Sierras 2019

This summer when Matt and I were driving across Arizona we weren’t driving through smoke and didn’t turn north and go to Wyoming instead of California as we had in 2018. This summer Matt and I drove straight to Lone Pine, CA and got permits for the next day. We hoped to climb at the Whitney Portal that afternoon but it was so hot we just napped in the shade instead. Matt had hiked up Whitney when he was younger but hadn’t technically rock climbed in the eastern Sierra before.  I’d climbed in the eastern Sierra but had never been in the Whitney zone.

Making some coffee while we wait for the Ranger Station to open.

We woke early, shouldered our heavy packs, and headed for Iceberg Lake. We set up our tent, where we’d sleep for the next 3 nights and started toward the Keeler Needle.  Already at 8am we were down to t-shirts and sweating.  We expected cool temps/wind/weather since we were in the high country so we brought our puffy coats. Puffy coat that would never get put on because the temps would never drop, the winds would never come in, the clouds would never come, we cooked all day.

Matt following a pitch on Fishhook Arete.

The next day we headed over to Mt. Russell and climbed the ‘Fishhook Arete’ in the morning.  In the afternoon we climbed ‘Western Front’. In addition to both routes being awesome there was a slight wind that kept the heat down and made for a great day. The plan initially was to do a route on Whitney our last day up there before hiking out.  We decided because of the temps and mediocre rock on Keelers Needle to head out early and go check out another area.

Matt following a pitch on Western Front.

We hiked out and ironically headed to Temple Crag which is lower elevation and generally worse rock. We decided to do something car to car in a day so we didn’t have to deal with permitting.  The plan was to climb ‘Dark Star’ then continue to Mt. Gayley and Mt. Sill but after topping out Temple Crag and looking at the loose ridge that separated us from Gayley we decided to head back to the car.  And to be honest I probably didn’t bring enough food with me to actually be able to continue onto Sill without bonking and probably dying.  Although ‘Dark Star’ doesn’t seem to have the best reputation in terms of loose rock, we found the rock climbing to be fun and all the 4th and easy 5th class to be solid enough. All in all it was a great day.

Matt leading the crux of Dark Star in approach shoes.

After Temple Crag we figured we head to Toulumne for a bit. After a morning ascent of the awesome ‘Aqua Knobby’ the high temps made climbing out of the question so we just chilled at Tenya Lake for the afternoon.  Since long days in Tuolumne were out of the question we figured we’d try out Mt. Conness.

Our home on the side of the road for multiple nights.

The SW Face offered pretty fun climbing with amazing views of Tuolumne.  Unfortunately on the hike out my ankle started hurting which was weird since I didn’t twist it and don’t remember any trauma.

Approaching the SW Face on Mt. Conness

Either way the next day I taped it for a morning climb of ‘Crying Time Again’.  We’d planned on going to the Hulk but decided to bust over to Maple Canyon instead since hiking with another heavy pack sounded less than ideal.

Aqua Knobby

The next morning we were blown away with how fun the climbing was in Maple. We went from crag to crag only climbing the 4 star routes.  Turns out having a couple knee pads in the vehicle would have been more beneficial than the crampons we had in the trunk.

Pipe Dream Cave in Maple Canyon