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.