Sat, Jun 23, 2018
|
With: | Jackie Burd |
Matt Yaussi | |
Michael Graupe | |
Scott Barnes | |
Iris Ma |
Taking a page from her mother's book of tricks, Jackie was able to sleep almost the entire drive, falling asleep within about 20min and not waking up until I was prodding her ten minutes from the trailhead. Even a stop for gas and breakfast failed to rouse her from her slumber. Matt was the only one of the group at the Mono Meadow TH when we arrived around 5:40a. Just past the summer solstice, it was plenty light out at this hour and the sun was due to rise in only about 15min. Scott and Iris arrived next in Scott's car, followed by Michael a few minutes before 6a. Scott and Iris were planning to do the much more involved West Face route while the rest of us took the tourist route up the Southeast Face. We would hike as a group for the first few hours, splitting up after starting the cross country. I had brought several full length ropes which I doled out to Michael and Matt to carry while I kept the climbing hardware for myself. Jackie got a pass on this one, having only to carry her helmet, harness, a jacket and a couple quarts of Gatorade. Despite the somewhat late arrivals, we were all ready pretty quickly, starting off from the trailhead within about 15min.
The hike starts off
easily enough, 3mi of downhill or flat as one makes their
way down to Illilouette Creek, a drop of about 900ft.
There is the bog at Mono Meadows reached after
the first half-mile of downhill, some tricky
log-balancing needed
to keep one's boots dry (not all of us were successful at this). There is a
trail junction before reaching Illilouette Creek where
we paused
to get our
bearings. It was here that I admitted not having actually looked at the map or
route recently. I was relying on Michael's expert orienteering skills to find
the best route and he did not disappoint, as he was the one to speak up first
and get us headed in the right direction. As we neared Illilouette Creek we
passed by a group of several tents off the trail in the woods, not a soul
stirring that we could tell. They would be packed up and gone before we returned
in the afternoon. The Illilouette Creek crossing can
often be the crux of the day with dangerous spring/early summer runoff, but
with low snow conditions this year it was
fairly tame. We took off our
boots and socks, rolled up our pant legs and
waded across
the creek up to about our
knees. Jackie and I had brought sandals to make this easier on our feet, but
the others didn't seem to have much trouble. After putting our boots back on
at the other side, we stashed the sandals in the forest and continued up the
trail, now on a gentle climb. It is
open and sandy
for a stretch (ugh, ugh) but
soon re-enters the forest. Starr King can be seen through the trees, washed out
by the early morning sun and it is soon time to start
the cross-country.
Not long after the trail turns to the southeast, we left it to follow a course
to the northeast, aiming for the saddle between Starr King's lower middle and
south summits, keeping to the right of the drainage. This avoids the
heavier
brush found by following the small creek channel, but with 1,800ft of gain to
the saddle it is still a good deal of work. Around the 7,000-foot level, Iris
and Scott broke off to head more north towards the base of the massive West
Face they intended to climb. It was the last we'd see of them on the day - they
would summit very late in the evening, not returning to the trailhead until
around 10p. They reported it as a fantastic climb. Meanwhile, four of us
continued
the steady pace up
to the saddle.
Jackie had been worried that she was
going to slow us down, but it was Matt who took up the rear position, going at
a more leisurely pace. We lost sight of him after a while but figured he knew
where we were headed. Jackie was the only one I had to keep track of today and
she was never far away.
It was 8:50a by the time we reached the saddle. Michael commented that he wanted
to climb the south summit on the way back. "Must be on Peakbagger," I quipped to
which he smiled, "Yeah..." I suggested we do it now while we're fresh or we
might forgo it later, and so we did.
Jackie stayed put at the saddle while
Michael and I took about five minutes to climb the granite slabs and broken rock
to
the summit,
the lowest of the three domes. We had dropped our packs at the
saddle which made the short climb seem quite easy.
We took
a few pictures and went
back down to the saddle to collect Jackie and
continue up and over
the middle summit.
She seemed a little concerned that we didn't wait for Matt but we told
her, "He'll find us ... probably." The middle summit is quite a bit higher than
the southern one, taking more than twice as long to reach the rounded top where
we had a fine view of Starr King's
Southeast Face.
We walked the short distance
down to the high saddle between the two higher domes and took off our packs
where the roped climbing starts. We got out ropes and other gear while Matt came
wandering down from the middle summit to
join us, much as expected.
Jackie snacked while we flaked
ropes and worked out a plan to get the four of us up the face.
