High Sierra Topix

Having planned to attempt a summit of Mt. Humphreys with friends on Sunday and having no work for the week I decided to hike in on Tuesday and camp out for 5 nights at the Humphreys Lakes. Wednesday I did a summit of Four Gables. Thursday I made an attempt at Pilot Knob but had to turn back just beyond Square Lake due to an incoming storm. I did not make it back to camp before it was a complete blizzard. Come Friday I went back out and did a summit of Pilot Knob. Then Saturday I hiked up to the upper Humphreys Lakes while I waited for the rest of the party to show up. When they did they wanted to do Four Gables so I ended up climbing it again with them. During the night another storm came in and it was blizzard conditions on Sunday not allowing us to climb Mt. Humphreys for the second time this year. We made our way out in horrible conditions being in the 20's with very high winds being blasted with snow ending 6 days in the mountains. At least we got one more meal in at Bishop Creek Lodge before the season was over.

Photos here: Humphreys Trip

Sometimes just being able to go is enough.

Yep it may have been very cold almost every day but I still technically did 3 peaks with doing Four Gables twice and I was able to just be out which Is always great.

Unless I miss counted also the second summit of Four Gables marked my 100th peak climb in the high Sierra.

How much snow accumulation did you see down there last Sunday? I started a trip out of Tuolumne that morning to do some climbs out of Hutchings Creek and we had on and off snow en route to our first camp at Vogelsang Lake but nothing much stuck until that night when the wind truly did howl for several exciting hours and there definitely were blizzard conditions outside the tent. Come morning there was less than an inch on the ground though and it was mostly all melted by the time we crossed the pass about 9:30. Gorgeous weather the next six days with summer-like highs in the 70s and warm nights. When I saw the Whites dropping down into Mono Basin on the way home it looked like they got a lot more snow than the Sierra, at least this far north.

Not more than an inch on the ground but it was still snowing steady by the time I got out so not sure what it was like by the next day.