Baby Gender

Grand Canyon: South Kaibab Trail + Bright Angel Trail

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Having an extra day to kill between leaving SLO and getting to Chandler, AZ for Thanksgiving, I decided to explore the Grand Canyon. I had been there once before but had never done much more than look over the edge of the south rim and take some photos. A week beforehand I mapped out a ~20 mile route, all on a trail, that I could dayhike and booked a campsite at the Mather Campground. There were plenty of available sites. My planned route would take me down the South Kaibab trail from the south rim to the Colorado River then back up the Bright Angel trail to the rim again, making sort of a "V" shape with my campsite lying halfway between the open ends of the V. It would be possible to take the free shuttle from my campsite to the starting point and/or from the ending point to my campsite. 

Gas stop in Needles

After a 10 hour drive from SLO I got to my campsite around 7:00 p.m. on Monday night. I parked, pitched my tent, then walked down to the store to pick up a few things that I had forgotten. The south rim feels a lot like the Yosemite Valley as far as population density and conveniences. I got to bed by 10:00 figuring I'd take the second shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead at 5:30 a.m. and be hiking around 6:00. If I could do it over again I would have started later since I missed some of the best views in the dark and the entire trip only took about 5 hours. 

Sunrise on the South Kaibab Trail

The next morning I caught the bus as planned and got dropped off at the trailhead just before 6:00 in ~25 degree weather. I drank a Red Bull then some water then started jogging down the trail in the dark. It had rained pretty hard the day before so there were a lot of slick areas where I had to take my time. Because of the dark I couldn't tell how much exposure there really was. I disappointedly passed Ooh Aah Point in the dark then kept descending as the sun started to come out. I past a group of 8-10 backpackers just before I got to Skeleton Point. 

Sunrise from just below Skeleton Point

Skeleton Point View

Looking back up to the South Kaibab trailhead from Skeleton Point

Almost to the Colorado River

I took a break at Skeleton Point and enjoyed the views. I jogged most of the rest of the way down to the Colorado River arriving two hours from the time I started. I passed a few parties on the way down. When I caught my first views of the river I was suprised that I had already made it. Once at the river I turned left onto the River Trail instead of continuing straight across the first bridge. At the second bridge (Silver Bridge) I took a break to walk across and check out the livestock area. Given the crowds higher up on the Bright Angel trail I'm surprised they are even able to get livestock down to the river. I had thoughts of continuing the ~0.5 mile up to Phantom Ranch but decided against it. I just sat, at something and watched backpackers walk by and across the bridge. 

By around 8:00 I was headed back across the bridge myself. I jogged the rest of the River Trail then turned inland up the Bright Angel Trail. I knew I had about 9 miles and 4,500' of unrelenting uphill ahead of me so I slowed my jog to a brisk walk. I passed about 40 people going in both directions between the river and Indian Garden. Indian Garden is a camp/day use area that's about halfway between the Colorado River and the Bright Angel trailhead at the rim. During the spring/summer/fall there is fresh drinking water available there but it had been turned off earlier in the day. In fact the helicopter I watched land may have been there to turn it off. 

Mules (?) on the Bright Angel Trail

The 4.5 miles from Indian Garden to the top the trail was packed with tourists too scared to go any further than Indian Garden on account of the alarmingly graphic signs warning hikers not to continue to the Colorado River on a dayhike. I took a quick break at each of the resthouses (3 mile and 1.5 mile) between Indian Garden and the top finding the water turned off in each case. The tourist density increased with each step closer to the rim, and my pace slowed accordingly. The views got better and better though as I closed in on the end. I got to the top just over 5 hours after I had started. I paused for a bit then walked the couple of miles back to my campsite.

Mohave Point View

Mohave Point Panorama

After that I took the free bus around the rim to take photos and see some of the tourist sites. My favorite view was from Mohave Point on the road to Hermit's Rest, though I never saw the view from Yaki Point near my starting point for the day. My guess is that that would have been better since, in general, views from the South Kaibab Trail were more striking than those from the Bright Angel Trail. Like I said, if I could do it over again I would have started late enough to see the sunrise from the South Kaibab Trail. 

