Dan, David, Jim, Paul and two friends (Gustavo and his girlfriend), and I all met at the Shepherd Pass TH at 5am. We waited a bit for Misha and one other guy (Thad, a no-show), but I wasn't sure if they were starting with us, or meeting us on the trail. So we were a bit late starting out, probably 5.15am or so. I'm not the strict disciplinarian that Bob is... I only saw Paul's friends at the trailhead and later at dinner, and I never saw Jim after the first few minutes. He started out in long pants and what looked like two layers of shirts; he had to stop to change clothing pretty quickly. I'd learned my lesson from Taboose Pass yesterday, and was in T-shirt and shorts even at 5 in the morning!
I'd really expected to be dragging from the Cardinal Mountain hike the day before, but I ended up making it to the pass in almost exactly four hours (9.15am), the same time it took me for Taboose Pass yesterday. Shepherd Pass sure felt a hell of a lot easier than Taboose (at least when heading up - the hike down is a different, and rather more tedious, story). I was still feeling good, and after an abysmal record of only one peak a day so far, was really hoping to climb Versteeg as well today to try and restore at least some measure of pride. So I was awfully tempted to head off for Tyndall without waiting for the others; I rationalized that this would be okay as Dan and Misha are both more experienced climbers than I am, and so would be perfectly capable of helping the others. But it still seemed a bit rude to me, and so I ended up lounging around at the pass for two hours as the less-acclimatized/rested folks gradually made their way up, filtered water, and also lolled around. Ah well, it made for a more relaxing time than one of Bob's hikes. Four of us finally headed up for the peak at around 11.15am or so (Dan, Paul, Misha, and myself), the others having decided to head only to the pass or below.
The climb itself is less than two hours from the pass, and is a great deal of fun. Dan chose to follow the rib pretty much directly, while I angled right (away from the summit), following the path of what looked like more enjoyable climbing over some terrific slabs up to a notch on the ridge - great friction and holds the whole way. It was all easy, but might be one of my favourite climbs to date. Paul was a good deal more hesitant, and kept closer to the rib - actually, he looked much like I imagine I must have looked to Bob on Tenaya Peak a couple of months ago - but he made his way up without any problems. Although I tried to hang back a bit to provide some moral support, I didn't realise it was his first class 3 climb - if I'd have known that, I'd have stayed back further with him. Now I feel bad. After signing in and taking the requisite photos from the summit, I waited for the other two as it started raining and hailing. (Dan was heading back to Southern California, so he took off by himself at this point). I decided to bail on the Versteeg plan - I didn-t want to get caught on the ridge if the weather worsened, and for that matter, it didn't look like a terribly interesting traverse or peak either.
We decided to try and follow the ridge down. It's reportedly class 2 or 3; I couldn't find a route that stayed class 2, and would probably just call it class 3. It's easy 3rd, though; maybe this is what the 'class 2-3' is meant to signify? You can follow the spine of the ridgeline directly, and I did this; it's a straightforward but very enjoyable scramble. Somewhere along here, Paul decided he'd had enough, and he and Misha opted to drop down some talus towards the North Rib. I remembered some questions on SP about the fabled NW ridge and the presence of a route along there; ever the good SP citizen, I continued along the ridge to check things out. I found I could follow it the entire way until the end of the interesting section (the various gendarmes and small notches) and the start of the boulder field (the talus slope seen from the pass). It looked tedious class 2 from that point on, and I didn't follow it down to the pass. Instead, I cut back down the North Face to finally rejoin the others near the base of the North Rib. The North Rib is almost surely the quickest route up and down the peak, but if you have time, that ridgeline might make an interesting alternative descent route. Once everyone was back on easy ground, I headed down. It was about a 3.5 hour hike back to my car once I was back on the trail, but it felt much longer; the 500 feet of uphill sucked. I was kind of glad I hadn't gone on to Versteeg right about then. The trail is much less sandy on Shepherd Pass than Taboose, so it's harder to jog (I pretty much only walked to save my knees), and the more gradual descent over 11 miles rather than the 8 miles of Taboose made the hike down much more tedious. I kept moving only thanks to the motivation of the pizza awaiting us in Lone Pine.
P.S. There were a few entries in the register from day hikers. I'd guess that an acclimatized party should be able to do it in 11-12 hours without really pushing too hard.