Sierra Wide

Our Sierra trip for the year was in doubt due to my niece's visit over the summer and Ye getting very busy at work after she left. But when Ye found the time to leave over the Labor Day weekend, the trip was on! This was going to be a month later than last year's trip and again we had no permits to the popular destinations. Unfortunately, I got hit badly in the ribs during karate just before the trip. I would call out the guy who hit me every time I had to make a hard move and my ribs screamed. Anyway, we ended up climbing long, wide and hard climbs which were challenging in many ways. Ye climbed exceptionally well and got us through the hardest sections. I tried my best and worked hard to follow. I'm proud to watch him grow to become the climber he is today and I'd be very happy if I have contributed to his progression.

A selection of pictures from the trip are here.

August 31, Saturday: 
We started driving from PDX at 6:00am and reached Bridgeport in the evening to very smoky skies. We were planning to climb on the Incredible Hulk, but the smoke made us wonder if we should change plans. We asked various people what the conditions were in the backcountry. Everybody had a different story so we decided to take a chance and go in anyway. We parked and camped for the night at Mono Village campground at Twin Lakes under smoky conditions. The friendly attendant came out late and let us camp for free, otherwise we would had to go in the forest beyond the campground, nice!

September 1, Sunday:

In the morning the campground was still very smoky but we went with the plan and hiked in to the Hulk. We knew from last year the dry crossing over the beaver dams and swamps and early morning cool temps allowed us to make good time. We arrived in 2.5hrs below the Hulk to an eerie emptiness. There were nobody around, what a difference from last year when we couldn't find a spot to camp due to crowds. Smoke worked in our favor. We dropped our packs and hiked up to the base of the Polish Route (5.10+) with our climbing gear. The route's first pitch delivered a punch to us. Things were hard from the get go. It remained this way throughout the climb, struggle, struggle. It was a tough choice for the first climb of the trip and at altitude. In the afternoon the valleys filled with smoke. Fortunately no storms but abundant wind as usual. Once we finished the climb the next challenge was to find the rappels. The only anchor we could see was on the prow and not pointing to the gully. So first Ye went back towards the gully looking for the rappels but came back with no luck. Then I went looking further down and saw a couple trees hoping they had slings on them but none. So then with serious doubts we decided to try the bolt anchor on the prow. I went down the sheer face only to see that our single 60m wouldn't get as to any other anchor. So I climbed up the rope, ugh. In the mean time it was getting late and the possibility of spending the night up there loomed. Once I got back to our high point, Ye decided to go as far as he could with the rope, it is pretty exposed so we kept the belays on, looking for the rappels. He passed the trees and yelled back that he found an anchor. What a relief. I followed quickly and we made four rappels off of somewhat sketchy anchors. Not only that every next anchor was not easily spotted. We made it down to the gully floor as it got dark and hiked out with headlamps over the endless talus. The gear beta was spot on with 2x#4 and a single #5 cam but the descent not so much. We picked a primo spot to pitch our tents and had a late but relaxing dinner having averted an epic.

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September 2, Monday:

We had a slow start to the day from the near epic climb the day before. As we watched three strong climbers hiking to the base of Positive Vibes, we decided we should go climb the Beeline (5.10-). This was a route I tried to climb with Victor several years ago but turned around from its base due to stormy conditions on that day. Around 10am, a leisurely alpine start, we started hiking towards the base. The climbing was a lot of fun and much easier than the Polish route. It was quite windy and the smoke started moving in again in the afternoon. The first three pitches followed fun cracks, fourth pitch called for technical stemming and it was engaging, the fifth pitch started with a right trending face traverse into a wide crack. We both felt comfortable with it. The Polish must have prepared us for the wide. Last couple pitches were easier but the rock quality was not as good. We enjoyed the summit as Ye returned the Hulk Ball, which he took from the summit register last year, mission accomplished! We returned to camp with plenty day light left. Instead of hiking out we decided to stay another night and explore the upper lakes, what a beautiful place.

