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Great Western Divide August 2014
#39806 08/19/14 10:58 AM
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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.

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39809 08/19/14 01:01 PM
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Bob, great report on your scrambling.

We just missed you by a day or two. Crossed Tyndall creek NOBO on JMT Aug 10 evening and camped.

All hell broke loose that night, 3am Aug 11, and continued all day. Could not get out of the tent until a brief window of opportunity at 11 am, so we got going nonstop (your style) over Forester and Kearsarge to OV by headlamp that night. It was our intended destination, but we got there a day or two sooner than planned.

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Harvey Lankford #39810 08/19/14 04:52 PM
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Hey Bob, good talking with you at Tyndall Creek. Glad the weather held up for you. Quite an adventure.....For me, on Thursday, I head up to Lake South America and toward Harrison Pass and down to Milestone before returning to camp at Tyndall. On Friday, it was a trip down Tyndall Creek trail to the Kern, then up HST at Wallace and back around.

Take care of your horses.

paul

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39812 08/19/14 05:19 PM
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What a Day One, Bob: 6500 vf with 30 pounds on your back - I'll bet your legs were rebelling! Seems like you're getting your money's worth from the new backpacking gear you bought last year. I'm guessing your twenty-some-odd year 10K' average is down to well below 7 days now. I'm surprised you even took rock shoes for the summit block, rather than doing the whole thing in approach shoes . . . wink

I was reading the SummitPost TR on your two Denali expedition climbs 20 years ago just before I read this TR, and was struck by the fact that your reporting style is still the same: ho-hum, no big deal, just the facts, ma'am. But I guess when you've knocked off many, many hundreds of 10K'-plus peaks, it's just another day at the office. What an office, though!

Have fun on the upcoming trip. Hoping you get that SPS Mountaineer's Peak list whittled down a bit more.

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39824 08/20/14 12:09 AM
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Originally Posted By: bobpickering
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.


And here's a picture of some of that Thunder Mountain route that Bob covered:

from this page

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Steve C #39843 08/20/14 07:58 PM
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grin That looks stellar!


@jjoshuagregory (Instagram) for mainly landscape and mountain pics
Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Steve C #39856 08/21/14 03:18 PM
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Harvey: I suspected that all hell was breaking loose, so I stayed away for a while. I would much rather tag a summit than die trying or have to report that I didn't make it because all hell broke loose.

Paul: It was nice bumping into you too. It sounds like you covered more miles than I did. Sorry I couldn't stop and camp with you, but I needed to camp closer to Thunder to make it work.

Gary: Yes, thanks to your prodding (and another Relay-Houghton-Rose-Church fourfer yesterday), my average is one 10K peak every 6.68 days for 27+ years. I've tried several pairs of approach shoes, and every time I ended up with either a crappy, uncomfortable hiking boot or a poor substitute for a rock shoe. I used a new pair of Vasque boots that take good care of my feet, even for talus-hopping, and a pair of real rock shoes that gave me a much-appreciated margin of safety on the summits. Screwing up~18 miles from the car when you're 65 and alone is serious business. I delayed my trip three times and carried rock shoes to give myself the best possible chance of a successful outcome.

My writing style is much more a reflection of my personality than my climbing experience. I really am a "just the facts, ma'am" kind of guy. I come from an engineering/math/computer background. What's the objective? What's the best way to get it done? Can I add something for little additional effort? How can I scale it back if I run out of resources because tried to accomplish too much? I hate turning back more than just about anybody, so I try to avoid having to make that decision by choosing realistic goals and planning carefully.

Steve: That photo (from Bob Burd) is worth 1,000 words of explaining why I waited for perfect weather and brought rock shoes.