I camped at the same site then drove ~4 hours to Chandler the next morning.

North Guard Dayhike

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North Guard summit block

Juli and I drove up from SLO to Road's End after work on Friday. She planned to run the Rae Lakes loop the next day while I bagged North Guard. We got to the Sentinel campground at Cedar Grove at 7:30 and got literally the last available campsite after anxiously driving past about 60 already-occupied sites. All of the other campgrounds at Cedar Grove were closed for the season and Sentinel was first-come-first-server only. We were lucky. 

My alarm went off at 3:30 the next morning, and we were driving toward Road's End by 3:45. We were jogging away from the trailhead by 4:20 and got to the Bubbs Creek bridge not long after. At that point Juli continued running while I opted to hike up the ~1,200' of switchbacks that led up to the Avalanche Pass trail junction. We both got to the trail junction at about the same time. At that point it was still only 5:30, and the sun wasn't up yet. We parted ways for a second time, and I headed up 3,300' of unrelenting switchbacks toward Sphinx Creek. By 6:45 I could see where I was going, so I turned off my headlamp. I had hiked down this trail back in 2010 when Dan, Rob and I climbed South Guard, but I had never ascended it. Around 7:00 a.m. I reached the 8,600' mark and the spot just before the trail crosses Sphinx Creek. I left the trail there then did a good deal of side-hilling/traversing to get into the Sphinx Creek drainage. I made a mental note to just descend directly down the Sphinx Creek drainage on the way back, which would end up leading me through some annoying bushwhacking. 

Sphinx Lakes

On the way to Sphinx Col

By 8:30 I was at the largest of the Sphinx Lakes. There was a guy just waking up and rolling out of his tent. I continued up the gradual slope toward the upper lakes. From there I boulder hopped my way to the Col. Compared to some of the other cols (Wallace, Echo, Vennacher, Dumbell Lakes...) I had done earlier in the summer, Sphinx Col was a piece of cake. Barely harder than class 1. On the way down I would save myself some effort and just follow the weak spot down the center of the gully. I stood on top of Sphinx Col at 9:45 and surveyed what lay ahead. I couldn't yet see North Guard as it was behind a ridgeline, but Brewer and South Guard were easy to spot. The 300' descent down the other side of Sphinx Col was even easier than the ascent on the other side. I did my best to lose as little elevation as possible as I rounded the bend to the left and headed into the bowl between Brewer and NG. I think I dropped down to 11,800' at worst. 

Brewer and South Guard from Sphinx Col

Start of the class 3 route

The peak finally in view, I was easily able to spot the slabs that would lead me up the beginning of the class 3 route to the top. I took my first real break of the day before heading up the slabs. The boulder hopping started to get to me, and I had already hiked about 13 miles and ascended 7,500' in 6.5 hours. The slabs were all class 2 and easy class 3 until I got to a ~15 foot wall. At that point I spotted a couple of cairns and a reasonably easy way up and over to the left into to the sandy gully I had read about. I marked the spot where I left the slab chute on the GPS as UTM XXXXXXX. The going in the sandy gully was easy. I ascended a few hundred feet up it before making a right turn onto the west ridge of the peak just before I got to the notch at the top of the sandy gully. Here the climbing got a bit more serious but never harder than class 3. 

Near the summit

At the very top of the ridgeline, exposure increased and I spotted the infamous class 4 summit block. Several awkward, exposed moves lay between me and it. The boulders were large and had sizeable gaps and drop-offs between them. There was even a patch of fresh snow to make things slightly more dicey. I took my time and navigated the summit boulders until I found a nice sitting spot just below the summit block itself. I took a break to enjoy the views and take photos before tackling the block. As expected, views were great. I'm always intrigued by the Deerhorn/Ericsson area and really want to explore it next summer. There were three register books: one dating back to 1974, one to 1975, and one to 1977. The one dating back to '74 had only a couple of entries for some reason, so I signed that one. Hopefully that was the right thing to do. I took a peak over the class 4 north ridge route. Dan and I had tentatively planned to descend that way if we had had time to summit NG on our Brewer trip a few weeks before. I finally nervously crawled up the summit block doing my best not to plummet 1,000' down to the gully below, then I started down. It had taken me about 7.5 hours to ascend, and it would end up taking me about 7 to get back to the car. 

