Tharps Rock
After our successful outing to Wren Peak, we turned our attention to Tharps Rock in another part of the park. Located a short distance from Alta Peak, it was almost two hours of driving to Wolverton from Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon. The striking formation rises dramatically, overlooking the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River, just off the Alta Peak Trail. One can't help but notice it on the way to Alta Peak, a popular hike, yet there is very little information available on reaching its summit. I had heard that there is a class 4 route to the summit years earlier, but after getting stymied on two visits, unable to find a suitable scrambling route, I concluded it is more likely class 5 and would need more of a siege effort. Others in our group had been similarly thwarted. This time, we'd come with rope, rock shoes and gear to give it a more serious try. We had just enough skill and gear distributed among us to make this work.
We'd spent the night at various locations - Matthew off the Big Meadows Rd,
Sean, Asaka and Scott at Wolverton, the other three of us off an unsigned road
just outside the park. We all assembled at Wolverton in the morning, ready to
head out by 7:15a. We spent the first hour hiking through forest to
Panther Gap. Another hiker who'd started on the trail just before us, had
returned back after the first half mile, having been charged by a mother bear
with two cubs. He returned with our much larger group to the bear's location,
and sure enough, there was a large 
black bear looking totally
unconcerned by our presence. We talked loudly to the bear, spread out our group
to look more threatening, and although the cubs dove for cover in the trees
behind mamma bear, she never budged from her position where she was casually
digging up the ground or a rotten log or something. We simply walked off the
trail around the spot she was holding and left her and her cubs to that part of
the trail. At 
Panther Gap we were treated to a fine view of the Middle
Fork drainage with the impressive 
Castle Rocks across the river. There
was some talk about visiting those someday, but that would require far more work
than today's effort. From Panther Gap the trail 
traverses high on the
north side of the canyon with great views as it
travels alternately through forest and more open chapparal. We paused at the
end of the second hour where the trail goes by a large granite block I dubbed
Warmup Rock. At first it appears to be a difficult climb, but there is a
class 4 route up one corner that a few of us gave go at. It was a neat
little exercise that had good holds to compensate for the exposure, allowing
four of us to 
climb up and down before we continued on.
Another 20min along the trail brought us to the east side of
Tharps Rock where the trail passes closest, only a few hundred yards
away. We left the trail here, traversing 
open slopes and climbing some
class 3 slabs to make our way to 
the first of two notches.
The second notch, immediately to the south, is reached
via more class 3 scrambling. Here one is confronted with the 20-foot overhanging
headwall that stops one from reaching the highpoint. A short distance down a
gully to the east is an alcove and a 35-foot chimney that would be
our route up
Tharps. I had examined this on my second visit and even scrambled up it about
10ft before retreating, finding the upper moves harder and the exposure more
concerning. As is my usual practice, I tried to see who else I might coerce into
leading the route, but found no takers. Sean, Matt and Asaka were all new
at this while Matthew, Iris and Scott all declined. Rats, I would have to get on
the sharp end. The others were spread out in the alcove, some in the shade,
others in the sun, Asaka and Sean on the rocks above, all prepared to watch the
show. With Iris belaying, I slowly went up the chimney and in about five
minutes' time I had placed two cams for protection and had only about 12ft left
to the route, but 
it was here
that my progress ground to a halt. The cracks
that had worked so nicely to this point more or less ended and the headwall
seemed beyond my abilities. There was a thin ledge to the left that went around
a corner and I thought I could probably rest there and maybe see if there was
an easier route that we couldn't see. With some effort I made it to the ledge,
let my shakey legs recover while I photographed the peanut gallery
below and 
above me, then went around the corner to explore.
I found the sloping shelf continued some distance, but it eventually came to
a dead end and 
back I went.
Sitting there with the others below me, I couldn't see a way past the crux.
Scott eventually piped up that maybe he'd give it a try and I was more than
happy to let him.
To facilitate a change of leaders, I first set up an anchor where I sat on the
shelf. Scott then tied in to the rope around the halfway point and had two
belayers to help him up the chimney. Once there, he examined his options and
we had a short discussion. "Why not just stem up this way?" he asked. I had to
admit I had far less flexibility with my age and stemming was not one of my
strong suites. "I love stemming!" he enthusiastically rejoindered, and with no
shortage of spiritedness, finished off 
the crux in fine style. Success!
Or sort of, anyway. We had one guy up. The next problem we realized was that
Scott had never led an alpine climb before, not placed a piece of gear or set
up an anchor, the latter of course being necessary before we could get anyone
else up the route. Luckily he owned plenty of gear that he'd played with and
had the basic ideas already rolling around in his head, and with a little
coaching from below he was able to set three pieces of gear up for an anchor and
tie himself in. The next part of this effort was to get me off my shelf and up
to join him. I proved my stemming skills to be about as weak as they were
claimed to be and
struggled mightily at the crux despite the comfort of a rope above me. In the
end I had to aid on the rope and partially pull myself up - no claim to fine
style points for me on this one.
