Four Gables is an SPS peak that lies on the Sierra crest between Piute Pass and
Pine Creek Pass, north of Mt. Humphreys. I had been to this summit more than a
decade earlier as part of the 2004 Sierra Challenge. For some reason, I had
missed the slightly higher summit to the south (dubbed "Four Gables South" here)which would constitute today's Challenge peak. It was expected to be one of the
easier days in this year's Challenge. Getting to the Horton Lakes TH, on the
other hand, was among the more difficult drives we would make as the road, not
one of the better ones in the Eastern Sierra to begin with, has suffered a good
deal more damage from the tough winter season. I was lucky to get a ride with
Michael, whose Nissan Pathfinder managed it with flying colors, getting us to
the TH just before 6a. A few others were able to reach the TH as well, but most
had to stop at varying distances down the road, limited by the vehicle's
clearance
or the driver's nerves. Consequently, even though we delayed the start by about
10min, not all the participants were with us for the 
group photo -
others were still making their way up the road to the TH when we
headed off into the John Muir Wilderness.
Three of our party - JD, Robert, and Jim P - were heading to 
Basin Mtn
first,
with intentions of doing the traverse to Basin South and then Four Gables. They
struck off cross-country from the TH and were off on their own most of the day.
Others in the starting photo did not actually begin with us - Iris was nursing
an achilles injury and planned a fishing day with Evan's crew, while Jim would
wait for Julie and Justin before starting out. A few minutes later, Julie showed
up at the TH with Richard and the pair decided not to wait for Justin and go
with Jim as planned, but rather try to catch up to the lead group. They would
be unable to do so, with highly unfavorable results.
We spent the first hour and a quarter hiking 
the trail to the old
mining cabins
found just past the junction with the Mt. Tom Trail. Our trail seemed to end at
Horton Lake, resulting in some unexpected bushwhacking on the north side of the
lake before we found some ducks and the continuation of 
the trail.
The trail is
decent enough if one pays close attention, with several threads leading to Upper
Horton Lakes. The better trail follows closer to the creek and we would use that
on the way back. On the ascent we ended up on the higher trail a bit further
north that took us up towards Four Gable's East Ridge. Not realizing exactly
where we were, I started leading us across granite slabs into
the drainage
between Four Gables and Gable Lakes Peak, thinking the latter was actually the
former - this despite the fact I was carrying a GPSr with the summits clearly
marked. Oops. Luckily, Michael caught this error fairly quickly and after
consulting my instrument I sheepishly concurred. We backtracked a short distance
before forking south and southwest into the correct drainage.
It seems Julie and Richard may have made a similar error, arriving sometime after we'd already corrected the mistake. Julie was still moving fast and Richard was having trouble keeping up after hours on the go, and eventually turned back. Finding herself alone, Julie pressed on into the wrong drainage. She had no map, no GPSr, not much familiarity with the area and little cross-country experience - not a recipe for success.
We didn't want to have to drop all the way down to the largest of the Horton
Lakes so we contoured around Four Gables' East Ridge over several ribs, hoping
at each one that we wouldn't find cliffs on the other side. Not expecting it to
work, I was traversing lower than Kristine and Tom, but in the end there were
no cliffs and we all reached the drainage west and above the lake, on the south
side of the East Ridge. In the drainage we found water to recharge our supplies
and the first of a number of 
snowfields
we would encounter on the day. Most of
us had brought crampons and axe and though I used them in this drainage, several
others showed it to be unnecessary. As we climbed higher in the drainage we
found the 
class 3 chute pretty much where it was expected and started
up. Kristine was the first one up the chute, followed by myself, then
Tom and Michael
lower down. Matt was somewhere behind them, busy trying to take video
of the days action while simultaneously working to keep up with a pretty fast
group. We moved from the initial chute into an adjacent one to the left (west)
when the going went beyond class 3, about halfway up the side of the East Ridge.
It was good that we weren't all bunched up in the chute because the second
chute was a good deal looser in places and it took some effort to keep from
knocking stuff down on each other.
Kristine was the first to climb out at the top and find herself
on Four Gables
before 10:30a. There was no register here that we could find. After I had joined
her and we'd failed in our search, we continued along the crest to the south
towards 
Four Gables South. Kristine continued her blistering pace,
easily 
outdistancing me and 
arriving atop the higher south
summit in about 20min, myself about five minutes behind her. It would be
another 20min before we had the five of us assembled at the summit for
a group photo. 
The register
I had expected to find on Four Gables had been moved to the
south summit in the past few years, for reasons unknown. I don't think the SPS
has changed the location of "their" Four Gables, but someone had thought the
higher summit
more worthy and carried it over here. As we sat about the summit taking in the
views and snacking on lunch items, Kristine began to work on us to take the
longer, alternate class 2 route back down. It would be a mile and a half longer
and I didn't really feel like it, particularly since there weren't any bonus
peaks
enroute and the one nearby (Basin South) I'd already been to. The others at
first appeared to agree with me, leaving Kristine to decide whether she wanted
to go it alone. As we were packing up, first Tom, then the others changed their
minds and agreed to join Kristine for the alternate. I was still convinced I
was heading back down the ascent route even as we left the summit, but in those
first
30 seconds when I found myself suddenly alone, I, too, changed my mind and
turned south instead. Kristine was a little surprised to find all of us tagging
along behind her, but simply smiled and kept telling us how fun it would be.
