This was the longest day of the 2019 Sierra Challenge, a 23mi effort with more
than 8,000ft of gain - a veritable sufferfest in the grandest of Sierra
Challenge tradition. West Vidette lies 3.5 air miles west of the Sierra Crest.
Our route would take us over Kearsarge Pass and down to Bubbs Creek before
climbing back up through Vidette Lakes to reach our peak. I had hoped to climb
West Spur the previous summer on a backpack trip with other Sierra Challengers
when we were
doing Ericcson Crags. Everyone was too tired or uninterested in joining me on
that last day, even though I threatened to put it on the Sierra Challenge the
next year and make them all do it as a day hike. I was laughed at and
ridiculed. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse to go home early. I left
East Lake unfulfilled, but kept good on my threat. There was
some conjecture beforehand whether I would even show up for the 5a start at
Onion Valley and not without valid reason - I had skipped the hardest days of
the last two Challenges which some thought not entirely honorable of me. But I
was feeling pretty good after seven days this year, and was there with everyone
else for the start. "Everyone" was only 
seven of us, and
Kristine was only
going as far as Kearsarge Pinnacles. Chris Henry had started earlier and would
meet up with us before we reached the summit.
We started off up the Kearsarge Pass Trail by headlamp, using them for the first
half hour or so as we made our way out of Onion Valley. Sunrise came soon after
passing 
Gilbert Lake, the new day lightiing up 
University Peak
and 
Nameless Pyramid to the south across Pothole Lake. I reached
Kearsarge Pass after 6:30a, 
others having reached it minutes
earlier and taking a break there - maybe to make sure I didn't turn back. We
dropped into the 
Kearsarge Lakes Basin, dropping Kristine off at the
Pinnacles, and continued past 
Bullfrog Lake to 
the PCT. Here
we turned south, dropping through switchbacks to Bubbs Creek and following
the trail for half a mile or so before
the real fun begins. By now it was after 8a and time to find a way across the
creek. Scott found a way over the various branches after some effort, then
took us to 
Shorty's Cabin for 
a quick tour. From here we
started up the Vidette Creek drainage, looking for the use trail that we knew
existed. We found it (or one version of it) just before we met up with Clement
who had been out in front for most of the morning along with Rob. We found him
resting on a rock, looking calm and a little bemused upon our finding
him. Five of us continued up 
the Vidette drainage, though Clement
would wander off in his own direction and was eventually lost to the group.
Around 9:15a we caught up 
with Chris as we were climbing above the
highest lakes and 
angling towards West Spur, passing under
the East Face of West Vidette.
Things were going slower now as the effort began to wear on us.
Our route funneled us up towards the crest
between West Spur and West Vidette, leading to a split a few hundred feet below
the crest. While the lower part had been decent scrambling, the upper part had
become a loose, sandy affair that tired us far more quickly. At the split,
the left fork was filled with hard snow that looked to be an
interesting snow climb.
The right fork was dry, with more loose stuff leading to the saddle between the
two peaks. Scott and I were the only ones that had brought crampons and axe,
the snow providing us just the excuse we were looking for to get off the
loose slope. And so our group split off at this point, Scott and I spending
about 30min 
climbing the chute
which took us 
to the crest and only ten minutes
from West Spur's summit. It was 11:15a when the two of us topped out with a
fine, clear view looking over this part of the High Sierra. Mt. Brewer and the
other summits of the Great Western Divide were arrayed before us in grand
profile to 
the west. Deerhorn, Stanford, and peaks on the Kings-Kern
Divide were to 
the south. A large, unnamed lake was directly below us
to 
the northwest, draining out to East Creek, with Mt. Bago behind it
and Mts. Gardiner & Clarence King further still. To 
the north rose
West Vidette, 130ft lower than
our perch. The connecting ridgeline was not the class 2-3 affair I had expected
but something looking far more serious and the most interesting part of the
day. The others had gone to West Vidette first and would have to come across
that ridgeline, something that would take time, no doubt. We found a tattered
register left by Lilley/MacLeod 
in 1982 with just a handful of other
entries in all that time. Jeff Moffat had been the last to sign it back
in 2006.
After a much appreciated break, we headed off the summit to begin the traverse
to West Vidette, the only bonus peak within "easy" reach. Only a few minutes
from the summit we came across, not so unexpectedly, 
Clement making
his way from West Vidette. He smiled when we asked him how the ridgeline was,
responding with something like, "Quite fun!" And so it was. The
class 3 scrambling begins as we passed our exit point from the snow
chute below, finding lots of stiff scrambling with 
knife-edges,
odd slabs, and plenty of 
tricky parts. We'd been
at it for more than half an hour when we came across
Tom and Iris, then shortly thereafter, Chris and 
Rob too. We
guessed they were going to be quite a bit behind us getting back if they had to
retrace the route back across 
the same ridge. Scott and I
continued on towards West Vidette, the
terrain getting easier now, finally reaching the summit just after 12:30p.
We found a register on this summit too, but it was rather new, going back only
to 2012. The older register than held the entry from my first visit in
2007 now gone. We signed into 
the new book after the other five while
taking another needed break here before beginning our descent. I was on familiar
territory now, so expected the route-finding to be fairly straightforward. We
headed north off the summit, following it down to a notch just south
of Pt. 3,731m. This was the top of the sandy chute that Ron Hudson had shown us
back in 2007. This time it had 
a tongue of snow going most of the way
down, giving us options to avoid the unstable rock/sand. We stuck to the rock
and sand in 
the upper half, finding the angle too steep for a safe
glissade, but eventually 
took to the snow to make more rapid progress
down to Vidette Lakes. Shortly after getting off 
the last bit of snow
and nearing the lowest of the lakes, we met up with 
Clement once more.
With his flowing beard, he was like a friendly apparition of a prospector from
another time, appearing before us with his quiet smile. Our little group of
three lasted only a short time together, all of us splitting up before we
reached Bubbs Creek. I was happy to find the use trail we'd used earlier, and
another thread of it as well that made it a snap to get back to Vidette Meadow
at Bubbs Creek. I found 
a log crossing that got me over the creek much
more easily than in the morning and was back on 
the PCT not long
after 2p.
I plied the PCT back up 1,000ft from Lower Vidette Meadow to the junction with
the Kearsarge Pass Trail, or one version of it (there's an upper trail as well).
It was nearly 3p by the time I reached Bullfrog Lake where Scott casually caught
up and 
passed me with a smile and apparent ease. I was tiring a good
deal now and was happy to keep my slower pace. I would catch up to him once
more after the trail starts climbing steeply again, and the two of us reached
Kearsarge Pass together around 4p. With five miles remaining and all of it
downhill, Scott appolgetically went off 
at a jog, leaving me again to
myself. I was ready for
the hike to be over so I can't say I was enjoying those last miles as much as
I would have under easier circumstances. I went past
the various lakes with the
afternoon wearing on and shadows creeping longer, thinking about how good a hot
shower was going to feel and what I might have for dinner.
It would be almost 5:30p by the time I returned to 
the TH, about 20min
after Scott and more than an hour behind Clement. We had another long day
planned for tomorrow, but I would have to rest up in preparation. It had been
a long time since I had done a hike of more than 12hrs - and to think I used
to be able to do ones almost twice as long. The joys of aging...
I finally learned the recipe for beating Rob, who has been consistently returning the TH hours before me. The trick is to include many miles of cross-country travel and lots of hard class 3 scrambling, an unbeatable combination. I must make a note of this for next year. The seven folks who made it to West Spur were the only ones that would complete 10 Challenge peaks this year.
Continued...