Fri, Aug 14, 2015
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The eighth day of this year's Challenge saw us heading up the Sawmill Pass Trail
for a pair of named summits on the east side of the crest. Neither was
particularly difficult on its own, but the pair together would total over
7,000ft of gain in less than 15mi. 10 of us had gathered at
the trailhead (at
4,500ft, one of the lowest on the East Side) for the 6a start, a pretty good
showing for a midweek day. Today's weather featured unseasonably warm
temperatures that would rise to over 100F before the day was through. Even at
this early hour the thermometer was reading in the 70's, and unusually, even
Eric was sweating within a short while.
We hiked the trail as a group for the first hour, no blistering pace as
we'd done the day before. Upon reaching
the shoulder of Sawmill Point's
East Ridge, we
left the trail to follow
the ridgeline up to the
summit. The route proved a good one, with minimal brush to contend with and
some
decent scrambling. It
was long, too, taking us upwards of an hour and a half between the trail and
the summit. Along the way our merry band of brothers (and sister) fell apart
as we vied to reach the top at different rates of progress. I found myself with
Eric and Scott as we got to what we thought was the top at the end of the East
Ridge, only to find a very challenging
class 3 traverse to reach the
highpoint at the west end of a short but tricky, serrated summit crest. We
bypassed some difficulties on
the north side, others we tackled on the
very
ridgetop, eventually circling around to the
west side of
the summit rocks to surmount
them from that side. All in all it was a bit of a surprise to find the summit
so challenging (Eric was doing all this scrambling one-handed due to his
injury and making it look pretty tame).
A register found in a rusty altoid container dated back only to 2002. The
first entry mentioned an older register stuck down a crack somewhere
but we were unable to locate it ourselves. A
few entries were from
recognizable folks -
Brian and Marie French in 2006, Doug Mantle in 2012, and the most recent
entry from March by Matthew Holliman. We spent about 20min at the summit,
waiting for a few others to arrive (Tom and Robert) so we could get a
group of five photo. A few others would arrive after I left. I could
have sped off
the summit to gain some time on Robert, but I was feeling more magnanimous
today than I had been on Crater the previous day - that and I found that my
extra efforts on Crater were all for naught anyway since Robert was able to jog
back down the trail to pick up the 45min he'd lost on the way to the summit.
Matthew had told me earlier in the summer that Sawmill was best ascended from
the east and descended to the south where it was far sandier, and it was in
this latter direction I headed. I did not find the quick, sandy descent slopes
I had expected however, but instead some seriously steep class 3 granite. The
mistake, it seems, was going initially west
along the crest before descending to the south as this took us right down the
hardest part of the
South Face.
Returning back to the lower east summit before descending would have been a
much quicker affair. With others in tow behind me, I found myself apologizing
for the route choice, a little anxious that no one get hurt. The hardest part
was a dicey crack descent aided by lowering from a not-so-beefy scrub pine
maybe a couple of inches in diameter at its trunk. I paused to take a photo of
Robert descending this section before continuing on, suddenly realizing I had
another opportunity to gain time. On my own now, I finished the descent through
rock and
gravel
before reaching the trail on the north side of The Hogsback.
Lookout Point came into view along with the realization that there was
a lot of gain to reclaim and then some to reach the higher second summit.
7,000ft of gain was starting to look hard. I left the trail at
Sawmill Meadow, heading up to Lookout Point from the
northwest side. There was much tediousness to this ascent with loose, steep
terrain. The last hundred feet or so seemed utterly exhausting with so much
loose sand and gravel that I would zigzag from shrub to shrub so I could use the
unreliable branches to help pull myself up. Somewhere in all this I heard some
small boulders making their way down the slope, bowling ball fashion. Chris
was descending and knocking a few of these loose so I was happy to be off to the
side out of their way. Once I reached the main crest just north of the summit
the going gets suddenly easier, a simple class 1-2 walk to the summit along the
ridge for less than 200yds.
I was the only one at the summit when I reached it at 11:25a, about two and a
quarter hours after leaving Sawmill Pt. A benchmark
here was the only human
object to be found - no cairn nor register. The views were fine, even if the
point barely reaches over 11,000ft. Indian Rock and Mt. Baxter rise sharply from
the connecting ridgeline to
the southwest, most of Sawmill Canyon can
be seen to the northwest and
west, Sawmill Point to
the north
and the Owens Valley spread out to
the east.
I stayed only a few minutes, eager to keep Robert on
his toes wondering where I was and how far in front I was. In order to avoid
the main bowling alley that Chris had descended and others would be undoubtedly
ascending, I moved left (southwest) off the summit a short distance before
starting down to keep me west of where I expected to find the main action. I
heard others to my right as I quickly descended the sand and gravel-fest, but
didn't come across any of them until I met up with
Scott
in the lower section
above Sawmill Meadow. Robert would later report seeing me stealthily descending
to the side to avoid detection but really I was just trying not to knock any
large rocks down on the unsuspecting. After
emptying
a good amount of sand from my shoes, I caught up with Chris down
in the meadow,
who had just finished the descent and was now on his way to Sawmill Point (he
chose to do them in reverse order). He was planning to return to Sawmill's East
Ridge on the trail to start the ascent but I gave him some pointers on how to
shortcut that with an ascending traverse to the right across the South Face
that he later reported working quite nicely.
Not having seen Robert on the descent, I wasn't sure how much time I might have
on him. Recalling how he'd caught me with a more sustained jogging effort down
the trail the day before, I was determined to keep ahead of him with a better
effort myself today. I was cruising down the trail in its most delightful
(shaded) section north of The Hogsback when I unexpectedly came upon
Eric and Bill
relaxing creekside - they shared no sense of urgency themselves, having
what looked to be a pretty fine time of it. Eric immediately began urging me
down the trail to stay ahead of Robert - if he couldn't have the Yellow Jersey
himself, he preferred to see a race of it. It would take almost another hour
after leaving them before I would return, but I managed to keep up a jog
almost the entire way. As I descended lower the heat became more and more
pronounced, as hot as I've ever experienced in the Sierra Challenge. The saving
grace, of course, was that it was almost all downhill, and the last few miles
were cushy sand to make it even easier. The car would register the outside
temperature at 104F that day - a scorcher, to be sure.
Jersey Strategy:
Out of curiosity, I waited (in the car with the air-conditioner running full
blast) until Robert returned to the trailhead - only 20min
behind me which only cut off a third of the hour lead he started the day with.
With only two days remaining it was getting harder for me to get back into the
race for the Yellow Jersey. In the Polka Dot race, Michael chose to climb East
Vidette, an SPS summit, instead of the day's choices. Chris climbed both Sawmill
Pt and Lookout Pt, but since each only counted as 1/2, Michael retained a 1-peak
lead.
Continued...
This page last updated: Thu Jan 16 08:42:13 2020
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