Sunday (November 20th):
Me and two other friends met with our guides John and Arian with Sierra Wilderness Seminars (SWS) and headed up to the portal. The road was still open and there was minimal ice/snow on the road all the way to the portal. We left one car all the way down the mountain where they usually put the "Road Closed" sign and left a truck at the portal.
The forecast called for snow all day Sunday and Sunday night, then sun and warming temperatures Monday-Wednesday. The forecast was spot on.
We hit the trail around 10am and aiming for to make first camp at Lower Boy Scout Lake. The snow levels increased as we got higher but was never real deep, I would guess less than a foot. The snow made it rough for finding good foot placement but we were still able to move at a reasonable pace.
There was no option to go over the brush this early in the season so we had to take the E-ledges. The ledges had some snow on them, I would guess around 6 inches or so. Due to the likely fatal result of a slip and fall, the guides set up a line to use as a hand rail for us as we crossed. Taking the ledges slowly and having the safety line there was no problems. We huffed up the trail to Lower Boy Scout and made camp. I would guess maybe 5-6 hours total the first day.
It continued to snow through the night but stopped by the time I left the tent in the morning.
The weather was as good as it can be in November the next 3 days. (but still cold with some wind...)
Monday (November 21st):
We aimed for Upper Boy Scout or higher for camp the 2nd night.
It was real slow going through the boulder fields above lower Boy Scout. The snow made you have to feel out each step to see if it was a rock or snow bridge you were stepping on. We were slow and careful so to keep are ankles and knees intact. The rest of the day was fairly slow hiking as well.
The snow levels made it tough on some of the sections with large angled slabs because it was enough snow to hide the slabs and make them slick, but not enough snow where we could just walk over everything. We also encountered a large section of ice where we had to put the crampons on for about 10 minutes.
We pushed past Upper Boy scout to give us a better shot at the summit the next day. We made camp in a gully section maybe a 1/4-1/2 of a mile past Upper Boy scout. It was a good safe spot but was also a wind tunnel which was fun at times.
I am guessing we made camp around 3pm. So it was not too bad of a day. We went over rope team travel and crampon skills and went to bed early for a 3:30am wake up.
Tuesday (November 22nd):
We planned to leave camp around 4:30am for our summit bid. Since we camped past upper Boy Scout the guides gave us a 12:30pm mandatory turnaround time.
We left camp with light packs and headlamps shining about 4:35am. The beginning of the hike (mainly a minimal elevation gain traverse) was not too bad and we made it to Iceberg Lake around 6:30am. We took a break and started up the gully about 7am.
We roped up into 2 teams. A team of 3 and a team of 2. The deep unconsolidated snow forced us to scramble up the rock almost all the way up to the notch. The scrambling was fairly tough and tiring but was doable. We remained roped up. About halfway up the gully one of my friends was feeling poorly due to the altitude. We took a break and talked it over and we all decided it was best for him to go down, we had no reason to push or chance anything since we were just out for a good time. Arian took my friend down and me and my other friend pushed forward with guide John leading the way. We were very fortunate to have the second guide, because we would have all been forced to head down if not. (Post note, my friend and the guide made it back to high camp around 1pm without incident. He felt much better after a little bit of rest at camp).
At this point we were somewhere between just on-time and running late, so we made haste up the last section below the notch. The snow was more consolidated so we took it and we made real good time.
After a quick break at the notch, we made our way to the bottom of the final 400 (I think that is what people call it). After a short investigation, John had us throw on the crampons. We waited as John set up line for the first section. He did not want to take any chances due to the result of any fall in this area (which would be us going over a cliff with a real nice drop).
After the first section we roped up to each other and made the slow ascent to the top. We dealt with tough bouldering, sections of snow, and a real tough section of ice right below the summit ridge. We hit the summit hut with around 15 minutes to spare.
We left the hut at 12:30pm and began the decent. We came down the final 400 with a different path, with John giving us a safety belay most the way down. It was slow but fairly simple compared to the decent.
After a quick break at the notch, we headed down the gully. We hit the snow chute almost all the way down. With some plunge stepping and "swimming" through snow, we were down without too much trouble.
We left Iceberg Lake and headed back to camp. We made it back about 4:30pm (which is right before sundown this time of year btw). The other guide and friend were very glad to see us and gave us a warm welcome and congratulations.
Besides the wind howling all night, I slept fairly well.
Wednesday (November 22nd):
We left at sunrise to try to get back around 12pm ish. The decent had more snow on some of the sections that get less sun due to the storm from Sunday, and less snow in the sections that get good sun. The ledges were still pretty dicey so the guide set up a line again. We made it back to the trailhead around 1pm ish and were eating burgers in Lonepine by 2pm.
The guides said the conditions were pretty rough compared to other trips which made us more proud of all three of our accomplishments. Without the guides we would have had no chance (due to lack of technical skills) of making it as far as we did, so we were happy with our decision to hire the guide service. We always felt that we were as safe as possible on a mountain of ice, snow, and rock. Overall great experience!
