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.