Mt Whitney Zone Forums Thread Like Summary - Mt. Morgenson (06/18/21)

My favorite time of the year for hiking is the weekend around the solstice, and I was excited to revisit Tulainyo Lake and the surrounding peaks. Fellow forum contributor Aadi and his friend Jared were interested in hiking Russell and my plan was to either join them on Russell or attempt Mt. Morgenson, which always captivated my interest given its height (13,927'), remoteness and lack of ascents. I felt really good as we made our way up the cirque toward Cleaver Col. The cirque was throwing cold wind at us in all directions. The more technical section leading to the col was snow free and had about 100' of easy 3rd class moves. As we attained the col, we found Tulainyo Lake completely unfrozen and a deep blue. My friends headed toward the Russell-Carillon saddle while I made way down around the lake, past the North Ridge of Russell to begin the easy scramble up to Morgenson. The scramble itself was pretty easy and toward the top there was a small section of breezy 3rd class near the summit block. I envisioned myself looking through a register with minimal entries and maybe even signed by Norman Clyde but unfortunately no register was to be found. As I was pulling my phone out of my pocket to take some photos, my airpods fell out of my pocket as well and dropped deep beneath the summit block boulders - oops. I took a few photos and then started down, looping around the North Ridge and heading up to the Russell-Carillon saddle. The climb up to the saddle was the most enjoyable climbing of the day. I made my way down the soft slopes toward UBSL and then slogged down to the Portal.

While the stats of this hike don't suggest a high level of difficulty, I would point out that the sustained duration above 13,000' (for me it was around 5 hours) did trigger a little bit of altitude related symptoms.

Started around 5am
Cleaver col at 930am (took about 30 minutes of breaks before)
Morgenson summit at 12pm
Russell-Carillon at 230pm
Back to Portal at 515pm

Coming up the e ledges with alpenglow


Aadi and Jared head up Cleaver Col


Views of the Cleaver open up


Frozen condensation


Aadi approaches the class 3 on Cleaver Col


Jared enjoying the views


Tulainyo Lake and Tunnabora


Mt. Morgenson comes into view past the North Ridge of Russell


Class 3+ Ridge to Russell from Morgenson


North Face of Whitney from Morgenson summit


Mt. Russell from Morgenson summit


Snowless class 3 ascent up to Russell-Carillon


Heel plunging descent to UBSL