TR: 6/16-26 2006 Climbs in Miter Basin

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Wandering Daisy
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TR: 6/16-26 2006 Climbs in Miter Basin

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Sky Blue Lake Climbs June16-21, 2006

This is a trip from the past that show early season high snow conditions. The 2006 snow pack was 150% normal in the southern Sierra. I had applied for a Whitney permit to climb Mt Russel and Muir, but the FS mistakenly sent a permit for September 16-21 instead of June. Their mistake may have been a blessing, given the snow conditions. I declined the permit, received a refund and since we all had scheduled vacation time, my friend from Joshua Tree and my husband and I instead went into Sky Blue Lake. If climbing conditions were poor, it would at least be a scenic hike.

We met at Cottonwood Campground and spent a chilly evening relaxing and acclimating at 10,000 feet. After packing up crampons, helmets and ice axes, we agreed to forgo the rope and climb only what we could “with our wits.” Ellen, a minimalist went light with bivy only. Dave and I chose the luxury of our 2-main Mountain Hardware tent and camp shoes. I carried the bear canister so we would be minimally “legal”. We also brought 50 feet of cord to hang food that did not fit into the canister; this cord also saved the day on the return over New Army Pass.

June 16. Our goal was to get to Chicken Springs Lake. Our pace was slow, the trail snowy and we arrived mid-afternoon. We found campsites below the lake. I got bored so walked up to the lake, took a nice bath and enjoyed the view. After dinner I hiked down to the meadow to ponds full of frogs.
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June 17. We left early and quickly were at the high point on the PCT. The view was great. We continued north until we reached Soldier Lake. A few jumps on creek crossings were at my limit! From Soldier Lake a use trail steeply switch backed up the hill. We traversed above Rock Creek where cliffs stopped our progress so we back tracked a short distance and dropped into Rock Creek. Ellen and I decided to wade and Dave managed to jump boulders. Once across we walked up another use trail, scrambling up a few rock benches then turn left into the Sky Blue Lake drainage. The bottom lands were very wet and swampy so we stayed above the creek and crossed many snowfields. The crux of the approach was the final bench to Sky Blue Lake. A little bit of easy class 2 scrambling and we reached the west side of the outlet creek. After much looking we chose a well-used site above the west shore of the lake, near a small melt pond. Crossing the outlet was tricky with full packs. We arrived mid afternoon greeted by an entire colony of marmots. We rested, read and rigged our tent footprint for shade. The marmots became quite bold. The lake was mostly frozen and melt water would pool on the ice during the day, but freeze solid at night. The snowfields had developed deep sun cups. After dinner and conversation we snuggled in our sleeping bags as the sun went down.
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Last edited by Wandering Daisy on Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: TR: 6/16-26 2006 Climbs in Miter Basin

Post by Wandering Daisy »

June 18. Ellen and I decided to climb Newcomb and Pickering and perhaps Mt. Chamberlain. Dave got up to join us for breakfast and we left at 6:00 AM. The snow was icy but we managed to get around the lake without using crampons. The view back to our camp was beautiful. We worked our way up talus and snow to the lakes in the upper bench, stopping for water at a little stream that was still frozen on the edges. From here we looked south to the snow slopes we would descend. We skirted the southwest side of the solidly frozen lake west of Lake 3697. Here Ellen put on her crampons and I instead tiptoed up small sun cups on the steep snowfield. From the ridge between Mt. Newcomb and Peak 4003 we had a good view of Crabtree Lakes.
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We made good time on the fun 3rd class rock leading to the summit of Mt Newcomb. We wisely decided not to try Mt. Chamberlain. Traversing the ridge to Mt. Pickering, we made the mistake of thinking this as a “ridge route”. Doing so caught us in endless ups to dead ends, downs over sliding scree, and scrambles over small ridges. I think we mistakenly climbed about every pinnacle on the ridge just trying to traverse. Some of the climbing was interesting class 3, but we hardly enjoyed it. By the time we reached the summit of Pickering we were two tired doggies! The traverse was just plain ugly. It would have been much faster had we just dropped down a bit.
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The sun had baked the snow to mush and we wallowed eastward from the Summit, then down steep and slippery snowfields to the lakes south of Mt. Newcomb. Ellen broke trail while I slowly and cowardly backed down facing inward ready to self-arrest at any moment. More wallowing in crotch deep sun cups and finally we reached dry ground. It ended up six miles, twelve hours and 3,400 feet of elevation gain! We choked down dinner, drank cups of tea and jumped into our sleeping bags.

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June 19. It dawned crystal clear and cold. We had a late leisurely breakfast and day hiked to Primrose Lake. We quickly were at the lake looking up to Mt. Pickering where we had been on top the previous day; it looked like a climb of Mt. Pickering would be a challenge from this base. We headed back to camp and cooked lunch. Ellen and I checked out the approach to our next days climb, The Miter. The guidebook information was not making sense to us.

June 20. Ellen and I arose at dawn and took ice axes, but mistakenly, not crampons. Once we scrambled up and into a gully facing north, we encountered blue ice. I cut steps on the first steep section. Ellen cut steps on the second section where we traversed left. The climbing got harder as we went up. About 15 minutes from the top I decided to sit it out while Ellen continued. I could get up this section, but was not sure I wanted to down climb it. I found a nice ledge to sit on. The view was fantastic. Ellen soon reached the top and hollered and I took her picture. We were both concerned about climbing down the icy sections we had climbed up. Luckily they were not too bad.
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Back at camp by 1:00 PM we decided to pack up and hike out about part way after soup for lunch. We reached Soldier Lake early enough and with energy to spare so we continued towards New Army pass for a loop instead of in-and-out. We set up a camp at the end of the drainage, comfortably on short grass across the creek from the trail and adjacent to a huge talus ridge.
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June 20.[/b][/b] By 8:30 AM we were on the trail, steadily climbing to the top of the pass, with no idea what we were about to encounter. Ignorance is bliss. To our surprise, we topped out on a cornice with no easy way down to the trail on the east side. Luckily the 50 feet of cord used to hang food and an extra 25 feet taken off our tent saved the day. I put on my crampons and backed down the snow while Dave lowered my pack.
We barely had enough cord. Then we lowered the other two packs. Ellen and Dave then climbed down. We again encountered a section of trail blocked by snow and cut the switchback on class 2 rock. It was a relief to reach the Long Lake for lunch. On the trek out the trail was covered with snow in many places. We missed it once and had to cross a creek to regain the route. It was a long 9 miles, 9 hour day including our ordeal on the pass.

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Harlen
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Re: TR: 6/16-26 2006 Climbs in Miter Basin

Post by Harlen »

What a fine trip! Great climbs, beautiful scenery, and Marmots! We love all your photos-- what a selection of great mountain scenes. Our favorites are the views down to Crabtree Lakes from the ridge, and back to Sky Blue Lake from high on the Miter. Your very first image of Whitney Meadow is sublime! The only problem with this TR is that it is over too soon. Thanks for putting it together Nancy.
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Re: TR: 6/16-26 2006 Climbs in Miter Basin

Post by grampy »

Thank you for posting this ! Wonderful photos, and the N.A.P. cornice photo is an especially useful bit of info for anyone hoping to do this pass early season (in a good snow year, at least).
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