Thanks for the pics Shawn! Yep, we were both happy with the hike in general, but we both wanted to make the summit of course. My friend actually said that the slabs in your photo might be where we started scrambling, but I said it couldn't be because the water flow coming down those slabs was a trickle, and there was a strong creek to the north that had to be Silliman Creek. Oh well. Here are some pics of interest:
Great Western Divide from Alta Peak:
- Great Western Divide. Rangers said crampons required on HST at Kaweah Gap.
Mt. Brewer from Alta Peak, which convinced us to change plans:
- Mt Brewer
Is this correct? Mt Silliman from Alta Peak.
- Mt. Silliman from Alta Peak
We got to the right place for the scramble to Silliman Lake, but I led us astray:
- Slabs to Silliman Lake
We scrambled up boulders and slabs on the south side of a strong-running creek to this shallow lake, which we assumed was Silliman Lake.
- Unnamed lake below NW face of Silliman
We scrambled upstream some more, and found Little Lake, which we assumed was the upper Silliman Lake.
- Little Lake
We realized that Silliman wasn't going to happen, so we kept going N to this point. Then we headed SE up a ridgeline at the base of Silliman's NW face for a better view.
- pointy rock
We headed up the ridgeline to get a look at the Great Western Divide, and had lunch.
- lunch
Last look at Silliman's NW face and the snow-covered gully above Little Lake.
