Re: Adventures With Rogue Photonic 2015 July 3-August 19
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:01 pm
Day 24- July 26- Lake 11,676 (Below Scimitar Pass) to Elinore Lake
Fortunately the night was warmer and today we made our way up Scimitar Pass. It was long but not technical & we finally reached the top around lunch time. It was over 13,200 FT which made it the highest cross-country I’d ever done & even Rogue as well! The view was spectacular looking toward the Palisade Crest glacier along with the Norman Clyde glacier. I finally got some service & checked my email only to see annoying news about my job for my boss Ken. Hopefully that gets resolved…since I was able to send a reply. The pass itself is a ridge crossing right below Palisade Crest. Rogue decided not to attempt it & the Class 4 face definitely looked exposed & technical. We started to make our way down the pass amid annoying large loose rocks. Many of which shifted as we walked on them. The glacier was exposing loose, awful rock and was my no means friendly to passing hikers. We finally reached the glacier & tromped on the lower edge. It was a fantastic & epic experience to be on a glacier in the Sierra! The misery of rock soon began again though after we tasted some delicious water flowing directly out of the glacier. The rock was horrible & loose & essentially a minefield. Any step could be your last. And boy could my statement have ever been more true after what we were about to discover. It was getting later & later & we could tell that getting to Finger Lake would be quite a challenge. We saw a group of 2 day hikers climbing up the massive moraine pile. As we made our way down ever so carefully & slowly we spotted a third person below without a pack on. He seemed as though he was looking for something. We come to find out that he suffered a fall several feet above & tumbled down & had quite a few cuts! He didn’t look too injured; clearly, he was very lucky since his pack likely saved him. But he had 2 gashes above his ankle that were bad (deep) & clearly needed stitches. He asked for some first aid items & soon we started chatting. His name was Eric and he’s been climbing in the Sierra for years… (around 22) starting from when he did the JMT in 93, when he turned 21! He’s done quite a few awesome traverses & told of his tales of incredible experiences on peaks running away from storms. One particular story that I remember vividly months afterwards as I write this entry was when he was on Middle Palisade free soloing a route he hadn't planned on. As he crested the ridge-top he noticed something peculiar, weld marks from the rock being struck by lightning only moments beforehand! What an experience to be scurrying off that ridge. As we chatted more we found out he’s lived in Tahoe & Mammoth & has done quite a few cross country winter ski trips. We talked some more & told him of the garbage can at the lake below Norman Clyde & he said he’s seen it as well about 10 years ago! He even contacted the guy & found out he’s alive & well & lives in Oregon. What a crazy story & coincidence to find out the full story of the cache. It is truly remarkable to meet someone who has seen that trashcan considering it may have only been seen by a handful of people in the 31 years that it's been there. And not only to meet someone who's seen it but also to have a more complete story about the whereabouts of the person who left it is just extraordinary. Eric was planning to cross Scimitar Pass en route to go over Black Divide Crossing and into Ionian Basin just as Rogue and I had done about a week or so before! Another remarkable coincidence. We all started to descend toward Elinore Lake where we made camp for the night. While hiking I found out he graduated from Berkeley in 93! Always a trip to meet Berkeley grads that are mountaineers. The reason why that's striking to me is because in the early days of Mountaineering in California many of the most prominent mountaineers had some affiliation to the University. I believe it as not only an honor that I got to go there but also somewhat fated since I hope to be a mountaineer specifically for California peaks for my years to come. He asked me if knew Ben Hatchet & I realized I did since he’s one of the instructors at LTCC, which was the community college I went to South Lake Tahoe. What’s even crazier is while at camp I showed him my film camera & he said that he inherited the 645 from his best friend who unfortunately just committed suicide. This friend was very into photography & set up his own darkroom & was very into the weather! What crazy parallels between myself since I have also set up my own darkroom and just received my degree in Atmospheric Science. Eric told us many stories amid a very late dinner & we all were very grateful for getting off the pass in 1 piece. It was a nasty pass that was excruciatingly long, tedious, quite dangerous. One that Rogue & I know we’ll never be crossing again. Elinore Lake was pretty & finally we had trees which was a sight to see after all the desolate camping we had on the entirety of the section prior. Unfortunately the water was bad (filled with copopods and water fleas) so I busted out the filter for the first time. After chatting some more we all went to sleep amid very strong winds which continued through the night.