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39859 08/21/14 05:07 PM
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Originally Posted By: bobpickering
I've tried several pairs of approach shoes, and every time I ended up with either a crappy, uncomfortable hiking boot or a poor substitute for a rock shoe. I used a new pair of Vasque boots that take good care of my feet, even for talus-hopping, and a pair of real rock shoes that gave me a much-appreciated margin of safety on the summits. Screwing up~18 miles from the car when you're 65 and alone is serious business. I delayed my trip three times and carried rock shoes to give myself the best possible chance of a successful outcome.


My comment was halfway tongue-in-cheek based on what I saw when we tackled Cathedral Peak together a few years ago. You climbed the sucker in approach boots that day - which, as I will never forget, was one of the windiest days in Tuolumne's history. Not only that, you free soloed up a good portion of that first pitch, after the fact, to retrieve a piece of pro that was left behind - in those same approach boots. You didn't even pack rock shoes that day for a 5.6 or 5.7 climb that the wind added a couple of degrees of difficulty to.

I've also seen you free solo the Corkscrew Peak keyhole in hiking boots. If you took rock shoes for this climb, it was serious business. Looking at that great shot that Steve posted, I can understand why. It looks pretty loose in spots - I see why you were so deliberate with each move.

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Bulldog34 #39862 08/21/14 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted By: bobpickering
What's the objective? What's the best way to get it done? Can I add something for little additional effort? How can I scale it back if I run out of resources because tried to accomplish too much? I hate turning back more than just about anybody, so I try to avoid having to make that decision by choosing realistic goals and planning carefully.


Bob, I have a gazillion quotes about risks. here is just one

In mountaineering one man's prudence is another man's poison.
HW Tilman, Two Mountains and a River, page 585

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Bulldog34 #39863 08/21/14 05:55 PM
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Gary, I had forgotten that I used those shoes on Cathedral with you. They were very uncomfortable for anything over a couple of hours, and despite the advertising claim of "climb up to 5.12!" they performed well below a real rock shoe. BTW, when I was younger and bolder, I once led Cathedral wearing a pair of technical ice climbing boots. It was pretty dicey, and I used a LOT of protection.

I was willing to use approach shoes and solo up and down Cathedral Peak because I've done it 50+ times, and I know every move by heart. Besides, the SE Buttress on Cathedral was rated only 5.4 for the first dozen or so times I climbed it. The route hasn't gotten any harder, but the rating keeps going up. III 5.7? Give me a break!

I didn't know exactly how tough Thunder Mountain would be, so I brought rock shoes, just to be sure. The rock shoes make any climb much easier, and they are a lot lighter than a rope and related gear that I probably couldn't use effectively by myself anyway.

Last edited by bobpickering; 08/21/14 06:10 PM.
Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39864 08/21/14 06:03 PM
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Originally Posted By: bobpickering
BTW, when I was younger and bolder, I once led Cathedral wearing a pair of technical ice climbing boots. It was pretty dicey, and I used a LOT of protection.


I would have paid good money to see that. Can't wait to hear the story behind it. Did they get you up the summit block?

Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
Bulldog34 #39867 08/21/14 06:35 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bulldog34
I would have paid good money to see that. Can't wait to hear the story behind it. Did they get you up the summit block?

It was an early-season climb with a lot of snow on the approach. I wore the ice-climbing boots because they had cool built-in gaiters. I don't remember the year or who my partner was. However, my records show only one trip in May, so there is a good chance that was it. My partner that day was a girl from work, and my records show that I soloed it in rock shoes after the roped climb. I do remember being VERY careful and using lots of protection. That's about all I remember.

Last edited by bobpickering; 08/21/14 06:36 PM.
Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #39868 08/21/14 07:57 PM
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Originally Posted By: bobpickering
Steve: That photo (from Bob Burd) is worth 1,000 words of explaining why I waited for perfect weather and brought rock shoes.


Wow Bob, that looks like some good 'ol Old School Sierra Class 4.


