Middle Palisade (14,012') - NE Face (II, class 3)

This weekend I took advantage of continued warm weather in the Sierra to go and climb the Northeast face of Middle Palisade, a classic 3rd class scramble. Perfect for a solo trip.

The route - NE face of Middle Palisade

I took Friday off work, swung by the Mammoth ranger station to grab an overnight permit and then back to Big Pine for the 2nd time this month. Lots of people do this route car-2-car, but I have learned that my body performs much better if I spend at least one night camping at +10,000', so I opted to do a short two hour hike into Brainerd Lake to make a basecamp. I started hiking around 2 PM and enjoyed the steep (2700') and short (5 mile) hike to the lake. The aspens were a lovely yellow.

Fall foliage I

Fall foliage II

I arrived at the lake a bit before sunset, had some ramen and settled in for a long night. 

Looking down at Brainerd Lake

I had a leisurely start at 7am, and thinking that it was only 2 miles to the base of the face, the approach would be quick. Boy was I wrong. The approach was mostly on ancient glacial moraine, and the going was slow and tedious. It took me a full 2.5 hours to travel the 2 miles and 2000' of elevation gain!

Dawn start, looking back down towards the trailhead

Norman Clyde Peak, the prominent Firebird Ridge looks like a fun climb

Being so late in the season, I was able to completely avoid the glacier by walking on the lateral moraine right to the base of the NE face. I opted for the "Red rock" start, which seems to have become the standard start of the route. This start looks quite steep from afar, but once you get up close, I realized its actually quite low angle, and very easy, although chossy and loose. Sticking to the white band of rock off to the right was the best way to go. 

NE face of Middle Pal - Beta photo

Red Rock start - climb up the white band of rock to the right

Once through this bit of crappy rock, it was straight into the main chute. I just stayed left and it brought me right to the summit crest. Really easy route finding compared to some High Sierra scrambles. The chute itself was very easy, and had fairly solid rock

Looking up the main chute

The climb up the chute went very fast, maybe an hour to climb up the 1300' or so. The chute ends right below the summit, I scrambled up and a bit to the left, and climbed around behind to find the actual summit block. 

Moving left

Summit block. Register is on the left

Summit register

I lingered in the sun on the summit for about 15 minutes before climbing back down.

Summit views

It took me about 8 hours from camp to summit and back to the car. I enjoyed a beer, and headed to Bishop to meet up with Michelle Johnson for a bit of sport climbing on Sunday. 

Overall, It was a fun little scramble. 

Temple Crag (12,982') - Venusian Blind (IV, 5.7)

With splendid summer-like conditions extending into October, I managed to sneak out into the High Sierra for another alpine rock climb. I met up with my friend Sue (a.k.a Crowbar), an enthusiastic alpinist from the Bay area. We had climbed earlier in the summer in the Bugaboos, and this time we settled on climbing Temple Crag in the Palisade Range.

Temple Crag - Venusian Blind climbs one of the left hand aretes.

We opted to climb Venusian Blind (IV, 5.7), a 1500' 13+ pitch route which ascends on the the "celestial aretes) on the North east side of the mountain. The route is the sunniest and one of the shorter routes up the mountain, so seemed like a good option for the short and potentially cold October days. 

We met up on Saturday afternoon, and began the six mile hike up the North Fork of Big Pine Creek to third lake. Being in full Himalayan training mode, I intentionally packed a heavy load (45 lbs) and we slowly made our way up the beautiful hike. 

Aspen forest on the approach - Photo credit - Sue  a.k.a crowbar

We arrived at camp at third lake around 3 PM, and settled in for a few hours of hanging out before an early sunset. 

Yummy - Ramen creation. Photo credit - Sue

Sue is excited to climb tomorrow!

We hit the hay pretty soon after sunset, and set the alarms for 5am. Not too bad. 

Pre-dawn approaches. Photo credit - Sue

After aimless wandering around the talus field approach for about 90 minutes we eventually found our way to the start of the climb around dawn.  The normal approach is to take a snow field up to some 3rd class ledges. However, we had neglected to pack ice axes and crampons, and even through the snow slope was low angle, it was rock hard and basically impossible to go up. So instead, we opted to take a dirt 5.6 chimney which bypassed most of the snow, and added 2 pitches to the route.

Start of Venusian Blind (add Moon Goddess arete)

Just as we started up the chimney, two groups of 2 climbers showed up. I'm glad we first on the route!

We basically solo'd a few hundred feet of 3rd class before reaching the set of towers leading up the various celestial aretes. After looking at some photos and topos we started up (the correct route!).

From there the climbing was engaging, easy and occasionally fairly exposed. Much more involved than say the East Buttress of Whitney. We stayed ahead of the groups behind us for about 6 pitches, then at the 7th pitch we dallied a bit to do some route finding, and the party behind (a guide+client) caught up to us.

Sue snagged some of the better pitches en route, and did a great job leading some bold pitched. Well done Sue! 

As is the case on these routes I didn't really take many pictures, but Sue snapped a few.

Me leading up one of the towers (P6?) - Photo credit - Sue

Somewhere on Venusian Blind - Photo credit - Sue

Near the top of the route, it become more of a horizontal narrow ridge. We let the guide pass us, and stayed fairly close behind them for last few hundred feet of the route. 

One of the more memorable moments on the climb was an exciting step over a 4 foot wide gap in the ridge. Very airy and exposed, but dead easy.

 awkwardly climbing down into the gap - Photo credit - Sue

Looking down the exposed gap - yikes!- PC- Sue

After that was some easy rambly scrambling up to the summit plateau.

Last 5th class moves before the route ended - PC - Sue

We relaxed on the summit plateau, enjoying the fine views of the Palisades. We opted too skip the true summit, and started the long hike down to pack up camp and get back to the cars.

Sue on the "summit" of Venusian Blind

The descent, as all Sierra descents are, was fairly heinous, involving a mix of scree and boulder jumping. We paused to refuel at our camp, then booked it the 6 miles back to the parking lot. About 14 hours from camp - summit - car. 

A great trip, climbing with Sue was fun, she's a great, strong partner. I'm looking forward to our next trip into the mountains!

Cheesy cracker refuel on the way down