Owens Peak (8453')

I really like the very southern terminus of the Sierra Nevada range, its a very interesting landscape. The mountain range merges with high desert, creating resulting in a dry and hilly terrain that is covered with Joshua Trees, cacti and even some trees. With a recent snow deluge in the High Sierra, I made my way back down to Walker Pass, to hike up another mountain in this part of the range. 

Walker Pass -- Pacific Crest Trail head

 I set my sights on Owens Peak, which is a nice 20 mile round trip hike. Most of it on the PCT, so despite the length its pretty easy. I drove up from Fresno in the morning, and set out. As usual out of Walker Pass, I was the only one around.

The trail had some fresh snow, a bit of a novelty for a desert hike

Desert Hike

Local flora

 Eventually I could see Owen's Peak off in the distance. Its not a particularly aesthetic peak, just a bump on a ridge.

Owen's Peak in the back

 Eventually I made it to the Owen's saddle (8.5 miles from the TH) and from there, its cross-country up the south-west ridge of the peak. Its some sand, then boulder hoping and some easy scrambling. The path was well worn, and there were ducks everywhere marking the way.

 

PCT marker rght before going off trail

 After a while, and some surprisingly fun scrambling I reached the base of a head-wall covered in rime ice.

Owen's Peak headwall - look at all that rime ice!

Sometimes with these easy peaks, I don't honestly pay all that much attention to where I am going, and don't do much research. I didn't think there was any 3rd or 4th class scrambling on this peak, and the head-wall certainly had some. Oh-well, I scrambled up the headwall, following some loose- sketchy 3rd class rock reaching the top of wall. And then... of course, it was not actually the summit. So  down-climbed, and traversed along the wall, and then a few hundred more feet of easy hiking to the summit.

Actual summit - I'm not grumpy that I got lost on a easy hiking peak

 

Summit views - looking out into Indian Wells and the Owens valley

 Then it was a long hike back to the car. Good hike, a worthwhile place to visit in the cold winter months!

Training in March

March has been an interesting month. No big trips, but many smaller ones. I have been mostly training for Denali, which means lots of time at the gym, lots of hiking and lots of trail running. I am exercising at least 6 days week, for a minimum of 2 hours a day.

Although I have been climbing at the gym regularly, I have not been outside rock climbing much, just a trip to Kernville and to New Jack City. I am sort of putting rock climbing to the side until I get back from Alaska.

March 4th -- Cerro Alto 
 A great day trip to the coast to one of my favorite hikes, Cerro Alto. Its a great hill near Morro Bay with fantastic views from the top. Its even Penny friendly. 

My favorite people on the summit o Cerro Alto

Summit views!

 And of course the best part -- down to our favorite dog-friendly patio in Morro Bay for some lunch

Lunch!

March 10 - Snow Creek Trail - Yosemite

A jaunt up the Snow Creek Trail in Yosemite, I don't know why I had not been up there before. Nice views, and very few people. I'll have to go again, but bring snow shoes next time

Half-Dome

Snow Creek Trail

 March 11 - Sport Climbing in Kernville

A break from training, a day of sport climbing in Kernville! Everywhere else was too cold and snowy, but Kernville was almost too hot!

Getting ready

Fun routes

Ok

Puppy

March 17 - Trail Run - San Joaquin River Trail

I have been doing lots of trail running as part of my Denali training. I have always wanted to run the entire San Joaquin river trail, so I made it part of my training! Its the longest trail run I have done to date, about 16 miles. It was tough, but fun.

Early morning on the San Joaquin River Trail

The suffer-vest

Spring is here

Squamish and Whistler

I spent a week in Whistler at a Keystone conference, and had the opportunity to get in a bit of outdoor activity (although not much). It was a great conference, I had never actually been to Whistler before, and it was really fun to have a meeting there!

Whistler village

 On one of the free afternoons I drove down to Squamish and did a quick hike up the Chief. It has very weird to be on that formation in the snow!

View of the Chief from Howe Sound Brewery

Heading up a snowy Chief trail!

South summit of the Chief

 I even managed to get in a day of skiing with my student. I have not been skiing in 12 years, but it came back quickly. Skiing is pretty darn easy, but its fun. Maybe I'll invest in some AT ski gear next year. Overall - fun meeting and a fun time on the BC coast.

Ski - fun

Windy Mt. Shasta

Lesson - probably should have listened to the forecast. 

