University Peak via University Pass

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orbitor
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University Peak via University Pass

Post by orbitor »

Decided to take this route because it's the shortest other than climbing the north face. After going up and down it, just want to warn others about what to expect. University Pass definitely belongs in the crimes-against-humanity category with Thompson-Powell Col and other such monsters. It is the worst combination of loose, steep and crappy slope I have ever climbed. There's absolutely no redeeming factor for it. One in my team who was above me dislodged a rock that missed me by inches. Between four people, we sent tons of rock, gravel, sand and related matter down the east side. On the way back, I found myself surfing on increasingly large and loose masses of rocks I was generating by simply using gravity. I fell on on my back a couple of times, with the worst being an uncontrolled ride on top of the pile for a few feet. Luckily it stopped quickly. For a few seconds, it felt like riding an avalanche and it was terrifying. By the time I reached the bottom of the slope I was almost ready to cry.

The south slopes of the peak must be surmounted via an exhausting slog. We contoured as much as possible, then had no choice but to go straight up. It was like climbing in molasses, at altitude. Occasionally we would hit patches of solid rock, only to discover more sand above them. Getting to the summit was managed only by brute strength and lots of yelling and cursing (more effective in a foreign language) for motivation. University has some great views as advertised, but boy what a horrible climb. Never again by way of the pass - which is actually just a col. Hauling a full pack over this aberration should be reserved for pure masochists; do not even think about it if regular hiker applies to you.
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by giantbrookie »

Thanks for the post because a number of casual peak baggers are not aware of this. It boggles my mind that this route has been recommended as the go-to class 2 route for University Peak for so long (many decades now) when a vastly easier route exists over the north shoulder going up from Bench Lake.

In the early 70's I didn't even make it to the steep part of the University Pass route, for I tired of the time-consuming boulder hopping section near the bottom. Sometime around then, perhaps on the same trip, my dad and I viewed University from the top of Mt Gould and noticed what appeared to be an easy class 2 route up University from Bench Lake, that, to this day not listed in any guidebook I know of. In 1976 my dad and went back to University with our memory of what we saw from Mt Gould and the climb from Bench Lake went exactly as expected. Pretty much standard class 2 scree and talus. Not horrendously loose or steep or tedious and easy route finding. The only mildly tricky part comes near the top: it is low class 3 (on huge talus blocks and slabs) to finish via the ridge but if one wants very badly to keep the route entirely class 2 one can sidehill to easier slopes on the southern or western flanks to finish the climb. I have posted details of this route on an earlier thread, and the route description is also online at climber.org in the category "Corrections to Secor".(http://www.climber.org/Secor/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by orbitor »

giantbrookie,
Thank you for mentioning the alternate route. I wish I had known about it before taking University Pass. One of our constraints was that we only had one day for the climb and had to return the same evening, so we needed to pick one of the shorter routes. Since I read that navigation can get tricky high up on the north face, and that going off-route can result in some class 4 terrain, I decided to take the pass. What a struggle that was. It took us 12 hours to cover a little over 9 miles to summit and back. This while trying to outrun the storm. Incidentally, about 600' below the summit we ran into a larger party who had come up the north face and were going down the pass. We didn't see them again, so they must have descended the same loose crap we did without any significant injuries. One in my group was so affected by the close calls on the slope below the pass, he gave up on the summit, dropped down into Center Basin, picked up the JMT and returned via Kearsarge Pass, adding an extra 13 miles and 3000' gain just to avoid the pass. There is absolutely no reason to use this route in climbing University. What a terrible mistake propagated by Secor.

More disconcerting is the fact that Bob Burd plans on going over University Pass on Day 8 of this year's Sierra Challenge (Friday, August 23). I would horrified to be on that slope with more than three other people. A few dozen are signed up for the Challenge. If all climb to the pass at the same time or within short spans of each other, there are bound to be some incidents were people get hurt. The same applies for the descent. I just hope they are all careful.
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by giantbrookie »

The thing about the "alternative route" (Bench L. to N. shoulder) is that it is not only technically easier and safer than the "standard" route, but I suspect it takes less time, too, because the terrain is so much easier, so it is perfectly suitable as a dayhike.

