For a while, it seemed that this trip would never happen. I had originally planned an overly ambitious trip to attempt Milestone Mountain, Midway Mountain, Table Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and possibly Mt. Jordan over a five-day trip. I had a permit for August 7, with my partner going in a day earlier with his wife. Well, Ed had to work yet again, so I decided to attempt Thunder and possibly Jordan alone. Then monsoon weather delayed my trip until August 9. More bad weather convinced me to wait until August 12. The forecast looked good, so I left Reno on August 11, only to have more monsoon conditions as I drove south. I cancelled my third $11 reserved permit and got a walk-in permit for August 13. The waiting paid off. I had perfect weather the whole trip, though the streams were extra high because of the recent rain.
I left the Shepherd Pass trailhead around 5:45 Wednesday morning. I was hoping to make it to Shepherd Pass in less than seven hours, but it took eight. I followed the trail down to the JMT and north to the Tyndall Creek crossing. The creek was wide, and there were many large rocks placed as steps across the creek. Unfortunately, the water was much higher than the stepping-stones, so I had to take my boots off and wade across barefoot. I found the cutoff trail and followed it towards the Kern River. It was 5:45 when I finally found a decent campsite not far from the Kern River. I was trashed!
I had hoped to climb Thunder and then drop down the north side of Thunder Col to get to Jordan, but I decided to skip Jordan before even leaving camp on Thursday morning. I was just too tired after more than 6,500 feet of elevation gain with a pack on Wednesday. I had no motivation, my stomach wasn't too pleased with the greasy breakfast I ate, and my legs were engaging in a full-blown mutiny. I headed down to the Kern River and then mostly cross-country towards Thunder. I made slow progress until I perked up at around 12,000 feet. I would like to say that I just like thin air, but the caffeine pill probably had something to do with it. The terrain more-or-less matched the route description until just before I reached the summit of the wrong peak. I had somehow managed to climb peak 4032m to the east of Thunder. Fortunately, it wasn't too hard or time-consuming to climb down and west to Thunder Col and the correct route.
The climb up Thunder was the pleasant mix of class 2 and 3 climbing that I had expected. I dug out my rock shoes when I reached the south summit. There are three summits, with airy class four climbing required to get to the higher north summit. It took about 20 minutes to find my way to the north summit, sign the register, send a Spot message, and return to where I had left my boots. That was 20 minutes of really paying attention to every move I made. After stashing my rock shoes, I headed back down the route that I should have climbed in the first place. By the time I got back to camp, I had been hiking eleven hours.
Friday was an uneventful hike back to the car. I took a shortcut from the Kern River cutoff trail and hiked cross-country partway to Shepherd Pass. I was back at the car in less than ten hours, and I made it home by 10:30 PM.
Thunder Mountain was a great climb. The more SPS Mountaineers' Peaks I climb, the more I appreciate them. Two of the other peaks that Ed and I originally planned to climb are Mountaineers' Peaks, and we'll be back in a few days to climb them together. Stay tuned for the sequel to this trip report.
