Our goal for the 7th day of this year's Sierra Challenge was officially unnamed Courte-Echelle, a CA 13er located on the Sierra Crest between Mt. Bradley and Mt. Keith. It has also been called Bat Pinnacle according to Secor, a name I came later to learn was bestowed by Andy Smatko and pals. The name derives from their first names: Bill Schuller, Andy Smatko & Tom Ross. Since they have already left their names on other peaks in the Sierra I felt the Courte-Echelle name more appropriate, even if only because it is different. There is some confusion about its exact location in Secor making me think the 13er and Courte-Echelle were two different points, but as we came to find they are indeed one and the same. The summit block is rated as class 5, the first ascent party reported to have used a piton and shoulder stand to reach the highpoint. This was the first class 5 summit in several years for the Challenge and something I was looking forward to. What I and most of the others were not looking forward to was the climb over University Pass which makes for the shortest route to the summit. The Shepherd Pass TH could also be used, but the drive is more difficult and the gain/mileage is more than for the route out of Onion Valley and over University Pass.
We had a dozen participants for the 
6a start
in Onion Valley, cruising through
the campground to find the Robinson Lake TH located at the eastern edge - it's
not as well signed as the more popular Kearsarge Pass TH and nonobvious
to first-time users, but luckily we'd been up this trail more than once in the
past and had no trouble locating it. Sunrise on 
University Peak
was a glorious sight as we hiked up 
the trail
in the shadow of Independence Peak. We reached 
Robinson Lake in about
45min where the trail abruptly ends at some campsites
on the southeast side of the lake. We made our way around the south side of the
lake with 
fine reflections
off the calm lake surface before starting up through
the forest on the cross-country portion of the day.
There are vestiges of use trail that can be followed to get through the initial
forest section leading up the first few hundred feet above the lake, after
which it becomes a 
boulder-hopping exercise for almost a mile.
There is a small
respite in the middle of the moraine where sand and talus offer some low-angle
cruising, but it doesn't last long. Boulders and then 
steep talus
take over as
we made 
our way up to University Pass, no a single patch of snow
remaining at this time in a low-snow year. The pass is loose, crappy and tiring.
More than one participant made the obvious
observation that this would make a better snow climb. It was 8:15a by the time
I reached the top of the pass, 
Eric and Luke
already there resting and basking
in the sunshine. Really, it's not all that bad as the worst of it took only
20-30min, though I admit it seems much longer. It was at the pass that
I first caught sight of Courte-Echelle and observed the
pointy pinnacle was
also the 13er highpoint. It certainly looked impressive and I wondered
why it had never caught my attention on any of a number of previous trips I'd
made to the area.
Knowing the loosest stuff with greater rockfall potential lay on the west side
of the pass, I didn't wait for the group to reassemble before heading down into
Center Basin.
The 
class 2 chute on that side is narrow in places and does a
better job of funneling rockfall onto the hapless who might be below. I was
halfway down before I was aware that anyone else had entered the chute. The
others came down singly or in small groups, some of them coalescing again in
the boulder fields 
below the chute or at 
the bottom
of Center Basin. 
Eric caught up with me and the two of us
continued in the lead heading southeast along Center
Basin in the direction of our summit. With the summit shielded by a false summit
as we approached the base of the mountain, we started our ascent a little too
early, partly to avoid a small headwall (that can be climbed directly up a ramp
through the middle I found later) and partly because we thought we
were headed for the summit. After much 
tedious scrambling
up the boulder/talus
slope we reached the crest where large broken slabs of granite made for some
interesting class 3-4 climbing most of which we found completely unnecessary
once we peered over the false summit to see 
the highpointl
still a good distance
to the south. The rest of the group would fare no better in the route-finding,
climbing to the same false summits and then having to do some hard class 3 to
get around it. A few gave up at this point, deciding the peak was too rich for
their liking.
Undaunted, Eric and I pressed on after that first false summit, passing a second
and reaching the base of the summit pinnacle in another 20min,
arriving around
10:45a. After putting our packs down, we explored the summit blocks and our
options for reaching the highest one. 
A long slab,
some 20ft by 2ft formed a
lower block to the west which took a mantle and some muscle to climb,
but offered a 
good perspective
from which to view the summit block. The higher
eastern block was no picnic, that was for sure. The easiest way to the top
seemed to be the same as the first ascent - a shoulder stand up the vertical
west face of the east block. We made a half-hearted attempt at it before the
others arrived, but realized that if the lower guy (me) collapsed, we would
both tumble into a hole adjacent to the summit block and fall 20ft before
shattering all our bones. It seemed wiser to wait for more help, perhaps to
have two people support the upper one. We did not have long to wait. Over the
course of the next 30min we were joined by Jeff, Michael G, Tom, Nick and
Jonathan. While Jonathan poured over the contents of a
Smatko register he had
discovered buried in the rocks (and Eric and I had somehow missed), others were
discussing the possibilities for climbing the summit block. We had brought a
rope, a few harnesses and some slings to cover some of our options, but
initially we didn't see anything better than the shoulder stand idea. Tom, who
has a more extensive rock climbing background than the rest of us combined,
quietly mulled over the features of the block before suggesting he thought he
could climb it with a belay. His plan was to climb it at its southern end
where a move to push off a lower block and onto the edge of the summit block
looked dicey. The belay I provided was enough to keep him from dying, but
probably not from getting hurt should the initial move fail. He'd probably
bounce off a few blocks before the rope stopped him on a fall, but he wouldn't
do the 20ft drop Eric and I feared, nor would he plunge the more than 500ft
of the East Face immediately on the other side of the block should he push too
far. While we waited with baited breath, Tom made it look almost easy. He
gingerly pushed off the lower block and swung over onto the narrow edge, maybe
a foot wide, before climbing up to the highpoint. Success!
