Hey, TDC !
How did it go last year?
I made it to the top of University Peak, September 20, 2012, with a new ammo box and summit register (thx Harry, from Sierra Club). The weather was perfect and the view was grand. My friend David M. stayed in the campground, which was nice, because it was my first attempt on a big peak in the Sierra, and solo, too. On the way back from the summit, I met two fishermen and we gazed up at where I had been. The top of U. Peak looked way way way up there, and impossibly steep, so I'm glad I didn't see where I was headed going up the trail. When you get there, it's always less steep than it looks from below, however, it's always steeper looking in reality compared with the lines on the topo map.
The route I took went by Matlock, Bench, and lake 3460m (Kearsarge Peak Quadrangle). I left the Kearsarge Pass trail randomly by going up the drainage that drains into Little Pothole Lake. On the way back I took the trail, which is very well maintained but not on the 1994 topo map, between Matlock and Flower Lakes, but it has a lot of up and down, so, I took the easier way up with steady climbing. At 9 A.M. on Friday morning I began for summit. It took 5 hours from Matlock Lake to the top, 13,632 feet. It only took 4 hours down from the top of University to the Onion Valley campground at 9,200 feet.
I'd recommend skipping Bench Lake. Instead, circle around Matlock Lake counter-clockwise, cross the stream connecting Bench and Matlock on the shore of Matlock, and pass through the stand of huge trees S.W. of Matlock. Then ascend the beautiful granite steps keeping on the "ridge", which is flat. Stick to the left and pass Lake 3480 to its east. Now all the trees and lakes are below. Keep sticking to the left and ascending. After a few hundred feet is a small pass that leads to the main couloir.
There's two passes into Center Basin, to the west of the summit, and I took the one on the right, with a snow field that was easily avoided. At the top of this pass is an interesting formation that looks like folded, rounded rocks, that's a good visual for finding the pass on the way back. It seems like I didn't take the actual north face route, which is to the left, that puts you to the east of the summit. I did what looked easiest, taking the long couloir to the right, and ending up at the 2nd pass to the west of the summit.
The views that keep opening up and up as you go higher and higher towards the pass are fantastic, including Painted Lady, Kearsarge Pinnacles and Lakes, Mt. Clarence King and beyond. From the top of the pass, beyond Center Basin, I think I saw off in the distance Table Mt. and the rest of Great Western Divide. Wow, to climb those mountains would be something else, they seem to be in a different world.
Using the "keep ascending" method, after reaching the pass and seeing Center Basin below, I travelled east to a false summit. It was class 3 and lots of fun, having to decide whether to go left or right quite often. It was a real sense of achievement, because the way to the top was not obvious at all, and I was surrounded by really big rock. Once on top, I saw the true summit directly to the east but slightly higher. I was almost there but got stuck for the first time inbetween the two summits. The rock I was on ended in a straight 10 foot drop-off. I saw some footholds, and was able to find them without looking while clinging to the top of the rock with my hands. Then, success, I gained the summit at 13632.
The old ammo box, sans lid, was under the summit block behind a rock, with a tiny spiral-bound pad in a ziplock bag, that had gotten wet, with entries between 2007 and 2012. It was full. The new summit register is a huge book that will hopefully last a long time, and also get full. The Climber.org has a webpage called "Sierra Peaks Summit Register Needs", or go to...
http://summitregister.langenbacher.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ...to help out. All the entries were full of enthusiasm & joyful thoughts, including the shortest one scribbled by someone who was obviously exhausted from climbing the north rib.
On the way down, I rested on the light brown sandy short of lake 3460m, which was slightly blue, and was mesmerized by the brown, shimmering rocks scattering the shore, beautiful. The lake is fed by a large snow field, with a tiny stream running out of it. There's a pass to Kearsarge Lakes from Lake 3460, I wonder if it has a name. I wonder if the pass is climable, because it seems like a nice way to the top-most Kearsarge Lake that would avoid having to use Kearsarge Pass and that ugly looking switchback near the top.
Happy trails, everybody [END]