Summit view to the southeast

Small lake below Sphinx Col

Fall colors along Sphinx Creek

By the time I got back to the boulder field between Brewer and North Guard my legs were really feeling it. I hadn't done anything in about 3 weeks, and I was a bit nervous about what kind of shape I'd be in if and when I got back to the car. I paused at a small lake just below Sphinx Col to get water and eat a lunch of Genoa Salami and Ritz crackers. It was a great spot for a break. The 300' ascent back to the Col was as easy as was the descent back to the largest of the Sphinx Lakes, though I went slowly and carefully so I wouldn't roll an ankle as my legs started failing me. I took another long-ish break at the lakes and crunched some numbers to see if could make it back to the car by 7:30, which was the worst-case time I gave Juli. It seemed possible though I knew I'd have to make great time on the 6.5 miles of trail that came after the 2 miles of cross-country down Sphinx Creek that came next. 

At first I did well following established use trails as I descended the Sphinx Creek drainage but eventually my luck ran out just below the lowest swampy lake when I decided to continue down the center of the drainage all the way back to the trail. This route took me through about a mile of pretty horrendous (at times) bushwhacking (but hey at least it wasn't pouring rain and lighninging this time around). I think it would have been best to stay left just below the swampy lake then cross the creek when the grade gets steep and cut cross-country to the right back to the trail. I made it back to the trail around 5 p.m. That left me 2.5 hours to go 6.5 miles. I ended up doing it in 2 without much difficulty. My legs immediatly felt great once I was on a trail. I even jogged some of the way down. 

When I got back to the car Juli was there waiting for me. She had done the Rae Lakes loop in 12 hours. My route was about 27 miles with 9,000' of elevation gain. It took me 14.5 hours.

Mt. Brewer

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Dan and I met at Onion Valley around 6:30 p.m. on Friday night. He had driven down from the north and I up from the south. I brought him a Subway sandwich fresh from the gas station in Pearsonville. In the end he would tote around half of that sandwich for the entire weekend and would throw up the other half. 

Kearsarge Pass in the dark

As we hastily got our stuff together, we opted not to bring tents in an effort to shave a few pounds. Sufferfest tradition dictates that tents are frowned upon even if rain is in the forecast. We were hiking by 7:00 and at Kearsarge Pass by 8:40. Jack, who was hiking the JMT, planned to camp somewhere in Vidette Meadows where we'd meet up to camp and deliver some food. He had also planned to join us on his "zero day" for our ascent of West Vidette, Brewer, and/or North Guard. Peakbagging plans hadn't really been finalized yet, but we did eventually decide to prioritize Brewer/NG. That meant we'd head walk down the Bubbs Creek + East Lake trail first rather than go up and over West Vidette. The problem with beginning the day by going up and over West Vidette was that I could not find any info about any route on the West Face of West Vidette. The topo lines looked reasonable, but we weren't really sure what we'd find. But first things first, we still had to find Jack. 

By the time we got down to the JMT, it was 9 p.m. and completely dark. We walked south and uphill along the JMT passing a million tents, but none of them looked to be Jack's. We soon realized that the vagueness of our meeting point discussion was a mistake. Vidette Meadows is a big area with more than a few possible places to camp. We continued uphill hoping that Jack would be smart enough to look for headlamps along the trail. After almost two miles of hiking and looking, there was still no sign of Jack. We were both getting a little tired and it was at this point that Dan threw up half of his sandwich. I had never seen Dan struggle with altitude. We searched until 11:30 then gave up and set up camp, waking a backpacker named Dwayne in the process. I felt bad that our headlamps had disturbed him, but he was very friendly and concerned for our well-being. He admitted the next morning that he had originally thought us to be "greenhorns". 