September 3, Tuesday:
In the morning we hiked out the beautiful Hulk camp hoping to come back to it for more alpine candy.
Next goal was to hike into Temple Crag area. We drove down to Bishop and scored a permit. But the weather was getting very dark and as we were still in Bishop it started raining. Things only got worse during the drive to the trailhead in Big Pine. We waited for a break in the rain but it became obvious we could not hike in today. We had enough of waiting and drove down south to Lone Pine to see if the weather was any better and if we could score permits for Mt Whitney area. No permits and the ranger told us to come on Thursday, sure... We went back to town and had one of the best tacos from a taco truck before heading up to camp at Whitney Portal. That night as we were pouring over topos to decide on the next climbs, Ye asked me if I'd climb the Harding Route on Keeler Needle. What? He had been dreaming about this climb ever since seeing it last year. I listed many of my reservations and fears as excuses. After all Keeler Needle is very ominous and intimidating. It has a reputation for bad rock, hard climbing, snow/ice cone at its base etc. Ye demanded a yes or no answer and finally I agreed to commit while thinking that the Polish route was a struggle and this climb is harder, higher, wider, longer. Obviously I didn't sleep well that night thinking about what we were getting ourselves into...

September 4, Wednesday:
We had an early start to our approach to Keeler Needle to avoid any contact with the law :). Knowing the approach from last year we made quick progress towards the Mt Whitney massif. In less than three hours we were in the moraine of Keeler Needle.  The whole place is covered by big boulders and hardly any flat spots were available. We found a sandy spot and scraped it flat so we could pitch our little tents. Snow melt was nearby for water source. It was still before noon and we had planned to do some other climbing nearby but the sheer size of Keeler Needle made us decide that we should take the day off, rest and hydrate for the big day tomorrow. Incidentally there was a party on the climb. We watched and cheered them on as they made progress towards the top all day along. We stashed our gear for the climb at the base of the climb and got a close up look. The route didn't look too bad as far as we could see. The snow cone was a simple walk-up and my ice axe was totally unnecessary. Now we just had to wait till early morning to get on this beast next morning.

September 5, Thursday:

Big day, and time to put the game face on. We got up at 5am but it was pitch dark and cold below freezing. After a quick bite and coffee we got moving by 7am we started the first pitch. Here we go Harding Route (5.10c). Ye launched the first pitch, followed by the second pitch which involved pulling over a roof which was quite physical. A moderate third pitch got us to the base of the first offwidth. Most of the crack had features and no offwidth technique was required until the very end where a #5 cam seemed useful.  The next long pitch was easy and we simulclimbed it to the first big bench area. We felt we were moving faster than the team from yesterday. The next pitch brought us to the base of the Red Dihedral pitch. We both smiled at the scene, what a great looking crack. If it was at low elevation there would be a line. Perfect jams and stems for 200ft brought us to the base of the crux offwidth. We had read that the crack would take gear at its back and indeed it did. Ye did a great job leading it and not too long has passed the three bolts after which the climbing eases. Wow, the hardest part was over for him. I shouldered the two packs until I had to go into offwidth mode, then they had to be dangled. It was pretty hard going with the weight and bulk and I appreciated very much the tight belay Ye provided. I was worked at the end of the pitch. Ye took us through another chimney and we were nearly under the summit headwall. From there a counter clock traverse brought us to the upper bench right under the summit. The exposure and rope drag were huge. At this point we were in the shade and it got really cold. We looked at what the topo calls clean cracks. They looked good but the cold motivated us to skip them and get up as fast as we could. From here on the route goes in to the chossy, blocky north side. Ye had a picture of this section and we found it very helpful. From the upper bench five pitches brought us to the summit. I could not believe it was only 5pm and we had pulled off the climb so smoothly. We hiked over to the summit plateau of Mt Whitney and down the scrappy Mountaineer's route down to Iceberg Lake and back to our camp in the hole under Keeler Needle. It took a while to grasp what we had just did. It was just about a 12 hour day including the climb and descent. I really wished we could celebrate this but all I had was a handful of pasta and a tuna pouch. Food was little but the satisfaction was huge and an enormous weight had lifted off of our shoulders. I thank Ye for convincing me to do this climb which scared me so much and believing that we could pull it off. He made it happen!














