Beginning of the 11 Mile Trail to Shepherd Pass
Paul, Lori and I set up before sunrise up the Shepherd Pass trail. We'd camped there the night before so we would be ready to get an early start on a trail with a rough reputation. Moving quickly, it still took us 10hrs to hike the 11 miles to camp, which was just beyond Shepherd Pass at over 12,000ft. So that was over 6,000ft of vertical to get there, one of the longest approaches in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. On the way the weather was uncharacteristically (to me at least) stormy! Rain and hail met us at the start of the pass, which brought about a tense discussion on what conditions we might find on the pass. We continued, and much to my surprise, found a wonderful area to camp with fantastic views of the mountains all around.
We enjoyed an impressive sunset after an active day in the atmosphere. I tried to get to sleep at 8pm in order to help with the 3:30am wake up (the alpine start), but I was kept awake by the amazing views of the sun as it slipped down the distant mountains. There was also some anxious thoughts about finding the correct route, which some people have had trouble with. When the wake up call was approaching, I was already awake, really wondering why we needed to go SO early (this turned out to save us from a downpour that hit camp 10 minutes after we returned).
The approach to the foot of Mt. Williamson took 2 hours. It was typically Sierra talus, hard going, and a little demoralizing to descend 200ft or so before having to go up again. The beauty of the sunrise in the mountains made the early wake up well worth our while.
We found the route, and commenced climbing up the mountain on the sloping talus. In the chute, we circumnavigated small snow fields and worked hard in the thin air to make it higher. I made frequent stops to catch my breath. The crux of the ascent was an easily attainable chimney. A little tricky, but fortunately no exposure.
We enjoyed our summit, but didn't linger with the clouds moving in. We were back in camp by 2pm, right before 2 hours of rain showers! This is quite unusual for this time of year, and I was glad that I had a tent, instead of the usual tarp I carry in the Sierra.
The next day was another early start out for he 2nd summit, Mt. Tyndall. The route up was a pleasure, as Paul and I quickly ascended the talus on the steep staircase to the summit. I must have been getting used to the altitude, because I felt much fitter for this climb.
We climbed to the summit in about 90 minutes! Clouds were rolling in and obscuring Mt. Williamson. It was good that we had climbed it yesterday, as today there would be no view. After a very enjoyable 30 minutes on the summit, I was looking forward to the "easy class 2" descent down the northwest ridge. We spent about 45 minutes trying to find a route where we did not need to climb an airy class 3 gendarme. After some frustration, we decided to just descend down the north rib that we had climbed. It was not nearly as fun going down with rockfall a constant concern. After 3 hours, we made it back to camp, packed up and started down the long descent to the trail head. I was very pleased that we had made it up both peaks and felt in good shape for the long hike out.
Most of my gear has lasted well. When we arrived at camp on the first day, the two seams on my right boot had totally blown out! All the seams has come undone, the threads just warn through. Fortunately, Lori had 3 safety pins, which really saved the day (an the trip)!
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