Sat, Aug 11, 2018
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Day 9 of the Sierra Challenge was designed to be an easy one, but for a peak
that has been on my todo list for a number of years now. Informally named
Candlelight lies atop the ridgeline separting the Meysan Creek and Lone Pine
Creek drainages in the Mt. Whitney area. It's really just a small bump along
the long NE Ridge of Mt. Irvine, but there is reported to be a very enjoyable
class 3 route up the NW Face, starting above Lone Pine Lake. The route nicely
skirts the boundary of the Whitney Zone, allowing dayhikes to the peak without
the need for a permit. There were 10 of us at Whitney Portal for
the 6a start,
but there would be a total of 16 today attempting the summit - not everyone was
ready at the appointed hour to head out.
For a change of pace, I took our starting team up the old trail that
begins
at the bend in the road behind the Portal Store. This convenient and little-used
route cuts off more than half a mile from the current Whitney Trail, joining
the main trail just south of where it crosses the North Fork of Lone Pine Peak.
From there,
the Whitney Trail
climbs about 1,000ft over the course of just
over a mile to reach the junction with a spur trail leading to Lone Pine Lake.
This junction marks the edge of the Whitney Zone, where those continuing up the
trail need a USFS permit for either day or overnight visits. We left the trail
system at this point, heading southeast towards the shady, massive
granite face below our peak
in search of the class 3 route. We made our way across talus and boulders to
the base of the mountain, scanning the face to the left for the easiest route.
We may have been a bit too eager to get on the face as those in front found
various ways up in the vicinity of
an obvious cave that we thought
marked the route.
The scrambling was a bit more than class 3, however,
more like class 4 in a few sketchy places that had us scratching our heads but
continuing regardless.
Rob, vying for the Yellow Jersey lead with Zach, took a hard look at what the
other 4-5 had just done and decided it wasn't worth it, returning back the way
he'd come and calling it a day. It was the end of the Yellow Jersey race and
the end of the Challenge for Rob who packed up and headed home soon after.
Coming up sometime after Rob had left, Michael and a few others similarly paused
at the class 4-ish route the front runners had taken near the cave. But Michael
had done more
research and was convinced this wasn't the class 3 route at all. He led the
others higher up the talus slope to find the far easier, left-leaning chute that
was hidden from below. Michael has always been a better route-finder than the
rest of us.
Meanwhile, the scrambling on the route I was following with a handful of the
others settled into the more standard class 3 up an expected
broken ramp and we gave it little more thought. The ramp climbs 1,000ft
up towards the left (east) to reach
the ridgeline where
the scrambling changes to
long sections of
class 3 slabs,
mildly exposed and quite enjoyable. We stayed mostly to the left of
the ridgeline to avoid difficulties as
the slabs
went on and on for quite some time, gaining another 800ft in the process. Where
the angle eases, one reaches a first false summit that is easy to mistake for
Candlelight. I found
Eric and Clement
resting and snacking here when I arrived,
thinking they were done. In fact, Candlelight is still quite a distance along
the ridge, necessitating us
climbing down
from the first false summit and over
a second one
before
reaching the point I had marked on the GPSr at just over
12,000ft. Zach, Clement and Eric were the first three to reach the summit just
after 8:30a, followed by myself and
then Sean, perhaps 10min behind me.
There are the remains of
a small antenna at the summit, no longer
functioning. There was no register that we could find, so we
left one
of our own. We stayed at the summit until after 9a, but
there were no further participants coming up that we could see (they would show
up after we'd started down). Eric chose to stay at the summit where he relaxed
for several hours, greeting the other participants in turn as they arrived.
Anticipating the descent, I had parked my jeep at the Meysan Lakes TH. This
would be convenient for a return back along the Meysan Lakes Trail. The
southeast side of
Candlelight is a sandy, boot-plunging descent, dropping
1,000ft in less than 15min. We paused to chat with a pair of
climbers with a dog
who were making there way up the tedious sand/gravel from below, thinking they
were other participants who'd chosen the class 2 route from that side. They
turned out to be unknown to us, just a couple of guys out for a Saturday morning
climb. Halfway down, I split off from Zach and Clement as I chose an option to
the left while they went around a bulge in the face to the right. My route was
steeper but more direct in returning to
the trail and I was soon
jogging my way down, waiting for the others to come catch me from behind me.
Clement came by after a short while and would beat me down to
the TH
by a good ten minutes to take the stage win. Zach never
did materialize as expected (perhaps he was busy emptying the sand from his
shoes?), as I got back by 10:30a, one of the shortest days ever for a Challenge.
Zach was another 15min behind me, looking quite relaxed - the first in quite a
few days that he didn't have to run back to keep up with Rob. The rest
of the crew would be more than hour further behind, some quite a few hours.
In all we
would have some 15 participants reach the summit of Candlelight while a few
others (JD, Kristine & Robert) headed to Mt. Corcoran and LeConte as an
alternate. Additionally, JD tagged Candlelight on the way back down from Meysan
Lake and wouldn't return to Whitney Portal until almost dark...
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Candlelight Peak
This page last updated: Thu Jan 16 08:01:34 2020
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