High Sierra Topix

Say hello from the summit of Jordan, should be around Reflection below you going up towards Longley on the 18th.

At Lodgepole after our last long section of this trip. Wish we could have said hi from Jordan but it was the first peak we changed. First we took little joe pass instead of Lucy foot. We did torch bearer peak with caltech. While on genevra we decided we didn't want to climb the Sandy looking slopes. Instead after table we did milestone while crossing milestone pass. Had fun on Pants Pass in a thunderstorm when my trekking pole started buzzing and shocking my hand. We then went up to lion rock the second time for me and the next day did lion lake, coppermine, horn col and pterodactyl passes all in one day. Found 3 trekking poles while climbing coppermine peak so I put all 3 on the summit stretched out in their new role as lightning rods. So did 10 peaks in the last 14 days.

Time now to relax and tomorrow we head back to VVR.

Back out again. Last section went well. We cut one day short by doing the horrible traverse from Stanford to Huntington. Then we added in robber barren peak traversing from Hopkins. Did Crocker. Mike did red slate while we crossed mcgee pass. We did the unnamed peak and then skipped izaak Walton for bbq night at VVR. Now two days ahead of schedule we are going to climb Dana and Gibbs then do cathedral peak and head for bishop.

Rogue, sent you a pm
Safe/FUN travels to you and Mike

In bishop again. So close to the end now. Everything went as planned until North Palisade when both Mike and Derek were unable to climb the second chock stone no matter how hard they tried so I made the summit alone. Certainly was the most difficult climb up and down I ever did. I used pure friction between the walls. I have no idea what class that rock really is but Mike has done 5.6 and could not make it.

Today with the ugly bit of weather we did not do Giraud Peak. But all looks good to go do humphreys and Middle palisade making 42 peaks for me and 44 for Mike on this trip.

Glad you are back safe and successful. What route did you do on North Palisade?

We did the LeConte Route.

I did the LeConte route also and avoided the chockstones by climbing on the wall to the left. I did have rock shoes, which made it a lot easier. I would call it low 5th, maybe 5.3. With boots it would be a lot harder. We also had ropes so rappelled down. I would not have liked to downclimb that section. The route is officially classfied as Class 4. But in the days when that route was rated, "Class 4" included everything up to 5.5.

How much snow was in the chute when you went up? Last year there was enough to make it so that you could easily climb up the first chockstone and the second one would have been made a lot easier.

I'm not sure where you would have gone up the walls to the left by the 2nd chockstone... From what I could tell it was major vertical crack climbing.. Above what I would be comfortable without a rope. I did have rock shoes but they didn't help at all trying to get up the second chockstone likely because my reach was a little too short or I couldn't perform the very specific friction move to get up the wall on the right side. I would be curious to know when you started to ascend the wall.. Whether it was directly below the 2nd chockstone or before the 1st one.

In terms of the rating system... It really is annoying to see a route like this still called Class 4 in books like Secor and even places like summitpost. Clearly it isn't class 4 by today's ratings and that's all that matters for climbers of today's era like Rogue and myself. And I understand that even today it's an imprecise system but at least we should try and spread awareness about routes like this that they are definitely Class 5.. Albeit low 5.

Yes, we had enough snow in the chute to at least access the left wall where it was not too terribly hard. I agree, that the macho attitude that keeps the 4th class ratings on older routes does not help anyone, particularly when most climbers are not aware of this oddity in the rating system. They should rate it as "low-to mid 5th class( Class 4 historically)"