Sat, Apr 28, 2007
|
With: | Matthew Holliman |
Glenn Gookin | |
Sam Gookin | |
Eric G |
It was time once again for what had become a yearly ritual of hiking up George Creek during the brief month in spring when it is legally open before May 15. Our original plan had been an ambitious adventure to Mt. Carl Heller's East Ridge which is reportedly a fine class 3 climb. The past two years had too much snow remaining on the route at that time and we had to go elsewhere. This year had been a low snow year which boded well for the plan, but a recent dump of fresh snow only a week earlier had made us think otherwise. The backup plan was to climb other peaks in the area that were technically easier, which is what we ended up doing. I had already climbed Barnard and Trojan via George Creek as a dayhike, but I still wanted to climb Mt. Williamson, the second highest peak in the state from the east side.
Matthew and I met Glenn G. and his brother Sam shortly after 3a just off US395
and just north of the Manzanar Relocation Camp outside of Independence. We
transferred all of us to Sam's 4x4, the only vehicle of the three that could
get us all the way to the trailhead. We had little trouble finding our way,
though the last half mile was quite a bumpy ride. At the trailhead there were
three other trucks, one of them occupied by Eric G. who would be joining us.
After some introductions, last minute gear arrangements (we decided
not to take snowshoes), and quickly downing some breakfast bars, we were on our
way by headlamp at 4a.
Now that it was our third time up the creek, things went fairly smoothly with
little trouble. We didn't recall exactly where the
creek crossings were, but we
knew the general layout of the use trails and when we ran afould of the brush
the answer was usually to
cross the creek.
Back and forth we went, five crossings
in all in the first hour and half. Debris flowing down the creek had altered
its appearance some, but most of it was at least vaguely familiar. We found
several coils of plastic irrigation tubing along the way, and then as we got
out of the most serious bushwhacking section we came across a small pot farm in
the making. In two different areas we found small
seedlings in individual bags
of dirt tightly packed together in groups of about 200 plants. Whoever had
decided to do some horticulture in George Creek seemed to be oblvious to its
familiarity with climbers, because there was no effort to hide the equipment or
plants away from the main route. Had the farmer been more eco-friendly we might
not have minded the farm so much, but there was trash left haphazardly about,
and on our way out later in the day we spotted an incredibly trashy camp on the
opposite side of the creek. My reaction was to stomp all over the seedlings
until they were mush in the hopes it would discourage such wanton disregard for
the Wilderness in the future.
As daybreak
came on we put away our headlamps and welcomed the new day. For the
next several hours we wandered up the south side of the creek, staying about
a hundred feet or so above the creek in order to follow the use trails as best
as we could. We lost them altogether in several places, requiring some hunting
about and
bushwhacking
in places in order to get back on the trail. The sun was
now out as we reached the campsite
around 9,000ft shortly before 7a. Another
hour brought us to treeline, and the departure point for the two routes.
Matthew and Eric went left, heading for Barnard, while Sam, Glenn, and I hooked
right, heading for Williamson. Our party of three had to thrash through the
thick willows lining the creek before we found more open going
on the slopes
and boulder fields above this. By 8:30a we reached the bowl between
Trojan and
Williamson,
most of the ground covered in a foot or two of snow. We
found a
small opening
in the snow where we could refill on water, the last we
would see above this point.
After our brief rest we started up the SE Slopes
just north of the bowl, and
here Sam's energy began to flag. We hadn't gotten too far when he suggested he
might go back to the bowl below and wait for us. Glenn talked him out of it,
but he was only buying time at this point. Sam was struggling with a headache
from lack of acclimatization, and was moving slower the further up the slope we
got. Our rests became more frequent as we paused to
wait for Sam, and what we
thought would be an hour's climb of the SE Slopes stretched into twice as long.
To be fair to Sam, this was partially due to our underestimating the elevation
gain of this portion, something like 2,000ft when it had looked to be a good
deal less from below.
We reached the top
of the SE Slopes around 10:30a, with still about 2,000ft to
go. When I rejoined the others after my potty break, Sam was already
lying flat
on his back with his jacket atop him to shield his face from the wind. He was
going no further, a nap sounding far more inviting than the summit at this
point. Leaving him among the boulders, Glenn and I traversed NW towards the
East Slopes leading up to the summit plateau. It was hard work when the traverse
ended and the steeper slopes picked up, all of it covered in snow. I had
kicked steps about 3/4 of the way to the top with Glenn following when he
thought to ask if I wanted to switch places. This was good for a laugh, because
I had been hoping he'd let me lead all the way to the top before I took the
opportunity to make fun of his laziness. I let him
go ahead and was happy to
find it a good deal easier when following. Glenn made it nearly to the top
before stopping to rest, letting me finish the
last little bit.
