Fri, Aug 4, 2017
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It was the first day of the 2017 Sierra Challenge, bringing together more than 20 hearty mountaineers, freshly rested and ready to test their stamina once again. It was good to see so many familiar faces along with some new ones to round out our company. Our goal today was an officially unnamed summit in the headwaters of Third Recess, deep in the heart of the John Muir Wilderness. Our starting point was the parking lot off Rock Creek Rd between the pack station and the Hilton Lakes TH, and we pretty much filled up the available spaces for the 6a start.
After taking our group photo we headed through the
pack station in search of the use trail heading up towards Half Moon Pass, a
shortcut between Rock Creek and Mono Creek basins. Kristine was in front,
deftly finding the turnoff behind the pack station without missing a step. When
I asked her how she found it so confidently, she admitted having checked it out
the day prior since she was in the area. Smart AND fast, this one. The excess
water in the range this year meant that part of the trail was under water and
through swamp and it eventually had to be abandoned for other ways around, not
that big of a
problem since cross-country travel is not too difficult here. There were 8-9
folks in the lead group as we approached
the base
of the pass. We correctly
pointed out the right notch for the class 2/3 pass and then made our way up,
taking about an hour from the start to
go over the Sierra Crest here.
The west side of the pass is easier class 2, descending a widening talus gully
down towards Golden Lake.
After skirting the north side of Golden Lake, we began descending the
Mono Creek drainage. There is a use trail connecting the lake with the Mono Pass
Trail lower down the drainage, but near the lake's outlet it is found on the
south side of the creek. Missing this, we followed down
the north side
of the creek, picking up the use trail where it
crosses to that side in about a quarter mile. The terrain here was wet and
swampy and I was happy that my waterproof boots were actually behaving as such.
Upon reaching the Mono Pass Trail, I was surprised to see Michael cross over to
the south side of the creek with a giant leap. It's rare that he makes a
navigational error but luckily he recognized it right away and sheepishly came
back to the north side where the maintained trail continues descending the
drainage.
An hour after leaving Golden Lake we had reached the mouth of Third Recess and
it was time to get across to the south side of Mono Creek. By this time the
creek had grown in size and strength and getting across was not as simple as
finding some rocks to hop across or a log spanning the watercourse. In other
years it would have been easy, but this was no ordinary year with water and
snow levels looking more like early July than early August. Most of us
took off our boots to make the crossing though a few with less concern
for foot troubles just walked across, boots and all. A good trail continues
south up Third Recess for about a mile before it gets lost among more
boggy terrain about a half mile short of Third Recess Lake. Arriving at
the lake around 9a, we had to make a
difficult leap (for us old guys,
anyway) across the lake's outlet to get to
the west side of the lake
which provides easier hiking to continue up Third
Recess. Our peak was not yet visible at this point, but there were a number
of bonus peaks surrounding us on three sides with a fair amount of snow on the
ground now that we were above 10,500ft.
The snow presented some concern as it was more than we expected and no
one had brought axe or crampons to deal with it. As it hadn't gotten very cold
overnight, the snow
was somewhat soft, but still there was only so much of a
gradient we could walk up without starting to slip and worry about an
uncontrolled slide. Fortunately there were boulder field options that could be
followed instead, and our group began to break up as some preferred more snow
and others chose to head to the rocks. It wasn't until we were at 11,300ft that
we could judge pretty accurately where our peak was hiding. Still out of view,
we were close enough to judge the peak to the northwest was not our
peak given the GPSr location, but rather the more mundane looking ridge to the
west. There were two ways to reach the hanging valley above us in that
direction,
and while Kristine and some of the others more adept at snow travel chose that
way, I followed up the ridgeline to the left that was pretty much all rock.
Slower, no doubt, but it seemed safer to me. Where the snow angle eased at the
mouth of the hanging valley above, I moved
onto the snow
and followed that to
the base of the unpleasant-looking talus slopes that form the 800-foot SE side
of our peak. It was not all tedious, with some fun
class 3 scrambling
in the higher reaches with many ways to go.
The peak is still not obvious from the base below and most of us
made the mistake of climbing too far to the right which left some large, blocky
rock to cross once the NE Ridgeline was attained.
It was 10:45a when the first of our party reached the top. I was third or fourth
of what eventually became a group of nine at the summit when we had reconvened,
rested, and taken a group photo. There was an old Smatko register
from 1976 and a "newer" one from Macleod/Lilley
in 1981. We
signed into the older register consisting of the classic thin scrolls
of paper because there was plenty of room there. The last sign-in on either
register was back
in 2008 by Guy Dahms of Albuquerque, a name found in
many an obscure Sierra register.
It seems possible
we weren't actually on the highest point as there was
another pinnacle a short
distance to the northwest that looked like it might be higher. Several
of the older register entries made mention of this, and Rob did his best to get
me or one of the others interested in joining him to investigate. The connecting
ridge looked class 3/4 and hard, and I couldn't really bring myself to care
enough about it. Perhaps in a grand, collective error, we all left it untouched.
There was some additional
talk of visiting nearby bonus peaks beforehand, but now that we could see that
"nearby" wasn't that nearby and the difficulties they entailed, the
interest all but melted away. Only Scott would find his way to several of these
after reaching our summit some hours later (he was currently busy climbing other
bonus peaks before this one).
The descent went much faster thanks to some decent boot skiing and softer snow
that made even the steeper sections more managable. Before returning to Third
Recess Lake, we ran into the remaining participants still on their way up.
Iris was the first of these, found on the rocks at the mouth of the
hanging valley. She was tired but in good spirits and would continue to the
summit. Six minutes below her we ran into
Ken, also smiling but more
tired. We figured he was a cinch to make it as well, but he decided to
turn around not long afterwards. Another five minutes below Ken were
Jim B and Julia. More used to long distances
on trail, this was the first time Julia had done anything like this, but was
enjoying it immensely. She and Jim would be the last ones to make the summit
and almost the last to return (only Scott would stay out longer), but Julia
would describe it as "the best day of my life." That's a pretty strong
endorsement.
Robert and Kristine were soon out of sight while Michael, Zach, Jim P and myself
would roughly stick together in the second wave half an hour behind them. It was
nearly 1p by the time we got back across Mono Creek and 2:30p when we
again crossed the Sierra Crest at Half Moon Pass. Zach and Jim were ahead of
Michael and I going up to the pass from Golden Lake and were already starting
down the other side as I waited for
Michael to make the final few
hundred yards to
the pass. Jim zipped on ahead while Zach slowed down
for the descent on the east
side of the pass. This was Zach's first time on the Challenge and he was proving
a strong participant. Michael and I lost contact with the other two during our
effort to descend and find the use trail once again. We descended a bit too far
to the south before correcting that and eventually picking up the trail. We
would
finish around 3:20p, five minutes after Jim and another five
minutes ahead of Zach.
Robert and Kristine took the stage win, finishing at 2:50p. Others would return at various times over the next few hours with Jim B and Julia not returning until 8:40p. Scott would be out another hour, not returning until 9:45p, having tagged eight summits in the process - the only person to tackle a bonus peak on the day. He had a commanding lead for the King of the Mountain jersey after a single day and was just getting warmed up...
Continued...
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