TR: East Vidette July 29-31, 2019

[CAMERONM]

Ascent of East Vidette. 3 days, 26 mies, 8,984 ascent.

I have always admired the profile of East Vidette when viewed going south on the JMT. Finally I have the time to climb it.

It is a beautiful morning in Lone Pine, and because of the newly instituted night boxes for permit pickup, Annie and I are able set out early for Onion Valley. We have two agendas; I want to climb East Vidette, and Annie wants to realize an artwork in a natural setting. It is her first time backpacking but I am confident she can do the trip. We bring clothing and nets for mosquitos, and I mention but downplay the potential misery of the insects we may encounter.

It is a thrill when East Vidette comes into view. It is also very late in the day; Annie is lagging with the length of the hike and possibly the altitude. We do not make it to the Upper Vidette Meadow until 7 pm.

The next day I set out to climb East Vidette. There is no way around it, I must walk through Bubbs Creek, starting my ascent with soggy feet. I take the East Ridge, which is mostly class 3, with a few not so exposed class 4 moments, and a few dead-ends and cliff-outs. The path is not as straightforward as the “ridge” description suggests. I see evidence of possible class 2 scree approaches on the north side of the ridge. I do not find a register at the top, but I am on the south side of one large summit block, and someone might have thought it clever to put the register on the side most don’t approach from. The move required to mount the block involves an exposed heave-ho that is out of my league. It appears that I can retrace my climb for a bit, drop down and circle clockwise to climb back up to the other side of the summit block, but that seems not worth the effort.

The views of Center Basin and University Peak are exceptional.

I take 7 hours to climb up and back. I find several steep scree runs on the south-east side that save me at least an hour on the descent.

While I do my climb, Annie finds a double waterfall near to the camp and spends the day building her installation. It turns out nicely and we spend some time admiring and documenting it. More of Annie's work can be seen at https://www.anniem.me/ The mosquitos were numerous but with proper clothing and head-nets we managed just fine.

My summation: I am glad I did this climb, as I pass by East Vidette all of the time, but I found the actual climb not so interesting and the summit experience underwhelming. There are clearly many mini-alternative paths to take up, and that may account for differing opinions about the East Ridge. I did not encounter the loose material some have mentioned, actually the opposite; the scree and sand were pretty solid, just like recent snow-melt sand can sometimes be. East Vidette, or at least the East Ridge, is probably not a good destination for anyone new to peakbagging, with its various obstructions. Not truly hard, but not straightforward.

[c9h13no3]

The East Vidette's east ridge gets more polarizing reviews than any other mountain on the intarwebs. It's on the mountaineer's list for supposedly the east ridge route, but then it gets trashed in many places like Summitpost. Your thoughts?

[CAMERONM]

A good question which prompted me to edit/improve the description of the climb in my post. I agree with the general drift that the East Ridge is not straightforward nor terribly interesting.

[ExploreABitMore]

Nice trip report and photos, thanks for sharing, brought back good memories.

c9h13no3, I personally thought the E Ridge was a really enjoyable climb, but I know what you mean, it's surprising how polarizing the views are on this climb

[c9h13no3]

Nice trip report and photos, thanks for sharing, brought back good memories.

c9h13no3, I personally thought the E Ridge was a really enjoyable climb, but I know what you mean, it's surprising how polarizing the views are on this climb

Yeah, I'm always looking for fun class 3 stuff on solid rock. But some people say the route is loose class 2 low angle boredom, and this report mentions up to class 4. I think my main takeaway is that it's probably very easy to get off route, and so things can vary wildly. This report even mentions "The path is not as straightforward as the “ridge” description suggests."

So yeah, I'll probably give it a try sometime. But I doubt I'll take newbies or my wife (who HATES loose rock) on it.

[Fviolich]

Hi Cameron - Yes thats the same Frano Violich. I tried to Private Message reply but don't seem to have permission. Ive asked Admin to enable me. Sheila and I are headed out for the last week of August roaming around the Keyes/Kern Divide. Cant wait to get out of New England and recharge. Thanks for sharing your trip and installation.

[ExploreABitMore]

Nice trip report and photos, thanks for sharing, brought back good memories.

c9h13no3, I personally thought the E Ridge was a really enjoyable climb, but I know what you mean, it's surprising how polarizing the views are on this climb

Yeah, I'm always looking for fun class 3 stuff on solid rock. But some people say the route is loose class 2 low angle boredom, and this report mentions up to class 4. I think my main takeaway is that it's probably very easy to get off route, and so things can vary wildly. This report even mentions "The path is not as straightforward as the “ridge” description suggests."

So yeah, I'll probably give it a try sometime. But I doubt I'll take newbies or my wife (who HATES loose rock) on it.

The bottom does require a bit of route finding to keep it at Class 3, but not bad. The rock is good for this part too. It does get looser higher up, but it is not bad at all for the Sierra. It is more like Class 2, as well, but easier to follow. And, the summit is an amazing place to visit. I seem to remember more good scrambling near the top.

I think people just expect too much from this one and then get disappointed. It's not an uber-classic climb by any means, but definitely worth a visit ;-)

[thegib]

When I topped out on E Vidette I was shocked how quickly the climb had gone. I felt really strong. I finally figured out the peak was 1000' shorter than it was supposed to be.