High Sierra Topix

The summer solstice/Father's Day was spent hiking in the Whitney Basin with Dave, his son Adam, Norma and Kevin. My target was Muir, and Dave accepted my invitation to guide me up, and more importantly, down! Adam and Kevin summitted Whitney, while Dave and I claimed Muir! It was my 5th 14er.

Although not the toughest climb overall, the last 100 feet certainly was the most technically challenging for. But, like everyone says, the Muir headwall has bomber hand and footholds. I had brought along a new pair of 5.10 Guide shoes which I lugged up in my pack (1 lb/pr) and boy was I glad I did. For the first time ever, I could "feel" the rock and the footholds. Those things are super sticky as well. There was only one pucker spot and that was on a left traverse around a boulder that stuck out. But I trusted the sticky shoes and good hand hold and nailed it. Dave gave me a body belay for the first part of the descent, and between that and the shoes, I was able to concentrate on technique and finding the hand and footholds with confidence rather than focusing on being scared. This climb was great experience for me!

Mount Muir photos

Wow, that is terrific! Your pics were really great too; more power to you!

Looks like you had a fun trip,
I used the crack to the top left of your photo 55 but needed a sling to get back over the top and fingers into the crack to descend.

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Looks like you had fun! Mt. Muir was the first 3rd class thing I ever climbed. The next time I did it I had to rescue someone's sling off the wall in Ridgeline's picture.