High Sierra Topix

Posted: **Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:52 pm**

Vennacher Col

OVERVIEW: Vennacher col is an alternative route into (or out of) Marion Lakes basin from the JMT south of Mather Pass.

DIFFICULTY: Listed as a class 3, but it is no harder than Upper Basin Crossing a bit to the North. A hard 2.

LOCATION: The col is due south of Vennacher Needle and the ridge is ~12,450 ft. HST Map

USGS TOPO MAP (7.5'): Mount Pinchot, Ca

DESCRIPTION: The East side approach (descent) is straightforward, and one can avoid much of the boulder hopping by picking routes through a mix of sand and gravel. On both passages over this col, the best route has been a little South of the low point on the ridge. There, a series of ramps and ledges allows one to get off the steepest portion before hitting (on the western side) intermittent patches of sand, gravel, talus, boulders and open-faced granite. On the photos facing the west side of the col, we crossed the ridge just to the right of the uppermost patch of snow.

PHOTO'S: Photo's & Description: Courtesy of CGunderson

View of the col from the west:

View of the col from the west:

View west from the top of the col:

View of the col from the east:

Posted: **Sat May 21, 2022 10:44 am**

This is from a near future cli-fi novel and not a guidebook (I don’t think anyone will buy it for Vennacher Col beta). Since KSR has been coming up in the forum due to his new book on the Sierra I got around to cutting out some relevant bits of beta from an old novel of his that add more descriptive clarity to the original entry here. From the top of the Col looking west:

“What about straight down from the lowest point here?” Vince demanded.
Charlie objected, “That won’t work—look at the drop.” He still wanted to try the boulder stack.
“But around that buttress down there, maybe,” Dave pointed out. “Something’s sure to go around it.”

[…]

Ten minutes later, however, he was a good portion of the way down the cliff, considerably off to the left as they looked down, where the steepness of the rock angled outward, and looked quite comfy compared to where they were.

[…]

“But there he was, and he had done it so fast that they had to try it. They found some very narrow ledges hidden under the buttress, trending down and left, and by holding on to the broken wall next to their heads, and making their way carefully along the ledges and down from ledge to ledge, they all quickly followed Jeff to the less steep bulge in the cliff, and from there each took a different route to a horrible jumble of rocks in a flat trough at the bottom.

[…]

“So you guys just discovered a class-two route on a wall that all the guidebooks call class three!”
“How could that happen?” Vince wondered. “Why us?”
“We were desperate,” Troy said, looking back up. From below the cliff looked even steeper than it had from above.
“That’s probably actually it,” Charlie said. “The class ratings up here have mostly been made by climbers, and when they came up to this pass they probably saw the big slot in the face, and ran right up it without a second thought. The fact it was class three meant nothing to them, so they never noticed there was a much trickier class-two line off to the side, because they didn’t need it.”

Excerpt From
Green Earth
Kim Stanley Robinson

There's more subjective experience from multiple character's POV in the novel (which is either based on a real trip, or archetypes of people he knows so it's a bit of an idealized trip report) that could help people contextualize the experience of it, but these snippets should give a nice "route" for the crux of it.

Posted: **Sat May 21, 2022 11:51 am**

Nice addition erutan.

They found some very narrow ledges hidden under the buttress, trending down and left, and by holding on to the broken wall next to their heads, and making their way carefully along the ledges and down from ledge to ledge,

It reads exactly as we found it, though crossing west to east. Here's a photo showing the apparent steepness, with the ramps and ledges that ease it off:

The red area contains the lowest point on the ridge, and looked to be full of sketchy, loose rock. The blue line shows our route along steep, but stable ledges.

It is certainly worth the effort!

Posted: **Wed May 25, 2022 4:16 pm**

I went over Vennacher in 2017, with my surfer son in tow. I went East to West, it is an easy ascent, with no intel beforehand, so I was a bit surprised when I got to the top and looked down, and my son had a major freak-out. I think I went down the same path as Harlan, and IMHO it is a solid class-3. I had to lead my son handhold by handhold down the first 20 feet. I still hear about it- "Mom, what Dad is doing is really dangerous".

High Sierra Topix

Vennacher Col

Vennacher Col

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