And so it was. Even without new summits to visit, it's nice to take a different
way back and make a loop of things and the route proved far less tedious than
I had expected. We hiked along 
the Sierra crest for more than a mile
over several intermediate bumps, all easy hiking. We then turned left to drop
down the 
class 2 slopes into the southern branch of the Horton
Lakes drainage. This, too, was fairly easy down sandy terrain which eventually
led to more 
snowfields. The snow was soft in the afternoon sun and with
moderate angles it made for some really 
good bootskiing and swift
progress. Shortly before reaching the 
uppermost lake we ran into
David Pletcher who was
making his way upwards. He was hours behind us at this point with a good deal
still to go. It wasn't yet 12:30p which left him with plenty of daylight, but in
the end he would decide to turn around before reaching the crest. Below the
upper lake we found steeper snow with good glissading and made more quick
progress. So fast, in fact, that we completely missed brother Jim and nephew
Justin who were making a traverse across the upper part of this snow slope. They
had seen us descending, but were too far away to communicate and silently
watched us bomb down the slopes. They, too, would turn around before long
and call it a day.
It was 1p before we reached 
the largest of the Upper Horton Lakes and
it took more time to traverse around the west side of the lake before picking up
the trail once more. Matt had fallen behind in the snow sections and
Tom began to
flag some now that we were back on the trail and he, too, soon fell behind.
Michael, Kristine and I continued down the trail towards Horton Lake. Once
there, I made the mistake of not simply following Michael as he deftly
picked out the faintly ducked route across talus, boulders and brush to reach
the old road at the cabins near the Mt. Tom trail junction. Instead, I kept
close to the lake shore, initially finding a clear path and thinking I'd found
the key to the brushy section that had frustrated us earlier in the day. The
shoreline route soon closed up and I was left with some hefty bushwhacking to
get through. It took some jogging to eventually catch my way back up with the
others, and more of the same to simply 
keep up
with the fast pace that they
were setting now that we had only three miles to go. With a half mile remaining,
more hijinx ensued when Michael decided to cut the sweeping switchback near
the Wilderness boundary without telling anyone. Kristine noted his manuever
quickly and followed down in like fashion. A bit oblivious, it took me several
turns in the trail before I spotted them no longer behind me but rather well
ahead. This just wouldn't do - I
couldn't let them snatch the stage win at the last moment. I caught up with
Kristine as we tore through the desert scrub terrain in zigzag fashion, avoiding
boulders and bushes, trying not to roll an ankle or worse. Michael relented when
he got back on the trail and we would all 
finish close enough to each
other to preserve the shared stage win, sharing some good laughs at the end.
Jim P surprised us by showing up ten minutes later, having made it to Basin Mtn but then deciding not to continue to South Basin. JD made it to South Basin before returning around 4:30p, leaving Robert to continue to Four Gables on his own and a much later finish. Tom G showed up about 40min after the three of us, at which time Michael and I gave him a ride back to his truck before heading to Bishop ourselves. Matt would arrive almost an hour later, others still further behind. Scott was off doing another 4 bonus peaks and wouldn't return until nearly 7p. His total of 20 peaks in 3 days was unprecedented and would be enough to take the Polka Dot Jersey even if he climbed nothing else. By doing Basin and South Basin, Robert had given up the Yellow Jersey lead which then reverted to Michael and I who now jointly held it along with the Green Jersey.
Meanwhile, more serious drama was playing out high on the mountain as afternoon rolled into evening. Having unknowingly found herself in the wrong drainage, Julia had continued up, eventually reaching the saddle between Four Gables and Gable Lakes Peak. Scott traversed this saddle twice on his long outing today and reported seeing someone afar in a blue jacket but somehow missing them upon approaching closer. This was almost certainly Julia, and had they met up he could probably have helped escort her off the mountain back down to the Pine Creek TH where he had started at. Back near the Horton Lakes TH, Jim B and others noticed her vehicle was still there when they returned late, suspecting she was in for a much later outing. Jim still thought she was with Richard at this time, not knowing that Richard had already returned and started for home without a word or text to anyone. Julia would end up spending the night on the crest, chilled, but not life-threatening. In the morning, Evan and Jim went back up to the TH to find her car still there and initiated a call to SAR. Inyo County SAR informed them they had already gotten a call from a woman earlier in the morning and were sending a helicopter to get her since she reported having no food or water with her. While waiting hours for the helicopter (which was doing double duty with firefighting efforts in the area), she decided to go down to the lake in the basin to get water, and it was there that she was found and airlifted back out to the Bishop airport in the early afternoon. I may have some of the details wrong since it was difficult to get an accurate account of what happened. Julia was terribly embarrassed by the whole experience and didn't want to meet up with us at dinner that evening, but Jim made her come and face the music. Still, we got no definitive answers as to exactly what transpired leading up to her rescue, but she was very clear that her major mistake was not staying with Jim B in the first place, as was originally planned.
Continued...