Headed down the Bubbs Creek Trail

We woke up at 7:00 and resumed the search by walking downhill toward Bubbs Creek. We stopped to pick up the food we had stashed in the bear box 100 yards from where we slept. Dan noticed that Jack's bag was also in the bear box. It had not been there the night before. At that moment a woman camped nearby poked her head out of her tent and asked, "Are you guys looking for Jack? Last night he practically came into my tent to check for you guys." I'm still not sure how she knew his name. Jack was camped on the ground nearby. It turns out that he had gotten behind schedule on account of struggling with altitude sickness the day before, and the only way he could make up ground to meet us in time was by hiking through the night. He got to Vidette Meadow at 4:00 a.m. He had been struggling with a foot injury as well, but still planned to join us on our outing. 

East Lake

We got a later start on account of the search operation and started down the trail close to 9:30 a.m. None of us had hiked that portion of the Bubbs Creek before, and we stopped to admire the meadows and waterfalls. We got to Junction Meadow around 10:00. Dan and I had been here once before with Rob when we camped at Lake Reflection, climbed South Guard then descended "Sphincter Col" and Creek in a ridiculous thunder storm. That was the original sufferfest. 

Jack decided to turn back at this point and take an actual and much needed "zero day" back at camp. Dan and I continued on up the trail doing our best to ignore the wildly inaccurate mileages listed on the trail signs. We got to East Lake at 11:20 and took a break to eat and pump water. After that we turned west and uphill into the Ouzel Creek drainage looking for a suitable place to get onto the east ridge of Brewer. 

Brewer and North Guard

Once we found it we pretty much followed the ridgeline all the way to the top. I maybe made a couple of easy class 3 moves near the top, but the whole thing was mostly class 2. It was a loooong ascent. If you include the climb up from Junction Meadow on the trail, more than 5,000'. 

Last part of the East Ridge 

Dan tagging the top

I summitted around 2:45 and Dan about 20 minutes later. I enjoyed looking out over the Deerhorn/Ericson/Jordan area. That whole section of peaks strikes me as being really remote and relatively unknown for the high high sierra. I want to explore it more. I scoped out the route over to North Guard and it looked easy. I knew at this point though that we probably would not have time to make it. Dan took a nap and I climbed the summit block, then he did the same. There wasn't really a serviceable writing implement in the summit register box. 

Looking north toward North Guard

Looking southeast

Looking east

Looking northwest toward Road's End

Looking west

Bullfrog Lake

We started our descent around 3:45 foregoing North Guard. We were back at camp before dark around 7:30. The next morning Jack continued on up the JMT and Dan and I hiked back to Onion Valley the way we came in. Neither of us had hiked past Bullfrog Lake in the daylight before, and we commented how it makes sense that it's closed to camping. It is surrounded by fragile meadows and would also be an amazing place to camp. Bad combination.

Peak 12,640', Mt. Gilbert, Mt. Johnson

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David, Brandon, Nolan and I planned to spend the weekend backpacking/camping at Treasure Lakes out of South Lake. David and Brandon brought their fishing stuff, and Nolan and I planned to do some peakbagging. Friday morning we picked up permits in Lone Pine then drove up to South Lake. We weren't on the trail until almost 11, but we only had about 4.5 miles to hike to get to our planned camp at Upper Treasure Lakes. 

Between Lower Treasure Lakes and Upper Treasure Lakes

We took our time and made it to the Treasure Lakes trail junction (1 mile) after 30 minutes, the lower lakes after an hour and a half, and the upper lakes after 3 hours. There were lots of fisherman and dayhikers at the lower lakes but absolutely no one at the upper ones. There were no fish in the upper lakes, but we camped there anyway because no one really wanted to walk back downhill to the lower lakes. 

