Crystal Crag 10-18-14
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:43 am
Last Saturday we woke up in Mammoth Lakes, CA. That morning we met our new friend, Dave Miller, owner of California Alpine Guides at the Stellar Brew on Main Street. From there we drove to the trailhead at Lake George.
Our objective was to climb the traditional North Arête Route. The morning temperatures were quite cold as would be expected for the middle of October. Unfortunately for us there was also a brisk 10 to 15 MPH breeze.
After a very short approach hike, we began our climb and it soon became quite obvious following the traditional route up north side, in the shade, was going to be too cold. My fingertips quickly lost all feeling from grabbing frozen rock. Sport was shivering from her core.
Dave, being a great guide, quickly shifted gears and moved our route further over and into the sun.
Once we got into the sun Sport was happy to discover she wasn’t going to die from exposure. 
In fact both of us were happy to be in the sun.
After a few pitches we soon found ourselves on the north peak. The views were spectacular.
That is the crystal rock pillar formation just below Lake George.
Dave gave us a quick tutorial on how we would traverse the knife ridge to the summit.
He got a good shot of both of us just below the summit. We had just climbed over from the peak behind us.
We met two young local guys on the summit. They had climbed up the south ridge.
One of these friendly gentlemen snapped this photo of the three of us on the summit.
This is a picture of the crag taken on the way out. Our route was up the North Arête on the left hand side. It is roughly the sun / shade line. At a little over a third of the way up this route Dave moved us a little further to the right and we finished the climb to the north peak in the sun.
We had great time! What an adventure! This is by far the most technical climbing we have yet done. This climb has really raised our confidence level and we look forward to many more climbs. We definitely will be climbing again next summer with Dave.
http://www.californiaalpineguides.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Thanks for reading our post.
-Russ
Our objective was to climb the traditional North Arête Route. The morning temperatures were quite cold as would be expected for the middle of October. Unfortunately for us there was also a brisk 10 to 15 MPH breeze.
After a very short approach hike, we began our climb and it soon became quite obvious following the traditional route up north side, in the shade, was going to be too cold. My fingertips quickly lost all feeling from grabbing frozen rock. Sport was shivering from her core.
Dave gave us a quick tutorial on how we would traverse the knife ridge to the summit.
http://www.californiaalpineguides.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Thanks for reading our post.
-Russ
of the girl when I told her I would like a breakfast burrito. She asked "What kind?"