Center Peak and Mt. Bradley

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University Pass

Sierra Challenge 2015. Randy and Juli joined me for a weekend on the eastside. They planned to run up and over Kearsarge Pass on Saturday while I hiked Mt. Keith with the Challenge group then on Sunday they'd do something in the Alabama Hills while I joined the Challenge leaving from Horseshoe Meadows. It ended up that I only did one day of the Challenge. 

I showed up at the Onion Valley trailhead at 5:00 planning to tag along with the crew up to University Pass then head south toward Mt. Keith on my own. Bob Burd took a quick group photo at 4:59, then we (~20 of us) were off in a hurry through the campground to the Robinson Lake trailhead. I think most folks were planning to summit an unnamed peak below Forrester Pass, which was the main objective of day. As we headed out, I somehow ended up near the front of the pack. I did my best not to hold anyone up, and we got to Robinson Lake after about 45 minutes of hiking. 

Looking up University Pass

The official trail ends at Robinson Lake. As the 5 of us at the front of the pack headed up the boulder fields below University Pass I struck up a conversation with Craig who was just in front of me. It turns out that we had met 6 years earlier at Red Lake when Nolan and I were climbing Split and Craig was climbing Mt. Prater. He invited me to climb Center Peak and Mt. Bradley with him that day as an alternative to Keith and I accepted. I figured it would be more fun to hike with someone else and besides I would be knocking out two class 3/class 4 SPS peaks. 

As we continued on toward Unviersity Pass we were treated to an amazing sunrise. We reached the top of the pass after 2.25 hours of hiking. From the pass, Mt. Keith, Center Peak, and Mt. Bradley were all clearly visibile. I reconnected with Craig who had beaten me to the top of the pass, and we descended the extraordinarily sandy slopes together to Center Basin. Most of the rest of the crew descended all the way to the JMT then headed toward Forrester Pass. We were down in Center Basin 3 hours from the trailhead. 

Center Peak

After a short stroll along the creek in the basin we headed up the east ridge/face of the Center Peak. The first part was solid class 2 and continued to be solid class 2 until we got to the class 4 summit block. Craig and I both summitted then watched Eric climb the summit block with one hand (he had injured his other hand earlier in the week). We were on top 4 hours from the trailhead. 

Looking north toward Vidette Meadows

Looking northwest

Looking west

Looking southwest

Looking south (Mt. Keith)

Looking southeast

Looking east toward Mt. Bradley

Looking north again.  Palisades in the distance.

From there Craig and I descended back to Center Basin following a route slightly further south that was more suitable for descending than ascending. Eric continued on to the unnamed Challenge Peak. Once back in Center Basin, we examined the class 2 route up Bradley. It looked a bit daunting and reminded me of looking up at Mt. Williamson. We headed up the lower part of the boulder field and found the correct chute. I relied wholly on Craig for routefinding since I had only done research for Keith. 

Route up Bradley from Center Basin

The chute that Craig chose offered solid class 2/3 climbing without much slogging. We spotted a flower-carrying Pika near 13,000'. We followed the chute for 1000' or so up and to the right snaking around the west side of the summit, then from a small plateau we scrambled through a notch around the east side of the summit block and found an easy walk to the top just south of the summit, getting there about 7 hours from the trailhead. We sat on top for about 20 minutes enjoying the views and eating leftover pizza. 

Looking west from Bradley toward Brewer, NG, Farquhar

Looking south toward Keith

Looking north

Route from Bradley back to University Pass

Then we started the descent down the sandy north ridge back toward University Pass. On the way back we would traverse over the top of the unofficially named Ph.D. Peak. This leg of the journey was by far the most difficult for me as we had to descend quite a bit below Ph.D. Peak then slog back up a hellish class 2 bowl. 

Class 3 on the way to Ph.D peak

Above the hellish class 2 bowl there was a short stint of fun scrambling we topped out on the ridgeline, summitted the peak then descended back to Unversity Peak, getting there 9 hours from the trailhead. Craig and I made the horrendous slog back to Onion valley going about as fast on the way down as we did on the way up. We arrived just under 10 hours after our 5 a.m. start. 

I was pretty dead after the hike, so I opted out of my original plan to hike Mt. Pickering the following day. Randy, Juli, and I stayed in a motel in Lone Pine that night, hung out in the Alabama Hills the next day for a few hours, then drove home.

Alabama Hills