Day 25- July 27- Elinore Lake to 2nd Big Pine Lake
The wind was extremely annoying and I didn’t get a good sleep. That day coming to Elinore I finally got enough service to get a weather report. The outlook looked okay and then turned unfortunately bleak. Within about 4 days thunderstorms would most likely be making a comeback. More rain is on the way! Up to that day we had several days of crystal clear skies with not a cloud in the sky. This morning we faced the unfortunate truth. We weren’t going to climb Middle Palisade. We decided to head straight for Contact Pass & out to the 2nd Big Pine Lake. Eric was suffering from minor pulmonary edema which he says has happened many times before. His wound was no longer bleeding but his back was aching him. He said he should be just fine making it out to his truck at the TH. We told him who to look for on HST & since he lives in SF I’m hoping to get in contact with him after the summer. And so we said our goodbyes & made our way up to Contact Pass, which was a nasty slog toward the top with plenty of sand. Rogue had the brilliant idea to climb Temple Crag the next day since we had an extra day to spare. As looked up Temple Crag we certainly could not see any obvious route up but figured when we tried we would find it. So we descended another nasty & horrible pass… Contact Pass. The top had a nice use trail through the steepest section. Then a massive horrible moraine field we faced. This went on and on until we were almost off of it when one of the many loose & nasty boulders started sliding while I was on it. I couldn’t control the slide so I started diving head first! My hands stopped me from face planting. I fortunately suffered no injury but breaking my scab on my knee from my fall 3 weeks ago. It bleed for a while & fortunately stopped quick enough. To think… we needed to make our way back up this damn pass again! Eventually we got to right above the 2nd Lake and had to face an extremely annoying shoreline. We were quite tired because of the annoying terrain. Dinner was extra satisfying. Our camp overlooked the lake on a knoll which had a superb view of Temple Crag.
Day 26- July 28- Touring Big Pine Lakes
We had a good sleep with constant moonlight. We explored all the lakes in the basin today. It was a very easy leisurely stroll around the basin. We had lunch at the 7th lake and enjoyed the fine views from each lake that were very varied. Soon we were back at camp not looking forward to our unfortunate predicament of having to climb Contact Pass... again.
Fortunately the night was warmer and today we made our way up Scimitar Pass. It was long but not technical & we finally reached the top around lunch time. It was over 13,200 FT which made it the highest cross-country I’d ever done & even Rogue as well! The view was spectacular looking toward the Palisade Crest glacier along with the Norman Clyde glacier. I finally got some service & checked my email only to see annoying news about my job for my boss Ken. Hopefully that gets resolved…since I was able to send a reply. The pass itself is a ridge crossing right below Palisade Crest. Rogue decided not to attempt it & the Class 4 face definitely looked exposed & technical. We started to make our way down the pass amid annoying large loose rocks. Many of which shifted as we walked on them. The glacier was exposing loose, awful rock and was my no means friendly to passing hikers. We finally reached the glacier & tromped on the lower edge. It was a fantastic & epic experience to be on a glacier in the Sierra! The misery of rock soon began again though after we tasted some delicious water flowing directly out of the glacier. The rock was horrible & loose & essentially a minefield. Any step could be your last. And boy could my statement have ever been more true after what we were about to discover. It was getting later & later & we could tell that getting to Finger Lake would be quite a challenge. We saw a group of 2 day hikers climbing up the massive moraine pile. As we made our way down ever so carefully & slowly we spotted a third person below without a pack on. He seemed as though he was looking for something. We come to find out that he suffered a fall several feet above & tumbled down & had quite a few cuts! He didn’t look too injured; clearly, he was very lucky since his pack likely saved him. But he had 2 gashes above his ankle that were bad (deep) & clearly needed stitches. He asked for some first aid items & soon we started chatting. His name was Eric and he’s been climbing in the Sierra for years… (around 22) starting from when he did the JMT in 93, when he turned 21! He’s done quite a few awesome traverses & told of his tales of incredible experiences on peaks running away from storms. One particular story that I remember vividly months afterwards as I write this entry was when he was on Middle Palisade free soloing a route he hadn't planned on. As he crested the ridge-top he noticed something peculiar, weld marks from the rock being struck by lightning only moments beforehand! What an experience to be scurrying off that ridge. As we chatted more