High Sierra Topix

I will be taking a 2.5 day trip to the north fork big pine with my dad, and I wanted to take a side trip up to one of the peaks in the area. I have some experience with scrambling in the San Gabriel mountains I wanted to find an easy peak to bag for my trip.

what peaks in the area would you recommend I am comfortable with class 2 and would like a little bit of scrambling and class 3 bits for fun.

with my initial research I found cloudripper and vagabond peaks. cloudripper interests me because i camped under it at chocolate lakes last year. i would take the east ridge route past thunder and lighting lake. the route is labeled class2 with class 3 parts higher on the ridge. I've read a few trip reports on the route and i think its within my experience and skill level.

does anybody have any advice or a better peak in the area.

I'm not sure if you've already gone on your trip, but just in case...

Sky Haven is relatively easy. I took the slopes just barely northeast of Black Lake, which were sandy class 2 the whole way until the ridgeline. At times it was frustrating because you'd take 2 steps up, 1 step down. However, it wasn't technical in the slightest. There seemed to be plenty of class2/class 3 options in neighboring gullies. The view is pretty much my favorite in the Sierra.

Here's more info on it:
http://www.summitpost.org/sky-haven/726219" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cloudripper is a fine peak. It is more or less class 1 until one gets to the final moves below the summit, which are really easy 3rd class. Set off east of the crest as it is, and very high (13501), the views from the summit are superb, especially those of the E side of the Palisades. That would certainly be my top choice for a peak in this range of difficulty at the headwaters of Big Pine Creek.

Thanks for the replies, we leave in two days can't wait.

Sky haven was going to be a stop on the way back from cloudripper.

I had researched some more peaks in the area I had over looked agassiz because I thought a thing on the big pine side would be too difficult, until I saw the southeast ridge from Agassiz col was rated class 2-3. But looking at the route it looks pretty intimidating but the descriptions make is seem like simple route finding with a scramble for the summit. Any experience with this route?

I'm fine with cloudripper but if I could be agassiz-close to the glacier that would be fantastic.

scottawr wrote:Thanks for the replies, we leave in two days can't wait.

Sky haven was going to be a stop on the way back from cloudripper.

I had researched some more peaks in the area I had over looked agassiz because I thought a thing on the big pine side would be too difficult, until I saw the southeast ridge from Agassiz col was rated class 2-3. But looking at the route it looks pretty intimidating but the descriptions make is seem like simple route finding with a scramble for the summit. Any experience with this route?

I'm fine with cloudripper but if I could be agassiz-close to the glacier that would be fantastic.

I have not done that route, but having climbed in the area and having done Agassiz via Bishop Pass, my suspicion is that a climb of Agassiz from the SE ridge would be one that would work out well for those with a lot of route finding experience on rugged broken terrain (and by route finding experience, I mean successful route finding experience). In other words the optimal route on slopes/faces/ridges like that tends to be rather intricate if one wants to minimize the difficulties. If one has a lot of experience reading a face and picking out the easiest route it is likely one can keep the difficulties down, but one can easily select the wrong line at a point in the route and end up in high 3rd to 4th class rock.

Ok that makes it easier to decide going with Cloudripper and saving Agassiz for next time I'm on the bishop pass side of the mountain.

thanks for the advice!