Langley, Muir, Whitney

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Sufferfest 2015. Matt, Jack, Dan, and I had high hopes of summitting 6 14ers in 3 days: Langley, Muir, Whitney, Russell, Williamson, Tyndall. This was our fallback plan after we couldn't do the Great Western Divide Traverse on account of highway 168 to Road's End in SEKI being closed because of the Rim Fire. The car shuttle logistics were interesting. I came up from the south and met Dan and Jack in Independence late on Thursday night. We drove two cars up to Onion Valley to sleep at elevation. Early the next morning we met Matt at the Shepherd Pass trailhead where we left his and Dan's cars. Matt had slept only a couple of hours the previous night near Tioga Pass. From Shepherd Pass we all headed in my car to the ranger station in Lone Pine to pick up permits then up to Horseshoe Meadows where we were hiking toward Langley by 9:30 a.m.

Old Army Pass

Miter Basin

We made quick progress to the base of Old Army Pass then took a long break. We topped out at the pass 3 hours from the trailhead then began the slog to the top of Langley. I found that the NPS had added many giant cairnssince the last time I made the hike in 2008, apparently in an effort to consolidate the many use trails that led to the summit into one. We followed them up the sandy route to the summit, getting there about 5 hours from the trailhead. After a lengthy stay at the top we descended Langley's west face down to the Miter Basin. It took some effort to find a chute that was suitable for descending, but we eventually found one by continuing to traverse south. Once reaching the bottom of the Miter Basin, we walked a few easy miles then ascended to Sky Blue Lake where we made camp. The Miter Basin felt really remote and we saw only one other person. Matt struggled that night with altitude sickness and there was some doubt as to whether he'd continue on with us the next day or hike back out to Horseshoe Meadows (this would have really messed up the logistics). We slept that night out under the stars.

Leaving the Miter Basin

Almost to trail crest.  Langley in the background.

The next morning we were up and hiking by 7:30 and made it to upper Sky Blue Lake by 8:00. From there we continued around the east side of the lake then ascended to Crabtree Pass. Nothing was much more challenging than class 2. It took about an hour to get to Crabtree Pass from camp. Matt made the final decision to continue on with us and we descended down to the unnamed lake at the upper reaches of the Crabtree Basin. We crossed just below Mt. McAdie, which looked pretty impressive from below. The unnamed lake below was equally impressive; it felt really remote and its water was crystal clear. We traversed around the north side of the lake until we found a suitable entry point to the class 2 slog up to trail crest. We made it to trail crest about 3.5 hours from camp.

Downclimbing the class 3 section on Muir

It was a strange feeling to be hiking "in civilization" again. We followed the Whitney trail for a mile or so until we found the spot we were supposed to leave and head up to Muir. I recognized it from my failed attempt from the previous summer. The summit is only 300-400' feet above the trail, but the final part is a solid class 3 climb. I followed the real climbers to the top, getting there about 3 hours from camp.

Looking north from Muir

After that we hiked to the top of Whitney, getting there about 4 hours from camp. By that point, we had all already decided to forego Tyndall and Williamson and to hike back along the JMT to Shepherd Pass. We just weren't moving fast enough to make it to the Williamson Bowl by sunset. Matt opted to descend the trail. Dan, Jack and I chose to descend the mountaineers' route and try for Russell. We would meet at the Wallace Creek campsites along the JMT. Weather was beginning to look like an issue so we parted ways in a hurry.

Descending the mountaineer's route

We passed several other parties descending or ascending the mountaineers' route and got a bit nervous that we weren't wearing helmets. We made it safely to Iceberg Lake about an hour from the summit. After filling up water, we headed up to the pass between Whitney and Russell getting there about 30 minutes later. At that point it started to rain, and we decided to forego Russell. We disappointedly hiked back to the JMT past Arctic Lakes and randomly happened upon Matt beneath a tree along the JMT near Crabtree Meadows. We continued on to Wallace Creek camp as planned, arriving around 6 p.m.; 10.5 hours from camp. We covered about 16 miles that day.

Tyndall in the rain

We were up the next morning around 7:30 ready to hike the 20 trail miles back to the car. Views to the west toward the Great Western Divide were great, so we stopped several times to take photos, each time doing our best to pick out Picket Guard Peak (Sufferfest 2014). As we continued along the JMT, it started to drizzle when we got to the Bighorn Plateau and continued until we got to the car 8 hours after leaving our camp at Wallace Creek. We gave up on half-hearted plans to summit Tyndall as it was raining hardest while we passed it by. We were back to the Shepherd Pass trailhead by mid-afternoon. From there Jack and Dan headed north and Matt drove me back to my car at the Horseshoe Meadows trailhead.