Sierra Trip Reports

Dates: January 22-23, 2011

Climbers: Jon, Rachel, Tony & Nick

Locations: Lee Vining Caynon, Main Wall & June Lake, Horsetail Falls

Video & Photos: Nick (unless otherwise noted)

Synopsis: We headed down to the Eastside over the weekend to take in some Sierra ice climbing in Lee Vining Canyon and Horsetail falls. Lee Vining Canyon Main Wall was in good shape with thick ice and cold temperatures on Saturday. On Sunday, we headed down to Horsetail Falls in the June Lake area. Unfortunately, recent warm weather and sun exposure from the prior week had melted out many of the flows and the ice was fairly hollow. Alternatively, we hiked around to a North-aspect, mini-flow and worked on ice screw placements, anchoring, etc…

All in all, a great weekend of climbing with a good group!

This TR contains both a Video TR and Photo TR.

VIDEO TR

A full video TR of the weekend, complete with soundtrack. HD version can be viewed directly on Vimeo.

PHOTO TR

To start off, Jon and Rachel found a pretty awesome campsite on a fire road with spectacular views of Mono Lake to the East, and the Dana Plateau to the immediate West. All of the shots below are from Sunday morning, with first light of the daybreak following a day of climbing in Lee Vining on Saturday. Sorry the TR is out of order, but I really wanted to start with these scenic shots to capture the beautiful area that is the Eastern Sierra.

Sunrise over Mono Lake from our campsite at around 6,500 ft.

First light hitting the Dana Plateau, with the moon lingering above.

The stillness of the high-altitude desert along 395 with the High Eastern Sierra peaks is always breathtaking.

First light hitting down South towards the June Lake area.

The trail to Lee Vining Canyon was in great shape Saturday morning, with a hard-packed boot pack making for very quick approach conditions. We made it from the power plant to the base of the Main Wall in just under 30 minutes, give or take.

The Baird-Harrington Wall looked like pretty thin ice and well above the pay-grade of any member on our team (perhaps maybe Jon). I will leave that to the true adventurous alpinists!

Looking up to the Main Wall and Chouinard Falls further, respectively. Both were very fat ice and in good condition. While Chouinard Falls was very crowded later in the day, we shared the Main Wall almost the entire day with only one other party of three.

Jon with the first lead of the day on the Main Wall, towards the immediate left of the center flow.

Jon leading the furthest left flow on the Main Wall, which we top-roped for a while before pitching out to the top.

Looking at Jon and the other party on the Main Wall, with the Chouinard Falls off in the distance.

Jon working up higher on the left-most flow, which offered some good ice next to rock (and some fun mixed moves for Tony, Rachel and I when following).

Note that most of the above photos are a little blurry as my lens was fogging up and I didn’t notice until about now (hence the pictures subsequently clean up a bit). Same concept in the movie – oh well, I will be sure to check more in the future.

Tony in a fun section of a narrow ramp of ice through the rock portions.

Rachel higher up, working towards the first pitch anchor.

Here you can see the two ropes that we set up on the left portion of the wall. The right top rope was set with two 60M ropes, and the left with two 70M ropes. We each climbed several routes off these anchors throughout the day. Towards the end, Jon, Rachel and I climbed to the anchor on the left rope, and then Jon led a second pitch to the top over the cool and thick vertical ice flow in the upper left of the picture. A really impressive lead by Jon!

Here I am working a really fun thin ice section on top rope. It was fun to have a top rope in this section, so we could test climbing in some thinner ice sections with some fun mixed rock moves. Photo: Jon

Looking down from the anchor on Pitch 1, as Jon was leading up to Pitch 2 on the left-most flow. You can see me down in my red jacket for perspective.Photo: Jon

Jon leading the crux of the second pitch – a really cool ice flow. More impressive was that Rachel followed with only one ice tool! We won’t get into the specifics of why she only had one ice tool at that point, but needless to say, I think she now appreciates the benefits of the leashes/umbilical cords Jon, Tony and I were using 😉 Photo: Rachel

Note: Once again, my camera was wet! Ugh.

After a great night’s sleep on Saturday night and waking up to the views of Mono Lake and the Dana Plateau that I posted above, we decided to head to Horsetail Falls at June Lake.

I love the drive along 395, to see the old burnt-out homes back-dropped by the ragged high peaks of the Eastern Sierra.

The trail up to Horsetail Falls was in good shape, with the cog railroad tracks still holding sufficient snow in most spots.

However, as noted in the introduction, Horsetail falls was showing pretty thin ice in spots, with running water on the left-most flow. In fact, the top had been completely burnout by the sun exposure and warm temps from the prior week. Jon did manage to lead one fat portion on the right side, which Rachel quickly cleaned. However, we decided it was warming too rapidly and just ate some lunch and worked on some ice screw/anchoring techniques around the corner.

Jon on the right portion of the thicker section of ice. The running water is to the left out of the picture.

And for the Eastside skiers, here is a beta shot of Dana Plateau during the day on Monday from Jon. All of the chutes look very thick at this point (although I am sure they are boilerplate given the melt/freeze conditions. Photo: Jon

Looking back towards Mono Lake, with the Eastside and Mammoth area in the distance. Photo: Jon

Final beta shot of the Sawtooth sub-range outside of Bridgeport, with the Matterhorn marking the highpoint on the ridgeline. I skied the East Couloir on that two seasons ago with Frank. TR here: TR: Matterhorn Peak (3-28-09 – 3-29-09) Photo: Jon

On Monday, Jon, Rachel and Tony headed back to Lee Vining to climb the center flow on the Main Wall. Here are a couple shots of Jon leading the center flow. Photos: Tony