September 6, Friday:
We packed our stuff and hiked out of the Keeler moraine. Incredibly proud but very hungry also. A two hour hike got us back to Whitney Portal. We quickly made it down to Lone Pine for a brunch at our favorite Alabama Hills Diner. We felt like we were done climbing, nothing else would feel right after Keeler!

So the thought of hiking in to Temple Crag was scrapped. Instead, we decided for a fun moderate day by running the ridges on Mt Conness as our last climb before we would head home. We drove to Saddleback campground near Tuolumne to find it nearly empty due to the Rim Fire closures. The camping was so pleasant here, which made me wonder why we always camped over the years in the dirty, noisy ghetto Tuolumne campground. We cooked large amounts of food now that we had access to our supplies. My body lacked so much nutrition from all the camps first at the Hulk then at Keeler, that I stuffed myself to the brink. After food and a bit of rest we thought we are here and used to the wide climbing by now, why not do another Harding route on the SW face on Mt Conness. The route is shorter and the book claims it is easier than Keeler Needle. So a plan was hatched to go for it early morning.

September 7, Saturday:
A pretty chilly morning greeted us around 6:30am as we started our approach hike towards Mt Conness from Sawmill CG. We practically were running to stay warm. Along the way we passed another team who was also going for the SW Face, coincidentally we had met one of them, David, on Red Dihedral on the Hulk last year. We chatted a bit and continued our brisk pace. We dropped our packs on the summit plateau and donned our climbing gear. During the haste to get out of the hard blowing cold wind, we completely missed the descent gully which resulted in dropping down way further than the gully and contouring back to the base of the route. This probably added another 40 minutes or so extra boulder hopping. The other team caught up with us as we started the first pitch. The first pitch was slimy wet as expected. The second pitch was full rope long, slanting to the right awkward and hard. Third pitch started easy then zigzaged across an unprotected face followed by a chimney. Placing gear at the beginning and end of the traverse and then going straight up in the chimney gave me horrible rope drag and I had to cut the pitch short which kind of killed my mojo. Next was the offwitdh pitch. The really tight start gave me hard time as I struggled with the pack on. We had a single #6 cam and Ye completely ran out the pitch. I was terrified just following it and thinking about the consequence of a fall here. It was truly a heroic lead, wow!

Next pitch contained the tricky 5.10 traverse and supposedly 5.8 chimney. I sailed off the traverse and had a tough time moving up the chimney, which did not favor bigger bodies. After this the climbing became more open crack climbing for two more pitches and fun. We found ourselves on easy ground below the summit. It was now 5pm and it had taken us about seven hours to climb the route. I felt the climbing was much harder than on Keeler Needle, maybe I was tired from a week long climbing or had too much food the night before.The views were obscured by all the smoke coming from the Rim Fire to the west. We briefly enjoyed the summit and forced our tired legs to go down. On the way back we ran into a family of Ptarmigans who were not afraid of us at all. We enjoyed their presence and took bunch of pictures. Before dark we made it back to camp with great joy and satisfaction of having done another one of the big four routes according to Peter Croft.

September 8, Sunday:
After the near fiasco on the Polish route we had our doubts about our climbing but in a way it prepared us for the wide climbing that ensued. The smoke from the fires kept the crowds down and made camping easier. Ye did an exceptionally well job leading the hard pitches. I'm simply proud to be part of the overall effort. The Sierra-Nevada mountains have been nice to us. They challenged and inspired at the same time. Until next time, peace!