Once at the summit plateau we still had another 500ft of gain, as we
wandered
southwest over the plateau toward the summit area. A mix of rock and snow
helped break up the monotony, and just after noon we reached the 14,300-foot
summit.
The views showed a good deal of snow, more than we would have guessed,
particularly west of the Sierra crest - it certainly wasn't looking like a low
snow year from our vantage. A wonderland of peaks surrounded us on a
particularly clear day - Whitney, the Kaweahs, the
Great Western Divide, and
many more peaks to
the north as far as the Palisades.
I think I had been too exhausted on my first visit five
years earlier to appreciate the great views. We weren't running around with
excess exuberance today, but it didn't seem nearly so tough on the second
try. It had taken eight hours, a fairly good effort by our reckoning, the
only regret that Sam wasn't able to join us.
We found two registers among the summit rocks, though the original one left
by the Sierra Club back in the day had been removed in the past few years.
One goes missing, two take their place - almost like they're breeding! Glenn
signed our names in one, I signed in the other, just in case one goes missing
again. Interestingly, we weren't the first of the year to the summit, though
we were the first to do so legally. Williamson is more popular in winter
than I would have guessed.
We didn't stay too long since the wind was blowing cold, chilling us
now that we weren't working. Not surprisingly, the descent went much easier
than it did on the way up. The snow on the East Face
had grown softer in the
intervening hour, and we plunge stepped our way down in good time.
Sam was up and walking around when we got back to where we'd left him. He'd
watched us descending the East Face, having enjoyed a good rest and feeling
much better now. He had found a better place to rest after we left, one better
protected from the wind, and enjoyed a shallow nap, drifting in and out of
consciousness as the hours went by.
The three of us headed down the SE Slopes, this time looking
to use as much snow as possible instead of favoring the rocks as we'd done on
the ascent. The snow, facing the full brunt of the midday sun, had grown
considerably slushy as rollers started down with every step we took, so much
so that it seemed we were bringing the snow down with us. At least a dozen
times I must have stepped through to the rocks below, scraping ankles and
shins, but thankfully not twisting anything. We
regrouped
at the bottom of
the slopes before starting back down from the hanging valley.
Running water
was a welcome find as we paused to refill bottles. Lower down we found four
other climbers just above the junction between our two routes. They had set
up camp among the trees, having hiked in the day before. As they related, they
had attempted Barnard earlier in the day, but found themselves too worn out
after carrying their 70lb packs the day before. Score one for dayhiking. :-)
As we neared the route junction, we scanned the slopes where we had seen Matthew and Eric head up in the morning. There looked to be enough tracks to account for both of them already returning. The other climbers had told us they had seen one person returning around noon, so it was unlikely that he had summited. Matthew we expected to summit against almost all adversity, so we guessed it was probably Eric who had returned early. As we descended further towards the camp located at 9,000ft, we spotted Matthew about 15-20 minutes ahead of us lower in the canyon. It took more than an hour for us to catch up to him, and then only because he let us. He had seen us behind him, but was unsure if it was us or the other group of climbers. As he told us later, he didn't want to stop and wait if it was possible that we were well ahead of him.
As a party of four we began the bushwacking section in the lowest part of the
canyon, now easier with plenty of daylight to shed light on the terrain
more clearly. Somewhere in the middle of our romp back down through the brush
and creek crossings we stumbled upon Eric. Eric had been struggling on the
return, not too sure of the route. He had climbed high on the south
side of the creek thinking he had to get around a cliff on that side, only to
find it wouldn't go, forcing his return back again. He was happy to tag along
in our merry little band as we were now five once more.
We made it all the way to the trailhead
with our group still intact, something of a first for our visits
up George Creek. Based on past experience I would have guessed that we'd be
waiting an hour or more for the last person to show up at day's end,
so I considered it quite fortuitous that we made it back at the same time,
never unintentionally losing anyone the entire day.
It wasn't yet 5:30p when we got back, making for a 13.5hr effort - quite a bit shorter than the Williamson dayhike via Shepherd Pass. Eric explained that he had climbed to the plateau between Trojan and Barnard before turning back, too tired to continue. Matthew had reached the summit of Barnard at the same time Glenn and I had reached Williamson, but of course the peaks are too far apart to have been able to see each other (we might have been able to see someone on Trojan, however). Three out of five had made it to the chosen summit, a pretty good percentage. The only way to top this next year would be to actually make it to Carl Heller - here's hoping for another low snow year. :-)
Continued...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Mt. Williamson
This page last updated: Wed May 16 10:06:40 2007
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