Once seated next to Scott, I checked his anchor, added another cam I had with
me, and clipped in with a cordelette I equilized between three of the anchor
points. We now had two belayers on top ready to bring up the other five of our
crew. Matt was on a critical time schedule that needed him back in LA in time
for an evening show he was to attend with his mother. To help expedite his
departure, Scott belayed him 
up first, Matt went and tagged the summit
and
signed the register I'd brought up with me, then we lowered him back down the
route the same way. He gathered his gear and 
bid us goodbye before
disappearing back down the slabs. Scott and I then took turns belaying the other
four up the route, first Sean, then Asaka, followed by Matthew and Iris. Easily
the heaviest in our group, 
Sean
was the only one to slip on the route, taking a
short fall at the crux that brought his full weight on the anchor with me
attached. I slipped only a few inches, friction in my pants, the anchor system
and rope over the rock all combining to hold him nicely. He'd end up with some
nice scrapes on one of his legs and a few skipped beats in his heart, but
otherwise no lasting damage.
Once everyone was up, Scott and I disassembled the anchor, coiled the rope and
joined the others about 30yds up at 
the highpoint. It had taken several
hours to complete the climbing portion, no speed record to be sure, but at
least we were all safely up. We spent probably 20min or so at the summit taking
in 
the views and leaving 
a register where there was none to be
found, before working
out a descent plan. I concluded the easiest way down would be at the overhanging
headwall, just a short drop down to the notch below. I threaded a long stretch
of webbing around a large block to rappel from, attached the rope and went down
first - as I told the others, it's always a good form to make the guy who sets
up the rappel be the one to test it first. The others came down in turn, some
in 
better style than 
others, mostly determined by how much or
how little practice each had had 
at rapping. It was 1p before we had
changed back to our boots and put away the gear, having spent about three hours
on the rock climbing portion of the day.
While the others headed off to climb Alta Peak as an easy bonus peak, Matthew
and I headed back. We'd already been to Alta on previous occasions and felt no
need for another visit. With some coaxing, I got him to agree to drop down the
west side of Tharps from 
the first notch as a shorter route back to
the trail. "You know, I don't like 
slabs any more now than I did when
I first met you," he lamented. I enthusiastically pointed to a series of grooves
that allowed us to avoid most of the steep slab portions and before we had
gotten to 
the bottom he admitted that it had been a good choice to go
this way. Once back on 
the trail I spent the rest of the time trying
to keep up with Matthew's quick pace. He looks like he's traveling at a
leisurely pace, but I found I had to jog periodically to catch up as I would
slowly 
fall behind. Two hours later we were 
back at Wolverton.
As it was only 3p, I wanted to find
something else to occupy the afternoon since I was going to spend another day
in the area. Matthew seemed to be interested in my idea of visiting Chimney
Rock, but in the end decided to start the long drive back to the Bay Area.
Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock is located at the southern end of Big Baldy Ridge, west of the Generals Highway and straddling the border between the national park and forest. Paved Forest Road 14S29, signed for "Organization Camps", nicely winds its way along the west side of the Woodward Creek drainage to get one with 1/3mi of Chimney Rock, about 600ft below it on the east side. The pavement ends here at some nice dispersed camping sites, all of which were empty on a Sunday afternoon. I imagine this remote place is probably quiet most of the summer as well. I
parked the van and spent about 15min hiking steeply up through
the forest to reach the crest of the ridge, just below Chimney Rock on
its 
south side. Easy class 3 scrambling leads to the
open summit from that side. Chimney Rock is a lesser-known climbing
destination with most of the climbing found on the more impressive West Face
that drops down to the North Fork of the Kaweah River drainage. I was struck by
a lower, but far more 
impressive rock to the southeast that juts up
from the surrounding terrain with 
vertical faces on all sides, a siren
to climbers if there ever was one. A mile and a half to 
the northwest
and another 500ft higher rises Big Baldy, a popular trail going to its summit.
After enjoying the views and leaving a register, I headed back down, finding
a use trail off the east side that nicely led almost all the way back
to my 
starting point. Downfall near the campsite had obliterated all
signs of the trail's start, but much of the rest of it was easy enough to
follow. Back by 4:40p, I showered before starting the drive out. I spent the
next hour
driving some 12mi into the Big Meadow area of the national forest to the Marvin
Pass TH. There is a good deal of (re)construction work going on along the road,
repairing damage from the heavy winter. The last several miles to the TH were
unpaved but passable in the van. Berms built to divert water off the road were
the biggest obstacle and required me to crawl over them to avoid bottoming out.
At the TH I had the place to myself where I would make dinner and watch some
DVDs to fill out the evening before heading to bed. I would sleep quite well
tonight...
Continued...