Tom used the piton found at the summit to anchor himself and then one by one
belayed four others to the summit. I went second and found it a cinch now that
there was an upper belay. Though the move was tame, the exposure was enough to
make one's head spin slightly. After 
joining Tom briefly at the
highpoint, he lowered me back down the west side to give someone else a chance.
Going next, Eric demonstrates the 
initial start,
the push-off, 
transition to the edge, joining Tom
at the summit, and 
lowering. 
Jeff and
Michael G went up in turn, Jonathan and Nick declining. We generally
agreed that it was a 5.6 move with a large exposure factor and one of the
finest Sierra summit blocks we'd encountered. Nearly an hour and a half had
passed since Eric and I had first reached the base of the block before we had
put away the gear and started back down. A few other participants would
reach the summit after we'd left, but without a rope, gear and our fearless
leader, Tom, they would have to be content with signing 
the register
and leaving the top of the summit block untouched.
After coiling the rope I was the last of our group of seven 
to leave
the
summit. We went more directly down the west side of the peak, an easier route
than the one we had taken up, mostly class 2. I got separated from the others
traveling in smaller groups through the boulder field and spent much of the
afternoon solo. When I returned to the 
west side
of University Pass I decided
to head up a prominent white chute well to the right (south) of the pass. The
hope was that the more difficult scrambling would avoid the more tedious aspects
of this side of University Pass which can be a tiring grind based on past
experiences. My route turned out to be longer, but more enjoyable as hoped. The
white rock that is so clearly evident 
from below
in the chute makes up the
hardest part of the route, a stiff class 3 slab climb up a dry drainage
channel where the chute narrows the most. 
Below this
is a lot of non-plus talus
climbing, not unlike the lower part of University Pass. But the scrambling
above is on good rock, lots of slabs and fairly clean granite. Rather than
traverse far left to University Pass as I was near the top, I continued up to
informally called 
PhD Peak
on more of an ascending traverse to the north.
I had passed over the modest summit just south of
University Pass some years earlier on my way back from Mt. Bradley and had left
an aluminum register cylinder to replace the weathered container I had found
there. I was curious to see if it was still there.
It was. After the short class 3 scramble required at the very top, I found
the register at the summit supported by a few rocks to keep it from
rolling away. The weathered book dating 
to 1989 had only 9 pages of
entries, of which I
recognized most the names - 
Eric Lee, Brian French,
Tom Becht, Brian Kalet and 
others.
I actually had more entries than
Bob Rockwell (a first) and it's probably the only register I've signed three
times. After putting the register back I headed down to University Pass, an
easy descent taking less than ten minutes. Hearing voices, I found
Jonathan and Ken Yee
(who had turned back from Courte-Echelle at the false
summit) resting to one side, engaged in conversation. After joining them for
a few minutes, Jonathan and I then 
headed down
the east side, Ken following at
a slower pace. I did a poor job of chosing my route on the way down, moving too
far north and finding myself descending through some class 3 cliffs found
there while Jonathan picked a better route to easily beat me to the bottom. In
the mile of boulders above Robinson Lake we came upon Jonathan's brother,
Lincoln. He had gone to the summit of University Peak and was taking his time
getting back. Jonathan and I had tried to sneak up without him seeing us,
but he had been alerted to our presence by Jonathan's all-to-familiar booming
voice well before we had first spied him. After a few minutes chitchat during
which Lincoln was gathering water from the trickle of stream flowing through
the moraine, Jonathan and I continued down together, eventually making it back
to 
Onion Valley
by 5p. It had made for a long day, but because of the extra time
at the summit we weren't as tired as we might have been after 11hrs on the go.
Success at the summit of Courte-Echelle had made it a particularly enjoyable
day of the Challenge for me.
Jersey Strategy:
Eric continued to consolidate his lead in the Yellow Jersey by getting back an
hour and half before me - no slowing him down when he doesn't hit up the bonus
peaks. He still held a virtually insurmountable lead in the King of Mountain
compettion and had no real contenders for the White jersey. In the Green jersey
race (the only one for which Eric wasn't eligible) I still held a 45min lead
over Jonathan since we returned together today.
Continued...