Climbing at Chilkoot Lake

Chilkoot Lake has some nice climbing, its a short drive from Fresno, and its  nice and quiet. It's an under-rated area that is vaguely part of the greater Shuteye ridge and was a perfect place to spend a Sunday with my wife and puppy for some cragging.

The actual Chilkoot Lake, more of a muddle puddle really. 

First up was Half-Day dome, a compact crag with several nice 5.11a routes and a tough looking 5.12 and some moderates to warm-up on.

Half-Day Dome - poking out if the woods. 

We did a nice warm-up and then I redpointed a really nice 5.11a called "Into the Fold" that climbed up a steep face and onto an exciting arete. A very enjoyable climb!

Teresa working out the moves for "Into the Fold" on TR

I scored a sweet pair of forgotten/lost sunglasses at the base of the crag, and we headed over to the "Magic Wall"

The Magic wall

Penny is excited to be at the Magic wall

We climbed an excellent steep 5.10b before I made a few lead attempts on a 5.11d, which I only hung on a couple times. Not bad!

Steep golden granite

After climbing a few routes we packed it in for the day. I'm going to have to go back and try to get the redpoint on that 5.11d!

Packing it in for the day. Tired puppy!

Backpacking - Florence Lake to Evolution valley

For our (10 year!) wedding anniversary Teresa and I headed out to Florence Lake for a backpacking trip into the Evolution valley. It was a lovely 3 day trip! Enjoy some photos:

Florence Lake

Bridge over South fork of San Joaquin river

South fork of San Joaquin river

So that's where the trail is

Almost at King's Canyon....

There it is!

Creek crossing - guardian of the evolution valley

Somewhere in King's canyon

Ferry dock at the end of Florence Lake

Waiting for the ferry

Great trip!

North Peak - Mt Conness - Linkup

Paul Souza and I zipped up highway 120 Friday night to climb a classic High Sierra link-up, the Northwest ridge of North Peak (II, 5.3) and the North Ridge of Mt. Conness (II, 5.6). We both had climbed the Mt. Conness route previously, but neither of us had done the North Peak route.

Paul below North Peak. The Northwest ridge takes the left hand skyline

We bivied in the Saddle Bag lake parking lot, and had a fairly leisurely dawn start. The hike to the Northwest ridge of North Peak is fairly easy, only about 4 miles with 1500' or so of elevation gain. The hike is truly nice, this area is one of the most accessible alpine areas in the entire Sierra Nevada.

Lakes and meadows on the approach

Paul is stoked on the views

Getting close to the ridge

The route up North Peak was very casual, we didn't bother to rope up, I climbed it in approach shoes, and Paul had no problems doing it in running shoes. There were two short cruxes, which involved down climbing into notches and then climbing back out again. I would say the difficulties stayed in the 4th class range. Most of the ridge was easy 3rd class scrambling, and there was one  enjoyable and moderately exposed 4th class bit on a narrow steeper part of the ridge. 

The author high up on the Northwest ridge of North Peak. Photo credit - Paul S. 

Paul - near the top of the ridge

We relaxed on the summit for a bit, and chatted with another climber who had just soloed up the North-east couloir of North Peak. We hiked down to the saddle with Mt Conness, and started up the next route, the North Ridge of Mt. Conness.

Summit views - Taboose fire burning in the valley

North Ridge of Mt. Conness

We made short work of the North Ridge, I think it only took 90 minutes to descend North Peak and climb the whole ridge. We never felt the need for a rope, except too rappel from the two towers on the ridge. A highly enjoyable scramble. 

Paul nearing the top of the North Peak.

The author near the summit of North Peak - Photo credit - Paul S. 

It took us about 5 hours from the car to climb both routes. We were bth feeling pretty good. One problem with our chosen route, was that the standard descent would deposit a few miles and several hundred vertical feet below where we parked the car. I had the "brilliant" idea of taking the east ridge down. 

This turned out to be the hardest part of the day, as it involved long distances of crumby 3rd class choss, and mind numbing slabs. Well, now at least I know why people don't normally descent this way!

North Peak to Mt Conness link-up with East ridge descent.

Sawtooth Peak

As part of my training for my upcoming Fall trip to the Himalaya, I have been doing a bunch of trail running and starting to do a bit of peak bagging as well. On Saturday, I headed up to Mineral King to hike up Sawtooth Peak (12,343'). I hiked up it a few years ago, and I thought it would make for a nice day trip. Round trip is about 13 miles with 4800' of elevation gain.

Suunto track for my hike up Sawtooth Peak.

 I took the long twisty road to the Sawtooth trailhead, and started hiking around 9am. It pretty much heads straight uphill right away, taking a typical well maintained, groomed and graded NPS trail.

Trailhead

The going was really quick, and it was not long before the 1st five miles were down, and I was at Monarch lakes, and the end of the maintained trail

Heading up to Monarch lakes. Sawtooth Peak is the pointy pile of choss in the back

 

Lower Monarch ake

There are two ways to hike up Sawtooth, up a dusty hill called Sawooth pass, or up through the two Monarch Lakes and then up the North ridge. As the pass looked heinous, I opted for the North ridge, the same route I took the last time I hiked up. Its a bit longer, but much nicer!

Looking towards Vandever mountain. Next time I'll try traversing over to that pile

Its been a long time since I suffered from a bout of AMS, but somewhere above 11,000' I got all the usual symptoms, dizziness,nausea, and I slowed WAY down. It took me way longer than it should have to climb the last 1000'. I stopped and took a few mini cap naps, eventually making up to the summit block.

Summit block

I napped a bit longer and then quickly dropped back down to the car for the long drive home.


 

Nova Scotia - Its not always climbing

Well, I can't always go climbing! Tese and I headed up to the area near Parsboro in Nova Scotia for a week of hanging with the family. I squeezed in a fair bit of trail running in-between beer drinking sessions. Fishing, beach walking, and relaxing in the cool weather, a great vacation!

Tese and Kristi - hanging

Tha'ts right people, and dogs. 

The (in)famous - Brookville rock. The biggest choss pile around. 

Hanging in the kitchen(?) shed(?)

Mom and Dad's spot up on the hill

Uncle John - bringing us out fishing

Canadian Tux

Umm... because American's are lame. Also we kicked their ass in the war of 1812. Take that 'Merica

Halifax citadel 

I drank a lot of this

Bye Nova Scotia!

Mt Whitney - East buttress

I had an overnight permit for the north fork of Lone Pine creek, I was itching to climb the East Buttress of Mt. Whitney (14,405', III, 5.7). Its a classic moderate Sierra route which I have not done! I found myself a partner on Mountainproject, and off I we went.

My partner was an interesting guy, a former Israeli counter-terrorism officer from the NDF. He had never trad climbed, or done a technical peak, but was psyched to get out.

We zipped up to iceberg lake and made a camp. I didn't take many pictures on this trip, so this will be a short blog post!

Thor falls, on the approach to Whitney

Heading up toward Upper bouyscout lake

We woke up just before dawn and headed up to the buttress. I led all 11 pitches, since my partner was inexperienced with alpine rock. The climbing was really easy, and went really fast. 

East buttress (right hand sky kine of the peak) of Whitney at dawn

We summited in a few hours, and made our way down, back to the camp, packed up, and drove back to Fresno, all in the same day! 

Fun easy climb.!

Michael on the summit. Not bad for a first Sierra alpine experience!