out this is wear the trail quickly ducks into the brush and crosses the stream. Noted.
13 hours after leaving the trail head I arrived back at Whitney Portal where Kristine and Nala where awaiting my arrival. We all drove back down to our hot campsite in the desert and shared stories from our day.
Takeaway: This was a most pleasant route! The quality of the rock is superb with amazing exposure. Sticky rubber shoes never once needed nor wanted. The only draw back (besides altitude) was the 1,500' scree trail up to the pass. Still a huge day for car-to-car but short of camping at Upper Boy Scout Lake, going light and fast works really well for this route!
