Mt. Russell and Mt. Carillon

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Danny, John and I drove over to Lone Pine on Friday morning planning to try for walk-in permits to enter to Whitney zone for a Mt. Russell dayhike.  It would be my 9th 14er, John's 3rd, and Danny's 1st.  At 2:00 every day at the Lone Pine ranger station it's possible to claim permits that weren't picked up by the 10:00 a.m. deadline. If there are more people interested in claiming unsued permits than there are permits then a lottery is held. Based on this forum post, our chances looked pretty good even though it was a holiday weekend. 

We got to Lone Pine around 12:00 so we went to the ranger station early to see if we could claim walk-in overnight permits for the next day that we would just use for a dayhike. Sure enough there were 3 overnight permits available. Just as the ranger was entering my information in the computer and starting the print out my permits, another ranger walked in the door and said "Stop issuing permits! A fire just started on Whitney Portal Rd." I pleaded with the ranger, but in the end we left without a permit or even any kind of special priority for the next day. In addition, the 2:00 unclaimed permit lottery was cancelled. We decided to camp at Onion Valley and dayhike Dragon Peak the next day, which is short enough so that we could be back at the ranger station by 2:00 the next day to try our luck in the lottery. 

University Peak from the Golden Trout Lakes Trail

The next morning we were hiking up the Golden Trout Lakes trail by 6:00. The usual approach to Dragon follows the trail to the lower Golden Trout Lakes then cuts cross country into a gully north of the Upper Golden Trout Lakes. After about 1.5 miles of hiking Danny and John fell behind, and I lost sight of them, so I waited. As I waited they somehow hiked around me without my noticing. After about 20 minutes of waiting I figured they either headed back down for some reason or had bypassed me. I hiked back down to where a group was camping and asked whether they had seen my friends. When they said "no", I jogged back up the trail hoping to catch up. I caught Danny, but unfortunately we were unable to catch John before he headed up the wrong gully. Danny and I hiked all the way to the base of the east face of Dragon Peak then hiked over to the Upper Golden Trout Lakes to look for John. We never found him, so we just hiked back to camp. John showed up about an hour later, and we compared notes. It turns out that he had in fact hiked up the left-hand gully to Upper Golden Trout Lakes instead of the right-hand one. By the time Danny and I were in that vicinity, John had already left to scramble up a nearby ridgeline. At around noon we headed back to the ranger station to try and grab unclaimed dayhike permits for the next day. 

When 2:00 rolled around, there were quite a few people gathered. The fire, which had burned a small area across Whitney Portal Rd. near the Lone Pine CG, had been put out. There were more people than unclaimed permits, so we had to draw a number (one number per party). Danny drew a 17 out of a possible 20 :(, and we did not get a permit. We decided at that point to take our chances and do the hike permit-less since we had already invested so much time and gas in the trip. Besides, we felt like we deserved a permit after what had happened the previous day with the timing of the fire. 

Campsite at Whitney Portal

We drove up to Whitney Portals to look for a campsite, and we were able to find one in the lower section of the walk-in/hikers campground. The next morning we were hiking by 4:45 and climbing the E-ledges by 5:30.Sunrise over the Whitney Crest was amazing. We made our way above LBSL by hiking up talus along the left-hand side of the creek that feeds the lake. Our approach would continue to the right across the creek and up a class 2 gully just before we got to UBSL. We had to do quite a bit of bushwhacking to cross the creek and get to the gully. Things would have been easier had we crossed earlier (blue line here). 

Mt. Whitney from near Russell-Carillon Col

Lake Tulainyo from along east ridge of Russell

Once in the gully the next few thousand feet were a slog, but we eventually topped out onto the plateau below the Russell-Carillon Col. No technical moves were required to get to the col. We took a break and I scoped out theroute up Carillon. It looked really easy and it was only a few hundred feet above where we sat. I planned to bag it on the way back since it is on the SPS list. 

Class 3 section

We started up the east ridge of Russell and found the first section quite easy. The first class 3 moves were found at the top of the first peaklet. From that point on, almost all of the terrain was class 3 with varying degrees of exposure, but nothing went class 4. The most exposure was found just before the final ascent to the east summit, but we were able to find mid-class 3 terrain with great holds and not-too-terrible exposure by dropping off the right side of the ridgeline. The traverse from the east summit to the west summit took about 20 minutes and also had some moderately exposed class 3 terrain. John was able to bypass the infamous "step up rock" by descending a bit on the right-hand side of the ridge. There were a couple of rappell slings along the crest of the ridgeline where one of the south face routes met up with the ridge. 

Class 3 section below the east summit.  Mt. Carillon and the col on the end of the ridgeline.

The weather was nice and it was only 10:30 a.m. when we summitted, so we spent quite a bit of time taking photos and eating lunch. Views were great as expected (Kaweahs, Williamson, Barnard/Forrester Pass area, Great Western Divide, JMT). We descended the way we came up at a slightly slower pace. Both John and Danny were feeling the effects of the altitude, the early start, and the lack of breaks (I don't like to take many breaks longer than a minute or two when I hike). Once we got past the most technical section of the descent, I left them and jogged up Carillon. It took me about 15 minutes from the col. The register dated back to 1989, which was surprising considering that no technical moves were required to get to the summit and considering how close it is to Whitney Portal. The views of Lake Tulainyo and the east ridge of Russell were awesome. 

North Face of Whitney

Kaweahs

Barnard

Great Western Divide

Williamson to the north

Carillon summit register

Russell from Carillon

We all arrived back at the col at roughly the same time and headed down together. The scree ski back across the plateau and down the class 2 chute went quickly. Near the base of the chute we decided to traverse left hoping to bypass a lot of the bushwhacking that we found near the creek on the way up. It turned out to be the right choice. We even picked up a series of cairns that led us across the creek and down to LBSL without any bushwhacking at all and with much less annoying talus than on the ascent. Our easier, cairned route stayed closer to the creek than on the ascent. 

We took a long break at LBSL then headed back down the E-ledges. We were at the trailhead by 4:15, about 12 hours after we started.