High Sierra Topix

I've wanted to bag Agassiz and Cloudripper ever since a friend of mine did them last summer. He likes to do everything in one day. I love to go Backcountry set up a camp near a beautiful lake and then do day hikes from there. Can somebody give me a suggestion for a lake/lakes in that area that would be a good place to set camp up to nail both peaks? I could either hike in on Friday and set up camp (after driving from Vegas) and then nail one peak on Saturday and another on Sunday. Or tackle one on my hike in day. I am considering mid July for this.

Also, which permit would be needed for back country.


Thanks in Advance

lvscramblingman

Your friend is in excellent condition to do either of those peaks as a day hike, starting and ending at their vehicle.

Lakes 3 - 7 on North Fork Big Pine Creek are popular options for both peaks.

Green Lake, located in the canyon above Parcher's Resort. This the most easy way to reach Cloudripper, but not a good approach for Agassiz.

Baker Lake, up near the headwaters of Baker Creek is another lake to base a Cloudripper, attempt, but is least scenic of the options. This also is not a good approach for Agassiz.

Lastly you could approach both peaks from the west, basing out of any of the lakes in the upper basin of South Fork Bishop Creek; however, that is also the most strenuous of the options, also these routes are the easiest of the options to stray off and fail to summit.

ED

Like you I prefer to make a trip out of the peaks in the eastern Sierra, enjoying a night or two by a lake then going for peaks from there.

Last year I did Agassiz while camping in Dusy Basin. Fairly straightforward from Bishop Pass. It might be one of the routes to clear of snow the soonest, if any of them do completely. No route finding issues at all.

I did Cloudripper and Vagabond after a night camped at Green Lake. Not as scenic as the Dusy Basin/Bishop Creek area but still nice, and relatively little traffic.

You might consider hiking to Bishop Lake on a Friday, climb Agassiz on Saturday, then that same day go to Green Lake to setup camp. Then, the subsequent day you can hit Cloudripper (Vagabond is a quick detour) before returning to the TH.

If permits are an issue (Bishop Pass is popular), Agassiz might be a bit easier to do as a day hike... Then after Agassiz, you can camp at Green Lake for climbing Cloudripper. You do not need to get a wilderness permit for Green Lake, it's outside of the wilderness area. You just need to get a free campfire permit online (even if you aren't going to have an actual campfire), there's no quota. This way you can get all the peaks without having to plan ahead with permits.

You can be fairly flexible about this also since it'd all be out of the same TH.