@jjoshuagregory (Instagram) for mainly landscape and mountain pics
Re: Great Western Divide August 2014
bobpickering #40085 09/04/14 12:49 PM
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My second trip to the Great Western Divide had none of the issues that plagued the first trip. The weather was perfect. My partner, Ed, and his wife, Sue, had no conflicts with work. And I knew the area, since I had just been there a couple of weeks earlier. Everything went according to plan, so this is going to be a classic "just the facts ma'am" trip report.

Ed and Sue called me from the Shepherd Pass trailhead Thursday morning to let me know they were heading up as planned. I drove down from Reno Thursday afternoon and slept at the trailhead. I drive a little Acura RSX (basically a high-end Honda Civic), and I build a bed in it. There is no level ground at the trailhead, so I dug shallow holes that I could drive the uphill tires into, and I piled the dirt to raise the lower tires. Driving onto a couple of blocks made from 2x4s made my bed almost perfectly level. I was in bed by 8:30.

The alarm went off at 4:30. I don't know why it always takes so long to get going in the morning, but I didn't start up the trail until 5:30. If I matched my previous time, I would meet Ed and Sue at Shepherd pass at 1:30 as agreed. I got there 20 minutes early. After a nice break, we headed down the trail towards the Kern River. We took the shortcut and had no trouble crossing Tyndall Creek, since the water level was much lower than two weeks earlier. We checked out a potential campsite at ~11,300 and ended up continuing to a lake about 10 minutes before the Kern River. We camped near where I had camped on the previous trip. The hike in took 11:20, and I felt much better this time.

We left camp for Milestone Basin at about 6:15 Saturday morning. It was cloudy, but it never rained. We followed the old trail when we could find it and went cross-country the rest of the time. Milestone Mountain looks impossible from a distance, but it's actually not too bad. It's class 2 talus and slabs until just below the notch to the right of the summit. There are a few class 3 moves to get to the notch and more class 3 rock on the west side to get to the summit. Generous cairns helped us find the way. I was on the summit before 11:00, with Ed and Sue a few minutes behind. We all agreed that Milestone was a quality climb.

We headed down after a break. Ed and Sue decided one summit was enough, so they headed back to camp. I did an easy traverse to an obvious notch on the east ridge of Midway Mountain and then headed up to the summit. Midway is only class 2, and the climbing is fairly pleasant. It's mostly stable talus with minimal loose stuff. It took just over two hours from Milestone. I headed down and was back at camp in less than three hours. Ed and Sue were already there, and we were all pleased with our accomplishments for the day.

We got a late start for Table Mountain on Sunday morning, but we made good time hiking up Milestone Basin, since we knew the way from the day before. When we got to where the routes to Table and Midway diverged, Ed and Sue decided to climb Midway instead of Table. They headed up Midway while I continued the approach to Table.

As I got closer to Table Mountain, the terrain got looser and the route to the main ledge on the east face became less obvious. I spent a long time screwing around trying various routes. The few cairns that I found seemed to lead nowhere, and the climbing was just crappy. I eventually found my way onto the ledge, and made my way up and right. The ledge ended and I worked my way up more loose class 2 and 3 terrain. After squeezing under a big chockstone, I made it to the summit plateau. I walked across the huge plateau to the summit. After signing the register and eating some food, I headed back down. I was the only person on the summit in over six weeks, so I knew that all the tracks in the sand on the numerous ledges were mine. This and the cairns made it fairly easy to retrace my route down the mountain. Ed and Sue easily beat me back to camp after they climbed Midway. My time for Table wasn't much shorter than Milestone and Midway combined.

We hiked out on Monday morning. We stayed together until Anvil Camp, where I went on ahead. It took less than nine hours, including two half-hour breaks, to get to my car. I was back in Reno by 9:00 PM.

While I was a little disappointed with Table Mountain, Milestone and Midway were both quality climbs. I've been working on the SPS list the last few years, and these two trips get me to 165 peaks, including 32 Mountaineers' Peaks and 15 Emblem Peaks. I'll never finish the entire SPS list, but I only need ten more peaks to get to "Master Emblem" completion. I'll be working on those peaks next year.


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