North Ridge of "Trapezoid Peak"

With some daylight still to spare and the weather looking like it would hold out (there was a 30% chance of t-storms in the forecast), I decided to scramble up a nearby ridgeline that started near our camp and ended at an interesting-looking summit. I would later find out that it was a false summit of the unofficially-named "Trapezoid Peak". I started up the ridgeline around 3 p.m. moving fast over easy terrain. After about 1,000' of uphill, thingsturned more challenging and I had to stop a couple of times to look for a feasible way forward. I made a couple of exposed moves to get past a knife edge ridge section then traversed into a bowl on my right. From there it was an easy sramble to the "summit". At the false summit I found a cairn and a nice view of the real summit of "Trapezoid Peak". I also had a unique view of Cloudripper, Agassiz, and Goode and a good view of the planned route to Gilbert/Johnson for the next day. I thought about continuing along the ridgeline but decided against it. In retrospect, I wish I would have gone. There was plenty of time, as it was only 4 p.m. I was a bit anxious about the downclimb along the knife edge section I had come up (Secor rates it at class 4). 

Cloudripper, Agassiz, Goode (left to right)

I made it back to camp in about an hour. We made dinner and figured out plans for the next day. David and Brandon would move camp to Lower Treasure Lakes and fish while Nolan and I headed in the opposite direction toward Treasure Col. We hoped to bag Mts. Gilbert and Johnson, and Peak 12,640'+ in the process. Hitting the unnamed peak en route to Gilbert would save us having to ascend Treasure Col which is reportedly loose and dangerous in the summer. 

Treasure Col and Mt. Johnson from the slopes below Peak 12,640'

Nolan and I left camp around 7:30 heading cross country up a talus-filled gully toward Treasure Col. The use trail we had followed up Lower Treasure Lakes pretty much ended at our camp. We passed a small lake and eventually found a decent spot just past that to leave the gully and head up the class 2 south slope of Peak 12,640'. We aimed to climb over the top of the unnamed peak and into the bowl between Gilbert and Johnson on the opposite side of Treasure Col. We summitted Peak 12,640' at 9:15. 

No routefinding issues to get to Gilbert from the unnamed peak. It was a straightforward class 1/2 slog. I made it to the summit around 10:00 and enjoyed great views of the black divide to the west. For how close it is to a trailhead, Gilbert apparently doesn't see too many ascents. The register dated back to 1972. Nolan got to the top about 30 minutes later, and we scoped out the route down to Treasure Col and up the north ridge of Johnson. It looked pretty straightforward.   

Black Giant and Charybdis from Mt. Gilbert

The Black Divide from Mt. Gilbert

South Lake and the Lower Treasure Lakes from Mt. Gilbert

Route from Gilbert to Treasure Col and up the North Ridge of Johnson

Nolan wasn't feeling up for doing Johnson, so he headed back to camp the way we came over Peak 12,640' (actually he bypassed the true summit on the way back by crossing the ridgeline through the obvious notch that Secor talks about). So I continued on solo. I picked my way along the ridgeline near Treasure Col eventually finding that the col itself is located where the flat part of the ridge meets Johnson's north ridge. Someone had left their crampons there. I took a peek down Treasure Col, and it didn't look all that dangerous. 

Upper part of the ridgeline

The class 3 scramble up the ridgeline was enjoyable as reported online. All of the rock was solid, and the routefinding was easy. I made it to a small plateau and got my first view of the upper part of the ridgeline. At that point I dropped off the left side of the ridge to bypass a peaklet. Once I got back on the ridgeline things got a bit more exposed but the ascent angle was not as steep as the lower part of the ridge. I followed the ridge to a point just below the summit then circled around counter-clockwise until I found an easy way up. 

