Sierra Trip Reports

Climbers: Jon & Nick

Dates: Monday, May 13 – Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Photos: Jon & Nick (as noted)

Synopsis: After climbing the Direct South Face of Lone Pine Peak, Jon and I headed back the next morning to try and get permits for the North Fork of Big Pine Creek. Our initial soft plans going in were to hike in that Monday and set up a camp by Second or Third Lake, and climb Venusian Blind Arête on Tuesday, followed by Moon Goddess Arête on Wednesday (both of which we ended up doing). We then tentatively planned to move camp up beyond Sam Mack Meadows to the Palisade Glacier, with a potential objective of climbing Starlight Buttress on Starlight Peak. More on that later.

Heading back for potentially five days up by Temple Crag and the Palisades with climbing gear involves quite a bit of sorting in the parking lot. Photo: Jon

Despite our best efforts to keep weight down, the packs are heavy. Climbing gear and food alone get the weight up fast! Jon doing his best to geek out with the sun hat, and I am clearly pumped about the weight! Photos: Jon, Nick, respectively

Right out of the trailhead you are simply blown away by the beauty of this area – honestly the entire Big Pine area might be my favorite place in the Eastern Sierra. Here, we are looking down the South Fork of Big Pine Creek off towards Norman Clyde Peak. Photo: Nick

We headed up the North Fork trail, which is really a perfect trail with amazing views and scenery. Photo: Jon

Words really cannot describe the beauty of Temple Crag in front of Second Lake. The glacial silt from the Palisade Glacier gives each of the seven lakes an amazing turquoise hue. Photo: Nick

I can’t but help include yet another self-timer photo. The routes we climbed the next two days are part of the Celestial Arêtes. From the left of the skyline, the first spiky arête visible in the sun is Venusian Blind Arête. To its very close right is Moon Goddess Arête. Further to the right (in the middle of the snowfield) is Sun Ribbon Arête. Finally, the prominent spire in on the right corner of the peak is Dark Star (which is technically not part of the Celestial Arêtes. Photo: Nick

We continued up from Second Lake to Third Lake, which was deserted. We set up an awesome camp, surrounded on three sides with water and with amazing views of Dark Star. Photo: Nick

After eating some food, we went to bed early for an early start in the morning. Photo: Nick

The morning was pretty cold, but warmed up as the sun rose over the peaks. Photo: Nick

Up at 4 AM, we were quickly brewing up some water for breakfast and sorting gear for what expected to be an awesome climb. Photo: Jon

Temple Crag was calling. Photo: Nick

Although we had brought both aluminum crampons and ice axes, we had debated the night before back and forth about what to bring (if anything). It was warming enough in the day to certainly soften the snow and up until that day had not been getting too cold at night. I tested some snow by our tent which seem pretty hard, so we decided to not take the crampons (as we didn’t want to climb with them), but to take ice axes (which we could throw down the snowfield from the base). We figured we can do our best to kick in steps with approach shoes and rely heavily on the axes for self-arrest if needed.

We also assumed we could climb fast enough to descend Contact Pass before a re-freeze started (which we did).

Happy to have the axe here, though. Photo: Nick

Waiting for the sun to catch up, but still pressing on. Photos: Jon, Nick, respectively

It was a beautiful morning – and that is putting it lightly! Photo: Jon

We got to the base of the climb, and it was still pretty cold but warming up. Still rocking the belay jacket as Jon took off on Pitch 1. We lead in blocks of 3-4 on this route, and felt that it worked well to move quickly. Photos: Jon, Nick, respectively

Looking back down at the first belay (as we had climbed third/fourth class terrain until there). Photo: Jon

Nick following up lower on the route. Photo: Jon

Then the climbing got awesome! Jon working over one of endless towers. Venusian Blind Arête offers amazing, interesting climbing with exposure on all sides. Photo: Nick

Nick following over the tower – so much fun – and then arriving at the next belay ledge with Third Lake, Fourth Lake and Fifth Lake off in the distance. Photo: Jon

We swapped leads and I headed off for an awesome block of pitches. Photo: Jon

Looking down at Jon during parts of the climb. The High Sierra kills it! Endless towers to climb over. Photos: Nick

We swapped leads again, and the route kept getting better and better. Jon leading off the next block of pitches. Photo: Nick

Comfy belay ledge with a view! Photo: Jon

Nick posing down on yet another tower! Photo: Jon

And then heading off for the last block of pitches to the top. Photos: Jon

After a brief rappel on a tower. Photos: Jon

And towards the top of the route. Photos: Jon

We then left the climbing gear and headed off to the super exposed summit of Temple Crag. On the way, checking out Sun Ribbon Arête. Photo: Nick

Up at the top you are treated to amazing views of the Palisades (or a portion of them, that is!). Photos: Jon

We signed the summit register and took in the views, chilling up there for quite a bit. Photo: Nick

A big, multi-shot panorama of the Middle and Northern Palisades. Click the photo for the full size version Photo: Nick

It started clouding up though, and getting really windy. We were worried about weather moving in, so we headed down. Norman Clyde Peak starting to get hammered a bit. Photo: Jon

And with a quick rap down to Contact Pass, we started to headed back to camp, looking forward to Moon Goddess Arête the next day. Photo: Jon

Part III to come.