So what have I been up to? First of all I have to say you bastards! lol. If I had known going around Lake Eleanor and up that creek was so bad I wouldn't have done it! I camped my first night in about half a mile past Frog Creek. It then took me 4 hours to just reach the inlet in a total bush whack micro cliff nightmare! It ended up taking me 4 days to reach Twin Lakes. As a result I did Bigelow Peak but did not cross over Dorothy Lake Pass. I made the rest of the loop back to Eleanor as planned.
When I went back in I decided I did not want to go up Frog Creek not knowing what sort of mess was waiting for me so I went out for Moraine Ridge through Jack Main Canyon. I did everything else as planned until I went up Matterhorn Pass. The wind must have been blowing 100mph and I could hardly stand up. I was blown to the ground once and bashed my leg up. I also could not find the route down and ended up climbing up the ridge a bit towards the Matterhorn. Every step was very scary with the wind trying to rip me off the cliffs. Class 2 pass my ass lol. I made my way down nasty class 3 cliffs! I skipped the Matterhorn itself because the conditions were too dangerous.
I froze my ass off most of those nights waking up with the creeks all frozen with my 32F bag. I did Stanton Peak but was too lazy for Grey Butte. I did Mt. Conness as planned. I skipped Mt. Lyell because it looked like too much snow to go without Crampons. As a result I jumped over to the Lost Lakes.
We cleared allot of big trees on trail crew before I went out again. I followed the last section almost as planned. Both Pika and Franklin Col were nasty passes! And I did them both in the same day! I made it over the summit of Red Slate Mountain with my full pack and ended up camping at Lower Mcgee Lake. It wasn't until after breakfast that I even made up my mind if I was going to climb Red and White Mountain but I went ahead and did it. Talk about one of the most loose nasty sharp rock peaks I have ever climbed! Heard about 5 rock falls in the two nights I was in that area.
I made it into VVR from Lower Mcgee Lake today. I decided to skip Crocker Col since I sent home my ice axe and I figured it would still have allot of snow. I thought my time was better spent in the Hopkins Recess anyway.
Other than all that it has been pretty smooth. I'll be around here before I go out for a 5 day loop and then that 8 day loop so I will be checking in more often.
As for Black Kaweah I figure it is nasty. I ran into a girl that has done the SPS list and she said she would never climb Black Kaweah again! That is along time from now so we'll see if I stay alive that long!
