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.