Black Divide and the JMT

Descent route off the southeast face

The views weren't all that different than those from Gilbert except that I couldn't see past Gilbert to the north. I wished I could drop off the back side of Johnson down to the JMT instead of hiking back toward civilization. I was depressed to find that I had cell service at the summit; nonetheless, I took a few minutes to return a couple of text messages :-(. In my defense, the texts were helping to plan a climbing trip for the following weekend(s). After about 30 minutes I began my descent down the class 2/3 southeast slope. I wasn't really sure what I'd find on the slope but it turned out to be an easy descent route. I wouldn't recommended it for going up though. I made it back to our camp at 1:15, about an hour from the summit. Nolan and I took our time packing up camp and moving it down to the lower lakes. 

The day's route: Peak 12,640', Gilbert, Johnson

We 4 camped together again then hiked out the next morning. Lower Treasure Lakes is less than 3 miles from the trailhead so the walk out was quick. I think it's the closest I've ever camped to a trailhead on a backpacking trip.

Goodale Mountain and Arrow Peak

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For the second time this summer Loren and I drove from SLO straight to the Taboose Pass trailhead and set up camp. My main objective was to deliver a few days' worth of food to my dad who was hiking the JMT, but we also picked out a few nearby peaks that needed bagging: Goodale, Arrow, Cardinal, State, Marion. In the end I only ended up getting two of these. 

When we showed up late on Thursday night we were surprised to find the trailhead packed to the point of overflow. I was able to find a flat spot to park so I could sleep in my car while Loren pitched his tent nearby. The next morning we were up and moving just before 6:00, a bit later than we had started the previous time. My pack was HEAVY, way too heavy. I had packed a few "luxury items", a bit too much food, and of course the extra food for my dad. I never weighed it, but I am sure that it was heavier than 45 lbs., much worse than the 18 lbs. I was at on the previous Taboose trip. I saw that Loren's pack was on the light side, so I let him know that he was going to outpace me by even more than usual and that he shouldn't wait up for me. We never explicitly discussed where we would meet up first along the trail and this caused some issues later on. 

Cross-country route up the gully

I headed up the first few sandy miles of trail and watched Loren slowly disappear into the distance. I was not in a great mood, mostly on account of my extra heavy pack and the looming idea of repeating such a brutal hike with it on. Then there was the fact that I was still below 6,000' in elevation but would need to get up near 13,000' within a few hours. My only consolation was that I'd get to leave the trail after 6 miles and 5,000' instead of having to trudge the entire 8 miles, 6,000' to Taboose Pass. Nonetheless it took me the same amount of time, 3 hours, to get to the departure point this time around as it had taken to get all the way to the pass before. Loren was nowhere in sight, so I figured he had already left the trail and made it beyond the skyline at the end of the gully that lay ahead. This seemed reasonable on account of my slow pace. I left the trail and followed this route up the gully. The entire way was class 2 with some moderately annoying boulder hopping. I followed the route described on Summitpost and climbed the slope at the end of the gully just to the right of the waterfall. 

Goodale Mountain the distance

Above the waterfall I found myself on a plateau with a medium-sized lake. I dropped my heavy pack then continued on toward the summit of Goodale. I planned to climb the class 2 west face, still figuring Loren was somewhere up ahead. About 1,000' below the summit, I had to decide whether to head to the left or right of the summit block; I chose left, which ended up being incorrect. I should have aimed for this arrow, but instead I found myself below class 4/5 terrain on the other side. To correct my error I had to descend a few hundred feet and climb back up to the red arrow. 

I took a few photos from the false summit then tagged the easy class 3 high point and signed the register. I was the second entry this year, and the first one wasn't Loren's which took me by surprise. At that point it was 50/50 in my head as to whether he had opted for Striped or whether he had just gone to the pass instead of leaving the trail at the 10,200' mark as I had. The latter turned out to be the case, but I wasn't sure yet. Views from the summit were great in all directions as it was a clear day. The class 2 traverse to Striped Mountain didn't look too bad from where I sat. I thought about doing it but figured that if Loren was waiting at the pass I should get back.

