Yosemite and the Eastern Sierras

As the previous post points out, there will eventually be a post about our post wedding adventure. A month after the fact is as good a time as any.
Picking up where Zib left off…
We left Jarrod and Sarah’s house pretty early in the morning and drove north on the 41, stopping for gas along the way. Into Yosemite we drove, no crowds. This was the first time I had been to Yosemite since I have become more serious about climbing, and Elizabeth hadn’t been since she was a wee short person. Hiking in Yosemite is cool and the valley is pretty to see. But having rock climbing on your mind and driving into the valley – its what I imagine speed to be like. Our heads were whipping around looking up at every cliff, trying to find the famous wall we have been reading about for the past year. Every time we saw cars parked along the road, we anxiously looked up the trail and through the trees to catch a glimpse of climbers enjoying the most famous granite in the world.
We left the valley and drove up to Tuolemne Meadows where we planned to jump onto the John Muir Trail (southbound) and make our way up Cathedral Peak. We wanted to ascend Cathedral Peak via its easiest route as the first step of getting used to being in real mountains – once again – and being prepared for our attempt at Whitney’s summit later in the week.
After going off-trail towards Cathedral, we ascended the huge slabs of granite to a series of ledges near the summit. We put on our rock climbing shoes for the last 20 meters to the summit. However, with about 10 meters to go, the wind picked up and the thunder/lighting that was once across the valley had finally arrived nearby. Some climbers who had climbed up from the other side quickly took our photo and made a hasty retreat down the route we had just climbed. A moment later, a light shower made the rock pretty slick and the thunder kept getting louder. So, we decided to get off the mountain ASAP. Looking around the corner, to the route to the top, we could see some serious exposure and a 5 meter crack in the rock to get to the top. Considering the weather, and knowing that we didn’t want to be a statistic in the next issue of “Accidents in North American Mountaineering”, we gave up our attempt at the summit block and turned to head down. The slick rock made our descent more treacherous than coming up. Fortunately we brought some rope and were able to rappel/lower off the upper ledges of Cathedral down onto less vertical granite – wherein we high-tailed it back down the JMT to the truck. Here is our route from the John Muir Trail up and back down from Cathedral peak. After driving over Tioga pass we went south on 395. In high school, I spent quite a few hours driving 395 from Valencia to snowboard at Mammoth Mountain and June Lake. Driving in the dark reminded me of how much I miss that part of the country. We drove south past Mammoth to a turn off I knew of, where I could surprise Elizabeth with some hot spring dipping. After an easy night of sleep, we woke in the morning to a brilliant sun rising over the White Mountains to the east. After driving for a bit and stopping to have breakfast next to a stream meandering through a meadow, we finally found one of the hot springs… thank god! This made Elizabeth’s morning.
Cleaned up and ready to roll, we made our way down to Bishop for some supplies and to get a permit for climbing Whitney. After discovering a great running shop for women, Sage to Summit, we drove up through the Buttermilks to the North Lake trailhead and jumped on the Lamarck Lakes Trail at around noon. We hiked to Upper Lamarck Lake and set up camp just before dark. After a yummy dinner of dehydrated Tasty Bites prepared and pawned off to us in Berkeley by Sayo, we took in some more sleep. After a night at about 10,000 feet (approximately 3050 meters) we woke with the sun and headed up towards Lamarck Col. Once we dropped into the valley beneath the Col, the icy wind swooped down from the top of the pass and introduced itself to us. A few hours later, we had battled a stiff wind but made it over the col (click here to see our route up to the top of the col) and descended (click here to see our route) in to the Evolution Basin. Staring up at Darwin and Mendel I Elizabeth conviced me that we would be crazy to try to get up either peak that day. So, we settled for a close view and and tough-ass hike back up to Lamarck Pass. A short glissade down the Lamarck Glacier helped boost our spirits in time to catch sight of a trail runner and encourage us to jaunt on the downhill sections. Once back to camp, we broke everything down and were back to the car by 4 in the afternoon. Back to Bishop for some Mexican food we had spied the previous morning and then down into Lone Pine to pick up our permit at the night drop box.
My first time up Mt. Whitney I went up the Main Trail with Adam Zimmerman and another firend, Miles, from UCSB. When we hiked the 20 miles round trip, we went up without a permit. We were stopped about half-way up by a couple of rangers who were intent on sending us back down the trail to our car. After 20 minutes of discussion, we worked out a deal to clean the solar toilets and pick up human shit (and toilet paper) from the rocks around the solar toilets. Ahhh, but on that day victory was ours because we happily cleaned up the rocks and toilets and then went on our merry way to the summit without ever having to get a permit.
Also, that day was September 12 2001. The other half of the day we eneded up telling various hikers and campers about some planes that had crashed into some buildings in NYC.
On September 13, 2007 Zib and I woke up at 4 am to get a good jump on our ascent of Whitney’s Mountaineer’s Route. Following the route was pretty easy except for missing a turn at Upper Boy Scout Lake. But, we corrected ourselves after about 20 minutes of walking the wrong direction. Iceberg Lake sits at the base of a 1000 foot chute which is the heart and soul of the Mountaineer’s Route. At Iceberg Lake, we fueled up with gels and Clif bars and chatted with a couple of climbers our age who were going to do the East Butress to the summit of Whitney. As they departed for their route, we left for ours. By and large the chute is filled with scree and lots of loose rocks. However, by staying to the right side we were able to have an enjoyable scamble to a small saddle just below the summit. From the saddle, we traversed around towards the backside of Whitney before finding ourselves on the WINDY slope to the summit. Five minutes later we found oursleves watching a couple of bodies rise from the edge of the abyss that is the eastern edge of Whitney’s summit. The bodies belogned to the young climbers we had talked with at Iceberg Lake. Some small talk revealed that one fo the climbers had in fact traveled on a bus to the small town of Lee Vining with an old roommate of mine from Durango, Jamie Harris. Like many other communities climbing circles can get quite small.
After a few photos and some chasing of a resident summit Marmot, we began the trek down the main trail. We will never hike on the main trail again – IT IS LONG, with a ton of switch backs. Aside from a couple of mildly exposed sections, the Mountaineer’s route is far more direct, and less crowded than the main trail. If anyone is considering going to the top of Whitney, climb the Mountaineer’s Route – you don’t need gear (at least at the end of summer anyways) and you won’t be disappointed. We spent the night in a small motel in Bishop before bailing the next morning headed for NYC in the truck.
Aside from being stuck in traffic in Loveland Pass in Colorado due to a multiple fatality accident that shut down the interstate, and watching the Nebraska vs. USC game in North Platte, Nebraska, the drive was uneventful.
So, after Bishop we stayed in Green River, Utah. Then we made it to North Platte, Nebraska and the following night we were in South Bend, Indiana before finally arriving back home in the big apple.