we found out he’s lived in Tahoe & Mammoth & has done quite a few cross country winter ski trips. We talked some more & told him of the garbage can at the lake below Norman Clyde & he said he’s seen it as well about 10 years ago! He even contacted the guy & found out he’s alive & well & lives in Oregon. What a crazy story & coincidence to find out the full story of the cache. It is truly remarkable to meet someone who has seen that trashcan considering it may have only been seen by a handful of people in the 31 years that it's been there. And not only to meet someone who's seen it but also to have a more complete story about the whereabouts of the person who left it is just extraordinary. Eric was planning to cross Scimitar Pass en route to go over Black Divide Crossing and into Ionian Basin just as Rogue and I had done about a week or so before! Another remarkable coincidence. We all started to descend toward Elinore Lake where we made camp for the night. While hiking I found out he graduated from Berkeley in 93! Always a trip to meet Berkeley grads that are mountaineers. The reason why that's striking to me is because in the early days of Mountaineering in California many of the most prominent mountaineers had some affiliation to the University. I believe it as not only an honor that I got to go there but also somewhat fated since I hope to be a mountaineer specifically for California peaks for my years to come. He asked me if knew Ben Hatchet & I realized I did since he’s one of the instructors at LTCC, which was the community college I went to South Lake Tahoe. What’s even crazier is while at camp I showed him my film camera & he said that he inherited the 645 from his best friend who unfortunately just committed suicide. This friend was very into photography & set up his own darkroom & was very into the weather! What crazy parallels between myself since I have also set up my own darkroom and just received my degree in Atmospheric Science. Eric told us many stories amid a very late dinner & we all were very grateful for getting off the pass in 1 piece. It was a nasty pass that was excruciatingly long, tedious, quite dangerous. One that Rogue & I know we’ll never be crossing again. Elinore Lake was pretty & finally we had trees which was a sight to see after all the desolate camping we had on the entirety of the section prior. Unfortunately the water was bad (filled with copopods and water fleas) so I busted out the filter for the first time. After chatting some more we all went to sleep amid very strong winds which continued through the night.
Day 25- July 27- Elinore Lake to 2nd Big Pine Lake
The wind was extremely annoying and I didn’t get a good sleep. That day coming to Elinore I finally got enough service to get a weather report. The outlook looked okay and then turned unfortunately bleak. Within about 4 days thunderstorms would most likely be making a comeback. More rain is on the way! Up to that day we had several days of crystal clear skies with not a cloud in the sky. This morning we faced the unfortunate truth. We weren’t going to climb Middle Palisade. We decided to head straight for Contact Pass & out to the 2nd Big Pine Lake. Eric was suffering from minor pulmonary edema which he says has happened many times before. His wound was no longer bleeding but his back was aching him. He said he should be just fine making it out to his truck at the TH. We told him who to look for on HST & since he lives in SF I’m hoping to get in contact with him after the summer. And so we said our goodbyes & made our way up to Contact Pass, which was a nasty slog toward the top with plenty of sand. Rogue had the brilliant idea to climb Temple Crag the next day since we had an extra day to spare. As looked up Temple Crag we certainly could not see any obvious route up but figured when we tried we would find it. So we descended another nasty & horrible pass… Contact Pass. The top had a nice use trail through the steepest section. Then a massive horrible moraine field we faced. This went on and on until we were almost off of it when one of the many loose & nasty boulders started sliding while I was on it. I couldn’t control the slide so I started diving head first! My hands stopped me from face planting. I fortunately suffered no injury but breaking my scab on my knee from my fall 3 weeks ago. It bleed for a while & fortunately stopped quick enough. To think… we needed to make our way back up this damn pass again! Eventually we got to right above the 2nd Lake and had to face an extremely annoying shoreline. We were quite tired because of the annoying terrain. Dinner was extra satisfying. Our camp overlooked the lake on a knoll which had a superb view of Temple Crag.
Day 26- July 28- Touring Big Pine Lakes
We had a good sleep with constant moonlight. We explored all the lakes in the basin today. It was a very easy leisurely stroll around the basin. We had lunch at the 7th lake and enjoyed the fine views from each lake that were very varied. Soon we were back at camp not looking forward to our unfortunate predicament of having to climb Contact Pass... again.