I wouldn't blame Secor for the 'standard' route because that route has been a "standard" for decades dating to the first edition of the Sierra Club Climber's Guide (Hervey Voge--or is that the first edition, circa '60's). This was carried along into the Andy Smatko totebook edition of the early 70's (1972?) and then the Steve Roper version of the climbers guide as of 1976. For some peaks further from trailheads, I am not surprised that easy routes go unnoticed (such as my class 2 route on Mt Maclure, for example, which is also not listed in any guidebook), but I'm shocked at the north shoulder route on University because much of this route is actually more visible from Onion Valley than the "standard" route is. Another shocker is the E. Ridge route on Mt. Conness which is class 3 by guidebook route, but class 2 with some adjustments that are very obvious hiking out of Saddlebag, but similarly not in the guidebooks. Similar to the University Peak north shoulder route, if more people knew the details of the "easy" version of the Conness E. Ridge, it would become the most popular route on the mountain, owing to its accessibility and ease of dayhiking. The difference between the Conness situation and the University situation is the more popular Conness variants are not so bad, whereas the popular route on University is terrible. See "Corrections to Secor" and note that the listings are by peak and by alphabetical order of peak name. http://www.climber.org/Secor/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by orbitor »

giantbrookie
Would you be able to send me details separately on your routes up University, Conness and Maclure? I want to make a friend aware of the University route so he doesn't have to go up the pass like I did. As for Conness, I would like to climb that mountain either next month or in the summer of 2014, so any information is useful. Thanks!
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by giantbrookie »

orbitor wrote:giantbrookie
Would you be able to send me details separately on your routes up University, Conness and Maclure? I want to make a friend aware of the University route so he doesn't have to go up the pass like I did. As for Conness, I would like to climb that mountain either next month or in the summer of 2014, so any information is useful. Thanks!
I'm not exactly sure where I have this on a computer because it was quite some time ago (10 years ago, I believe) when I did a "data dump" and wrote up some of my hand written notes in the back of my Roper guide and entered them on Climber.org on "Corrections to Secor" http://www.climber.org/Secor/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I'll probably get my old descriptions off of climber.org and upgrade them a bit, if necessary. Please PM me with your email address, so I can send some of the materials by attachment. The route descriptions don't have annotated photos because all of my old photos (Conness, 1972&1975; Maclure 1975; University, 1976) were old prints or 35 mm slides that I do not have in digital form. Someday I should probably do that. In any case, PM me with your email address and I can send you some stuff when I dig it up.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by KathyW »

There has been some confusion between University Pass and the "shortcut" pass, which is looser. I think it stems from photos that were labeled incorrectly in Secor's book.

I've been over the shortcut pass and found that terrible on the way up, but easy on the way down. I don't know how University Pass compares to the shortcut pass, but I've heard it is better. The best nontechnical route up is probably the North Face.

Shortcut and University Pass: http://www.summitpost.org/university-pa ... the/111155" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rocks being knocked down are always a concern on any Sierra slog - slogging in large groups increases the danger of someone being hit by a falling rock.

It seems that the heavy rains that caused the flash flooding last month washed some of the scree off the slopes that used to be great fun to scree ski down (awful to go up); so now they are more difficult to go down.
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by orbitor »

University Pass proper was horribly loose. I do not want to think of much worse the Shortcut Variation is. The two are easy to distinguish on the way up, but trickier on the way down. Bob Burd made the mistake of taking the shortcut on the way down in SC 2002, resulting in not too fond memories. The Shortcut also seems to hold snow/ice longer, though I doubt that was the case this year. Everything seemed bone dry in the drainage of Independence Creek. The stream itself was running strong above Robinson Lake, after which it disappeared below mounds of scree. I do not recommend either of the chutes. University Pass is incredibly unstable for the last 500' of slope; the more people travel it, the crappier it'll get, until someone really gets hurt.

The best non-technical route up University is the one described by giantbrookie. It avoids the more technical parts of the north face, is easily accessible from Bench Lake and is short.
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by KathyW »

Secor's North Face Route is Class 2 except for a small amount of easy Class 3 near the top, and it sounds like the same route G. Brookie is describing. What Secor says: "Climb the slabs east of Bench Lake, and pass Lake 11360 ft+ on its eastern shore. Continue up scree and talus on the left side of the North Face....."

The Direct North Face is more techincal, but not the regular North Face Route Secor describes. You can still end up on some loose crap and shoot loose rocks down on climbers below if you are not careful, but it is better than going up via Robinson Lake. Best not to be in a large spread-out group.
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Re: University Peak via University Pass

Post by orbitor »

giantbrookie's description says: "From Bench Lake go south and ascend a broad scree and talus chute to a gap in (or a shoulder on) the northwest ridge. This chute reaches the ridgecrest above the point where the ridge of the Kearsarge Pinnacles and the Sierran crest meet. One can then follow the northwest ridge, staying south and below the ridgetop cliffs to minimize the difficulties. As one nears the summit, it may be possible to circle all the way around to the southeastern flank of the summit rocks to keep difficulties at strictly 2nd class. When we climbed the summit rocks we ended up doing the final approach approximately from the south and we encountered a few low 3rd class moves on very large talus and slabs."
This to me doesn't sound like the same thing as Secor's north face route and very likely it is not, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to submit it as a correction to Secor. The NW Ridge from Bench Lake gets my vote for best route up University and it'll definitely be first choice if I consider climbing the peak again.

It goes without saying that this mountain should not be climbed in large groups on any of its routes. A group of 4 or less which can spread out is acceptable.
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