14'ers - Alpine Ascents

July 29, 1999

by Dave German

We set off on Friday, July 29 driving up to Whitney Portal. We left late, not starting until after 9 p.m. Arriving at Lone Pine around 2 am, we crashed. The final ½ hour up to the Portal in the morning went quickly. Waiting for other planned participants, who ultimately bailed out, delayed us until 11 am, when we started the hike in to Iceberg Lake. The hike in was uneventful, although we took a wrong turn and missed the Ebersbacher Ledges in favor of a side canyon about halfway up. Both Judy & I were feeling the altitude the whole way. Spring provided spectacular flower arrangements amidst the rocky crags of the High Sierra, with beautiful displays of golden and red columbines helping to take our minds off the long hike.. We arrived at Iceberg Lake around 6:30, tired and ready for dinner. The lake wasn't too crowded (about 5 other parties), enabling us to find a good campsite easily.

We decided that Saturday's climb would be the Fish Hook Arete (5.8) on Mount Russell. Judy had talked to several climbers on the way up and gotten some good beta. We felt that Russell would be the more difficult climb and should be done first. We set off from camp around 7:00 am or so. The hike across the Whitney Russell Saddle and to the correct buttress on Russell took us until about 9:00 am. Following the beta provided by a party who had climbed two days earlier, we stayed about 100 feet up the buttress above the toe, sharply in contrast to the topo provided in "100 Sierra Classics". The first pitch consisted of a 4th class ramp, topping out with easy 5th class climbing. This agreed with the topo we had. On the way up, I found a rack of 10 stoppers dropped by previous climbers - Wow! The second pitch proved slightly more difficult. A small roof (5.7-5.8) provided the crux, followed by an airy exposed traverse angling upwards. I set a belay after only about 100 feet due to rope drag and the traversing nature of the pitch. Now we were on the arete proper. The third pitch continued up the arete to a small notch with a few 5.7 moves, although this was mostly 3rd class. According to the topo, while this should have been the 4th belay station, it was only our third. Apparently, the variation we were on was slightly shorter at the lower end. We moved the belay down into the notch before continuing. The 4th pitch was slightly more continuous technical climbing, finishing out with a strenuous 5.8 lieback. Pitch 5 was again 5.7 climbing with a nice chimney about ½ way up. Pitch 6 proved beautiful, an easy 3rd class scramble could be avoided by doing a nice run-out 5.8 arete with lots of exposure. The pitch ended on top of a pillar. Pitch 7 began with a beautiful 5.9 boulder problem with no pro. The rest of the pitch rejoined the "standard" easy scrambling studiously avoided earlier. We had lunch on a large ledge some 200 ft below the summit. Pitches 8 and 9 Judy led, while I simul-climbed behind; moderate 5th class and some 4th class climbing. Finally, we reached the summit at around 2 p.m. - beautiful panoramas of the High Sierra greeted us in all directions. As we left the summit, we decided to climb down the first chute adjacent to the summit. I knew that an easy descent was available. After down climbing exposed 4th and 5th class rock for over 800 feet we were finally on the talus. As we hiked back to camp, the correct descent route, one chute further over, mocked us -- easy scree for almost the entire route. The down climb had taken several hours. We arrived exhausted at camp shortly before 6 p.m. Joe and Tuck, San Diego climbers, greeted us on arrival. We planned to climb with them the following day.

Sunday morning dawned and we sprang out of bed, raring to go (not really!). After sleeping in as late as we dared (6:30), Tuck stopped by and told us Joe was sick and wouldn't be climbing. We decided to climb the East Buttress (5.7) of Mt Whitney as a party of three. By 8:00 we set off up the slope above. We reached the beginning of the East Face route by 9:00 or so. It didn't match the topo and Judy, having climbed the East Buttress before, didn't think we were on route either. I led off on the 5th class traverse leading to a chimney, trailing two 10.5 mm ropes for simul belaying. Shortly after starting I found a stuck HB cam - "booty!" I cried. Alas, it didn't yield to the 2-minute effort I felt I could spare. The next section featured 3 fixed pins on a 5.6 traverse, one of which I missed. The final section was a steep chimney, going at about 5.7. This left us in the notch behind the first tower, essentially back on route for the buttress. Simul belaying made short work of seconding. Judy, even with her hammer, couldn't clean the cam either. The next pitch started off easily, following an easy chute. About ½ way up, a thin steep crack (5.8) provided interesting climbing. After belaying Tuck and Judy up, we explored the immediate area, still not sure we were on route. As we explored, I spied a bail out anchor a full pitch below. Tuck ascertained that the next section led up a moderate looking chimney. While Tuck led the next pitch, I set up a rappel to clean the newly discovered anchor. As I descended, I found several hexes which, naturally, I cleaned too. The anchor consisted of a single stopper with 4 biners and several sewn runners - strange. I self belayed and climbed back up shortly before Tuck finished his pitch. Judy seconded the pitch and I followed as third. Tuck, with his figure 8 belay device wasn't able to simul belay. The 4th pitch opened with a difficult bouldery start at about 5.8. Awkward moves continued for about the first 15 feet or so. The rest of the pitch was moderate 3rd class up to the belay. Tuck led the 5th pitch, which started with a twenty foot parallel crack system (5.8), if one avoided the easier 5.4 climbing adjacent on the left. The pitch continued with moderate climbing to the base of Pee Wee Tower. After careful inspection, for pitch 6 we decided to go up the dihedral on the right side of the tower, which turned out to be quite easy. I set a belay at the top of the tower. A second left facing dihedral loomed above, pitch 7. The climbing became more difficult and finally, I could go no higher. An apparent 10+ move faced me to surmount the roof above. After placing a large hex, I decided to traverse left across a likely looking face 10 feet below. The crux, about 20 feet across, proved difficult due to the mental strain of the possible pendulum back to the dihedral. I set a belay and brought Tuck and Judy up. By now, we looked to be about as high as Mount Russell. The climbing looked easy, so we unroped and 3rd classed the last 400 feet to the summit. We topped out at around 3:25 pm. After a half-hour break, we headed down the Mountaineer's Route. On descent we saw almost 600 feet of fixed line on a route on one side of the buttress. Later we found out, a party from Tahoe was trying to free an aid line. We arrived back in camp just before 6:00 p.m., tired -- but elated.

Monday, we slept in till 7:30, knowing it would be an easy day. By 9:30 or so we were packed and headed down. The hike out proved uneventful, although we met almost 20 people heading up to climb. We were glad to miss the crowds. The end of another High Sierra trek had come.

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