North Guard Dayhike

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North Guard summit block

Juli and I drove up from SLO to Road's End after work on Friday. She planned to run the Rae Lakes loop the next day while I bagged North Guard. We got to the Sentinel campground at Cedar Grove at 7:30 and got literally the last available campsite after anxiously driving past about 60 already-occupied sites. All of the other campgrounds at Cedar Grove were closed for the season and Sentinel was first-come-first-server only. We were lucky. 

My alarm went off at 3:30 the next morning, and we were driving toward Road's End by 3:45. We were jogging away from the trailhead by 4:20 and got to the Bubbs Creek bridge not long after. At that point Juli continued running while I opted to hike up the ~1,200' of switchbacks that led up to the Avalanche Pass trail junction. We both got to the trail junction at about the same time. At that point it was still only 5:30, and the sun wasn't up yet. We parted ways for a second time, and I headed up 3,300' of unrelenting switchbacks toward Sphinx Creek. By 6:45 I could see where I was going, so I turned off my headlamp. I had hiked down this trail back in 2010 when Dan, Rob and I climbed South Guard, but I had never ascended it. Around 7:00 a.m. I reached the 8,600' mark and the spot just before the trail crosses Sphinx Creek. I left the trail there then did a good deal of side-hilling/traversing to get into the Sphinx Creek drainage. I made a mental note to just descend directly down the Sphinx Creek drainage on the way back, which would end up leading me through some annoying bushwhacking. 

Sphinx Lakes

On the way to Sphinx Col

By 8:30 I was at the largest of the Sphinx Lakes. There was a guy just waking up and rolling out of his tent. I continued up the gradual slope toward the upper lakes. From there I boulder hopped my way to the Col. Compared to some of the other cols (Wallace, Echo, Vennacher, Dumbell Lakes...) I had done earlier in the summer, Sphinx Col was a piece of cake. Barely harder than class 1. On the way down I would save myself some effort and just follow the weak spot down the center of the gully. I stood on top of Sphinx Col at 9:45 and surveyed what lay ahead. I couldn't yet see North Guard as it was behind a ridgeline, but Brewer and South Guard were easy to spot. The 300' descent down the other side of Sphinx Col was even easier than the ascent on the other side. I did my best to lose as little elevation as possible as I rounded the bend to the left and headed into the bowl between Brewer and NG. I think I dropped down to 11,800' at worst. 

Brewer and South Guard from Sphinx Col

Start of the class 3 route

The peak finally in view, I was easily able to spot the slabs that would lead me up the beginning of the class 3 route to the top. I took my first real break of the day before heading up the slabs. The boulder hopping started to get to me, and I had already hiked about 13 miles and ascended 7,500' in 6.5 hours. The slabs were all class 2 and easy class 3 until I got to a ~15 foot wall. At that point I spotted a couple of cairns and a reasonably easy way up and over to the left into to the sandy gully I had read about. I marked the spot where I left the slab chute on the GPS as UTM XXXXXXX. The going in the sandy gully was easy. I ascended a few hundred feet up it before making a right turn onto the west ridge of the peak just before I got to the notch at the top of the sandy gully. Here the climbing got a bit more serious but never harder than class 3. 

Near the summit

At the very top of the ridgeline, exposure increased and I spotted the infamous class 4 summit block. Several awkward, exposed moves lay between me and it. The boulders were large and had sizeable gaps and drop-offs between them. There was even a patch of fresh snow to make things slightly more dicey. I took my time and navigated the summit boulders until I found a nice sitting spot just below the summit block itself. I took a break to enjoy the views and take photos before tackling the block. As expected, views were great. I'm always intrigued by the Deerhorn/Ericsson area and really want to explore it next summer. There were three register books: one dating back to 1974, one to 1975, and one to 1977. The one dating back to '74 had only a couple of entries for some reason, so I signed that one. Hopefully that was the right thing to do. I took a peak over the class 4 north ridge route. Dan and I had tentatively planned to descend that way if we had had time to summit NG on our Brewer trip a few weeks before. I finally nervously crawled up the summit block doing my best not to plummet 1,000' down to the gully below, then I started down. It had taken me about 7.5 hours to ascend, and it would end up taking me about 7 to get back to the car. 

Summit view to the southeast

Small lake below Sphinx Col

Fall colors along Sphinx Creek

By the time I got back to the boulder field between Brewer and North Guard my legs were really feeling it. I hadn't done anything in about 3 weeks, and I was a bit nervous about what kind of shape I'd be in if and when I got back to the car. I paused at a small lake just below Sphinx Col to get water and eat a lunch of Genoa Salami and Ritz crackers. It was a great spot for a break. The 300' ascent back to the Col was as easy as was the descent back to the largest of the Sphinx Lakes, though I went slowly and carefully so I wouldn't roll an ankle as my legs started failing me. I took another long-ish break at the lakes and crunched some numbers to see if could make it back to the car by 7:30, which was the worst-case time I gave Juli. It seemed possible though I knew I'd have to make great time on the 6.5 miles of trail that came after the 2 miles of cross-country down Sphinx Creek that came next. 

At first I did well following established use trails as I descended the Sphinx Creek drainage but eventually my luck ran out just below the lowest swampy lake when I decided to continue down the center of the drainage all the way back to the trail. This route took me through about a mile of pretty horrendous (at times) bushwhacking (but hey at least it wasn't pouring rain and lighninging this time around). I think it would have been best to stay left just below the swampy lake then cross the creek when the grade gets steep and cut cross-country to the right back to the trail. I made it back to the trail around 5 p.m. That left me 2.5 hours to go 6.5 miles. I ended up doing it in 2 without much difficulty. My legs immediatly felt great once I was on a trail. I even jogged some of the way down. 

When I got back to the car Juli was there waiting for me. She had done the Rae Lakes loop in 12 hours. My route was about 27 miles with 9,000' of elevation gain. It took me 14.5 hours.