Michael and I made an attempt on Mt Shatsa, but got pummeled by hurricane force winds and did not even make it past Helen Lake.Still, we had some nice winter camping, and of course a mandatory trip to the Black Bear Diner :)

This is how good climbing trips start!

When we arrived at the parking lot, the sky was blue, but there was a conspicuous lack of cars in the parking lot. This made me immediately suspicious that the locals knew something that I didn't.

Well, we drove all this way, might as well head up the mountain.

Packing up

Blue-bird? What cold go wrong?

On the approach up we ran into a couple of guys who had been up at Helen Lake the night before, what they told us did not bode well. They had been hit by insane winds all night that collapsed their tent. They didn't even bother to try and summit in the morning because things were so bad. 

Still psyched

We decided to put our tent at Horse Camp, and then head up and see what conditions were like. Conditions turned out to deteriorate rapidly as the day wore on.

How do things look Michael?

Starting to get worse.....

And then the winds, they were so strong we could barley stand!

We made a strategic retreat, and dug our tent in for a night of winter camping

Camping - Michael likes orange a lot apparently

Crappy selfie

We then packed it up, and headed home, tail between our legs. Next time, I will actually listen to the forecast before making the 6 hour drive to Shasta!

Kaiser Peak with the family

Kaiser peak is my favorite training peak, easy access, lots of elevation gain and a short drive from Fresno -- its a peak I go back to again and again. As I train for Denali, I have made a few trips up, sometimes alone, sometimes with the dog, and sometimes all three of us go.

My lovely wife :)

Even Penny likes Kaiser peak

 The views are great, especially with some snow cover.

Trees

 

Looking towards the summit

Mt Carillon (13,552')

I had an enjoyable weekend peak bagging out in the Whitney zone with Mitch. I am in the midst of a 6 month training program for Denali, and with the holiday break nearing the end, I wanted to take advantage of the dry, warm weather and get out on one more peak before classes start-up again. 

Dry weather?

 I really didn't have any particular objective in mind, I just wanted to stretch my legs, gain some altitude and camp out in the cold. We decided on heading up to Mt. Carillon and Mt Russell, since neither of us had climbed those peaks. 

We met up Friday night, and had a leisurely start on Saturday, following a hearty breakfast at the Mt. Whitney restaurant in Lone Pine.  

After weeks of high-pressure on the Sierra, the weather started to change on Saturday, with high winds and a low pressure system bringing cold air and snow to the mountains.  Mitch pulled out his pocket-inter-web machine, and confirmed that the weather was supposed to improve on Sunday, before a massive storm system moves in on Monday.  So we headed up to our planned bivy site at Upper Boy Scout lake.

Mitch capturing the moments in the snow

 

Home sweet home.

Since we arrived at our camp fairly early, and the weather has too heinous to bother going for the summit on Saturday, we busied ourselves by constructing a rock-walled kitchen and hiked around the area.

Kitchen shelter construction

Looking down on our camp

 We were in bed by dark and up around 4:30am the next day for our ascent. I didn't feel very good upon waking, a headache, lack of appetite, maybe mild AMS? Its been a while since I felt so poorly on the mountain. But I sucked it up, and we headed off.

Heading up in early morning - Photo credit - M. Quiring

 We reached the Russell-Carillon col around sunrise, and we were greeted with beautiful views of Mt. Whitney and Mt. Russell.

Mt Whitney at sunrise

 

Mitch shooting stills

 We headed over to Mt. Carillon, I was not sure exactly where the summit was, so we ended up traversing the entire west ridge before finding the true summit (oops!)

Mitch on Mt. Carillon's west ridge after the first false summit.

 

Hmmm, where the heck is the summit? - Photo credit - M. Quiring

Eventually we found the true summit, way the heck over on the far side of the ridge. 

Mitch on the top

 

Summit selfie!

We then looked over at Mt. Russell, the next logical objective. Although I really wanted to climb it, the truth was I felt like garbage. I was weak, and nauseous. I climbed more than 15 peaks last year, and felt great for every one, but once in a while the altitude hits me hard.  I am a bit disappointed with my body's performance on this trip, but sometimes that's how it roles, so I asked Mitch if we could head down. Russell will have to wait. Thanks Mitch for understanding!

Whitney (left) - Russell (right) - next time.....

We blasted down the trail and back to Lone Pine for some yummy burritos! First peak of 2018, winter might finally be settling into the Sierra's. Looking forward to some serious winter ascents once the snows are here.