It was not the fastest of strategies, but it worked, getting us to the summit about two hours after we had first reached the saddle. Much of this time was spent getting the gear ready, harnesses, climbing shoes and helmets on, and then some instruction on how we could have four people simul-climb on the two ropes. I had five Ti-Bloks to be placed with each piece of protection, allowing the rope to travel freely in one direction (up) but lock up in the other (a pull from below). I was on the front end of the first rope, Jackie second, tied into the middle of the rope. Michael was third, tied into the end of the first rope and the front end of the second rope. Matt took up the rear position at the end of the second rope. In hindsight, it would have been better to have Matt tie into the middle of the second rope and carry the remaining rope in a coil, thus keeping him closer to Michael for better communication. Stretched out with two full rope lengths, we were never all four climbing at the same time as I was able to reach the upper belay station before Matt had even left the saddle. I spent some time instructing the others how to move the Ti-Bloks off the uphill rope and onto the downhill rope as they passed them (this was for Jackie and Michael) while Matt got the job of cleaning the gear at the end. Once all this was straightened out I started up.
The climbing is not difficult, mostly steep slabs with some flakes, and a few
ledges to break things up. There are three rap stations on the route,
the first
two I used simply as an anchor point for a pair of Ti-bloks. I placed three
others along the way, stretching them out so that there was always one between
any two of us in the chain. Jackie was the only one without climbing shoes, so
she understandably took longer on the cruxier
slab sections, but she
managed
these nicely. We had to pause the train when anyone reached a Ti-Blok, taking
a minute to move it from one rope strand to another, slowly snaking our way up
the route. Once I reached the uppermost belay station, I clipped in and switched
to belaying mode, bringing
the others up
one after
the other. There was much waiting around, especially for Jackie who
was
first off the rope, which she used to catch up on her
summer tanning. Once the others had joined us, we left the ropes in a
few piles and
continued up the remaining distance over class 3 slabs
to the summit.
It was 11:15a when we reached the open summit, a clear day with
sweeping views around Yosemite. I was almost surprised to find that
the Sierra Club's aluminum register box was still there. Inside were the same
two books that were there on
my last visit, 15yrs earlier.
The books were nearly full as
the later entries
have taken to using some skipped pages. The weather was just lovely
for
our time at the summit, a light breeze, warm sunshine and such
fine views.
After about half an hour we packed up and started back down, reconvening
at the upper rap station where we'd left the rope and other gear. We decided to
tie the two ropes together and rap down, hoping that we might be able to do it
in a single rap and even more hope that the friction wouldn't be so great as to
make pulling the ropes down impossible. When I conveyed this latter concern,
Michael offered, "Well, you can always just climb back up and retrieve it."
The two-rope rappel allowed us to reach as far as the lowest rap station, not
quite enough to get us off the face entirely.
Going down first, I tested the rope
pull (I was just able to overcome the friction) before signalling for the
others to
come down in turn. There was more
waiting around
to get all four of us down, but after a second
short rap on a single
rope we were all back to the
saddle by 12:20p. We changed shoes and packed away the rest of the gear before
starting
the long trek back.
It was warmer now and would be nearly 80F by the time we returned to the
trailhead. We retraced our route over the middle summit and
down the westside drainage towards the trail. Along the way we came
across an unusual boulder perched atop a small pedestal. It was overhanging on
all sides with no easy way up. With a boost from Michael and myself, Jackie was
able to
scramble atop what I later dubbed "Jackies Gem" when I added
it for fun on the peakbagger
site. Despite her concerns about being a boat anchor, Jackie seemed to have
enough reserves to keep up with
Michael and I for the remaining
distance back to
the trail,
across the creek and the more
difficult 900ft of gain to get back to
the TH.
We came across some other folks before and after reaching Illilouette
Creek, overall a pretty quiet day in the Yosemite backcountry. About a mile from
the TH we came across a young cub walking the trail ahead of us. It took off at
a run when it spied us, too quick for me to get a photo. We saw it again a few
minutes later (and it again ran off), but never saw mama bear who we figured
was probably nearby somewhere.
We had lost track of Matt after leaving Jackies Gem, but he found
us again at the TH about 15min after we arrived around 3:15p. A couple of beers
for the old men and sodas for the others helped frame the end of a successful
day. Once again, Jackie would sleep almost the entire drive back to San Jose
that afternoon, but this time she had really earned it...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Mt. Starr King
This page last updated: Thu Feb 6 18:05:44 2020
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