Summit views

Class 2 ridgeline to Striped Mountain

Descending to the South Fork of the Kings from Taboose Pass

I was back at my pack within an hour and at Taboose Pass 30 minutes from there. Loren was there writing a message in the snow to me that he was planning to head back to the car. It was good that I showed up when I did. We continued on together down the old Taboose Pass trail as we had a month earlier toward the south fork of the Kings River. My dad and I had set a pre-arranged meeting point just north of where the JMT crosses the Kings, and he was sitting there when we arrived at 1:45. We chose a campsite, set up camp, then Loren ran up Mt. Wynne while my dad and I sat around camp. It was tempting to join Loren but my achilles was hurting quite a bit and truthfully I was pretty tired from having ascended about 8,000' already that day. 

When Loren got back we discussed plans for the next day. We had originally planned to get up early and do the Cirque Crest traverse, which would take us from our campsite to Cartridge Pass --> Marion Peak --> State Peak --> Dougherty Peak --> bushwhack back up Muro Blanco Canyon. It would be a challenging 20+ mile day of mostly cross country semi-techinal travel. In the end we backed off those plans on account of my achilles, the weather forecast, and my GPS lacking battery life. Loren guessed that Arrow Peak would not be as trivial distance-wise from our camp as I had guesstimated, and we figured it would be a worthwhile half or 3/4-day objective. 

NE Ridge of Arrow Peak

The next morning we got up around 6:00, said goodbye to my dad and the other couple we camped with then headed north on the JMT while they headed south. We turned off onto the Bench Lake trail after about a mile of uphill hiking. From there the trail turned flat/slightly downhill until we got to Bench Lake itself 1.5 miles later. We surveyed the route up the NE ridge and looked unsuccessfully for a route across the drainage ahead that would prevent us from losing any elevation. We ended up losing a few hundred feet, crossing a creek, then gaining the NE ridge near it's toe. From there it was just up. We didn't deviate much from the ridgeline except near where it turns right; at that point we traversed off the left side of the ridgeline a bit. The most difficult moves along the route were found there, but nothing was harder than class 3 with some exposure. 

Looking back at the lower part of the ridgeline

Upper part of the ridgeline

The upper part of the ridgeline was easy class 3. We summited about 1.5 hours from when we had gained the ridgeline 2,000' earlier. The views from the top were among the best I can think of, and we both agreed that they were better than those we had from Observation Peak a month earlier. We picked out Split/Cardinal/Taboose Pass, the Palisades, the Cirque Crest/Muro Blanco Canyon among others. 

Palisades from the summit of Arrow

Descent to Arrow Pass

After 30 minutes at the top we descended the class 2 southeast slope to Arrow Pass. We found the pass on the opposite shoulder of the peaklet at the base of the southeast slope, as reported by several sources online. We also thought the chute on the near side of the peaklet would work, though it looked a bit harder. The low point on the far side of the peaklet looked like the hardest option. Once at the base of the pass we continued cross country back toward Bench Lake arriving about an hour from the top of the pass. From there we picked up the trail and headed back to camp. 

A bee at Taboose Pass

Since it was still early, Loren went on a run up to Pinchot Pass while I sat at camp. My achilles was really killing me by this point; I wished I was well enough to tag the nearby Mt. Ruskin. The next morning we woke up, packed up camp, then crossed the south fork of the Kings and looked for the old Taboose Pass trail. We somehow never found it, but hiked uphill cross-country in the general direction of the pass. We picked up a faint use trail at some point and that led us to the pass and the base of the class 2 route up Cardinal Mountain. I had hopes of giving it a shot, but by the time we got to the pass I was hobbling pretty badly. I napped at the pass while Loren tagged the summit. After about an hour and a half, when I saw him coming down the lower part of the ridgeline I started hiking back to the car figuring he'd catch me on the way down, which he did after a few miles. 

It took us about 2 hours to get from the pass to the car where we found that my 4runner wouldn't start. The 7-year-old battery had finally given out and at a pretty inconvenient time. Luckily we had cell service, so I called a tow truck service in Lone Pine that charged an arm and a leg to come jump my car. From there we were on our way back to SLO.