TR: Shepherd's Pass June 2016

[commonloon]

Shepherd’s Pass June 2016: a long lost trip report.

First, thanks HST! What a fantastic community and resource.

I figured it would be a good time to get off my lazy arse and finally write a trip report. This was a 4 day trip above Shepherd’s pass w/ my good friends Clark and Henry.

Here is a short video I did:

[youtube_vid]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xMmHD1_lOPA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/youtube_vid]

TR (long sorry. Will try to add some photos soon):

Day 1.

It’s a long drive over to the to east side and down Hwy 395 to get to the Shepherd’s trailhead from the Bay Area. Along the way we stopped in Bishop to pick up our permit. We were fully quizzed by a very nice young woman (ranger) about all things related to proper wilderness travel. Henry (the joker amongst us) asked questions back. I tried to deftly interject short, accurate and sincere answers so we could get to the trailhead quicker. Permit in hand we finished the drive out and tried to finish a huge bag of chocolate chips cookies Clark had made and brought. Yum.

We got to the trailhead late afternoon. It was hot(!) at the trailhead. The ascent to Anvil camp wasn’t too bad. As with some other east side passes the ascent is made more dramatic by the fact that you start in high desert and ascend into high sierras quickly. Nice night at Anvil camp.

Day 2.

It was a quick hike to the pass proper. Henry who has a lot of alpine climbing experience basically kick stepped his way up about ½ the pass before deciding to take out his ice axe. The snowfield at the top of the pass was not soft but not really hard snow either. Clark and I both used ice axes and crampons.

We then went over Rockwell Pass and down to where the JMT and High Sierra Trail intersect, stopping for some fly fishing and lunch near Wrights Creek. This plateau is pretty incredible in a high sierra sort of wide open spaces way. Down to the Kern, where we set camp for night 2 where the old log cabin is. Wrights Creek and Tyndall Creek (where it meets the Kern) were the 2 creek crossings of note BTW. Both running pretty fast, the latter had a blow down that made it easy.

Day 3.

We broke camp and headed north towards the Kern headwaters. Clark’s feet were hurting (new shoes), so he took a short cut to meet us at Tyndall Creek while Henry and I headed to LSA. I love this canyon/trail. It starts out forest and ascends above the treeline, getting more and more incredible. The LSA area had lots of snow and LSA itself was still frozen over. Storm clouds were gathering and we high tailed it down towards Tyndall Creek. Having hiked thru here a few times, the number of trees that have been struck by lighting on the ridge/hill right before you drop down to Tyndall Creek wasn’t lost on me.

The night.

We arrived at Tyndall Creek and crossed the creek so we wouldn’t have to cross it in the (cold) morning and set-up camp near the little cutoff trail to the Ranger’s hut. Surprisingly, there were not a lot of PCT nobo hikers around. Shortly thereafter, a backcountry ranger came by and gave us a big fat warning about the storm that was about to hit. In short: don’t try going back over Shepherd in the storm. He was even nice enough to offer us some hungry hiker food he had in his stash should we need to stay an extra day; we had told him we planned on exit tomorrow. The storm was expected to hit in the morning. We had talked about an Alpine start, possibly to beat the storm, but... It started shortly after dark in earnest and lasted throughout the night! T-storms and hail, leading up to T-storms and snow! Besides getting woken up by loud claps of thunder, I was cozy, warm and dry under my tarp (w/ a light weight bivy).

Day 4.

When we woke, we were surprised to see clear skies and almost immediately made the decision to hike out. Breaking camp was a bit slower due the snow, but soon we were off. Clear skies all the way up to the pass then clouds forming. The hike from Tyndall Creek to Shepherd’s pass was incredibly beautiful with the fresh layer of snow. Down the pass. When we hit the Pothole, it basically started unloading on us -- off and on snow. From there is was easy trail time down to the tailhead. Great: trip, friends and whiskey!

[commonloon]

Can someone tell me how to get my youtube preview to show? The youtube_vid markup doesn't appear to be working. Thanks.

[ERIC]

All fixed. You have to insert the entire YouTube embed code. Click edit to see what the code looks like.

[commonloon]

Super. Thanks Eric.

[Ska-T]

I enjoyed your video! Thanks for posting. Great time of year for the southern Sierra.

[commonloon]

I enjoyed your video! Thanks for posting. Great time of year for the southern Sierra.

I agree! If this year's big snow pans out then it's going to be a winter wonderland this June.