The mountains called again - Agassiz, Isosceles, Columbine, and Goode

The mountains called again, I think they have me on speed-dial. So I went. This time I hiked in from South Lake - looking pretty empty for some dam work. It wasn't long before I was on snow and I was skinning to go up Bishop Pass. From there I dropped the pack and skis and went up Mt Agassiz - this is the 3rd Mt Agassiz I know I have climbed. I presume they are named for Louis Agassiz - a geologist among other things who proposed that the earth had an ice age. This peak is 13,891 and overlooks the North Palisades. My first experience with these was the Thunderbolt to Sill traverse I did w/ Kim a few years ago - a most excellent adventure.

By the time I got back down to the gear it was getting late. I traversed and skied down a bit into the Dusy Basin and found a nice dry mostly flat spot with a wind break to set up camp.

The next day I headed up on the most excellent styrofoam snow to the Thunderbolt col into the Palisade basin. There I realized my mistake as the ridge west from there was very ridgey instead of easy walking on the south side that I expected. I scrambled and traversed along this ridge for the rest of the morning. Then I climbed up to the summit of Isosceles Peak. It had a rather exciting and technical bit to get up to the 12321 ft diving board summit. I celebrated with some grease sticks (cheese and pseudo meat).

grease stick celebration on the summit of Isosceles

Columbine Peak from Isosceles

Then back down to the south and up the N ridge of Columbine Peak. This was more of a pain than I expected because by now the snow was getting soft and treacherous (as far as post-holing was concerned). The 12652 ft summit of columbine peak was a spike of rock jutting up at an angle - something you would expect from a movie, not reality. I set up the camera with the remote control but it was too far away to trigger from the summit, so I set the timer and ran. The first time I didn't get there, but the second time I made it up. I took a slightly better descent route back to the pack and water.

running for the summit of Columbine

this time I made it (and managed to stop in time too)

panorama of the Palisade Basin from Columbine

There I switched into ski gear and dropped into Dusy Basin. It was pretty soft and forgiving. From the lake I was able to boot it back up to my camp. I saw 4 people,  mostly on snowshoes heading over the Thunderbolt Col I had gone to that morning - these were the only people I saw on this trip except within 4 or so  miles of the trailhead.

super blue melting lake edge in Dusy Basin

That night it wasn't very windy and I had to actually remove layers to keep from sweating. Amazing. The stars were also very nice. I took some pics.

Sagittarius, Scorpio, and the Milky Way over Isosceles and Columbine peaks

For my last day I headed north up over some peak (12,916 ') and along the ridge (with treacherous snow that tweaked my knee when I post-holed) to the 13085 ft summit. I was able to ski from almost the summit with the usual scary steep start (although it was pretty soft at this hour). I had to walk one little bit where the snow was all melted out and then was able to ski the rest of the way down to Saddlerock Lake. I did have one exciting wipe-out when something grabbed the back of one ski, turned me around and ripped the ski off. Luckily it was relatively low angle here, so I mostly just went down.

Long Lake with Mt Goode behind it (I went down the side behind to the left)

For a while after the lake I was able to combine walking and skiing, but by Long Lake I gave up and switched back into the comfy boots and footed it the rest of the way back to the truck. I spent a little time walking around on the bottom of S Lake (lots of fishing trash). Then back towards town to camp by McGee Creek which afforded me a cold but refreshing and cleansing wallow.

I just want to add that I am completely annoyed with how blogger deals w/ pics, especially moving them around, or not as the case may be. Who designed this mess? I had to go into the HTML and tell it what was up.

Here is a link to a slightly more complete Dusy Basin area trip report

The Mountains were calling, so I went (University Pk, Mt Rixford, and Mt Gould)

I had a nice little break going to a wedding in San Diego, hanging out with friends, mountain biking, a bit of boogie boarding... It was nice. Then on up to LA for more mtn biking and some kayak surfing. Actually I was on a wave ski. It was fun although a bit crowded at San Onofre with heaps of stand up paddle boarders. The waves got better as time went on and I had some pretty good (for me) runs. I also got flipped and swirled in the waves a few times. I did manage a few rolls too, which is always satisfying. With the waveski it wasn't too bad to get flipped and swim though except the one time I tried to roll too many times and got hit by another wave just as I was unhitching the seatbelt. I got a lot of the pacific in my sinuses and it continued to trickle out over the next few days. ugh.

Then I stuck around for another day on the computer and to eat ice cream before heading back to the mountains. I got a permit in Lone Pine and then camped out in the Alabama Hills.

Alabama Hills panorama including Mt Whitney

I headed up to the Onion Valley trailhead and started in towards Kearsarge pass. At the 3rd lake in I cut left and up towards University Peak (13,589 ft) or maybe 13,468 feet or even 13632 ft. Eventually I got sick of carrying my pack and I dumped it and the skis and headed on without the load. I wasn't entirely sure that I'd manage to get up the way I was going, but with a little scrambling and some snow I did manage to summit. At this point it was getting late and cold. I decided to descend another way to avoid downclimbing one dicey move, but this dropped me off at a steep snow field. Someone else had skied right down it most impressively, but I carefully kicked steps down. I think I'd have been a little more aggressive if I had an ice axe, but I didn't, so I went down carefully. There was also some annoying post holing and loose scree and talus, but I did finally get back to my pack around 7:30 pm. I found a small flat spot and made it big enough to lie down on and cooked dinner. It was pretty cold and windy, but I had 2 sleeping pads (I thought I might sleep on snow) and my warm down bag so once I got inside I was warm. It would have been nice to have a lighter pack, but since I didn't have any other Yogaslackers with me for insulation I had to carry it myself. It was windy all night, but the sunset was spectacular and as I said once I was bundled up I wasn't cold.

Sunset from my bivy ledge

The next morning I was treated to a beautiful light show as the alpenglow lit up the cliffs and snow plus a nearly full moon. I packed up and traversed a bit (I had to put on the crampons to cross a short steep hard snowfield) until I got to a spot where I wanted to start skiing. The snow was still hard so I took a break and cooked up breakfast (there was better wind shelter here too). Then the snow was a bit softer (maybe) so  I skied down to below a pass and kicked my way up and over to Kings Canyon National Park.

Morning view from my bivy ledge - Mt Gould is on rt, Mt Rixford the snowy peak b/n the 2 rocky closer peaks, I crossed the snowy pass on the left

There I skied down to Kearsarge Lake where I put the skins on the skis and traversed around, over a ridge, around another mostly frozen lake and to a nice looking flat spot. I took a break here and then left most of my food and sleeping gear and headed up towards an unknown mountain that looked doable (I later found out it was 12,887 ft. Mt Rixford).

Here I am on the icy shore of Kearsarge Lake. University Pk on the left

I skinned up a ways and then stowed the skis and switched boots and slogged up the talus forever. Finally I got to the top of the snowfield I had scoped for skiing. I left the rest of my gear here and hot-footed it up to the summit. It didn't seem that far, but from a distance I could see I went quite a ways w/o my skis. The descent was scary because the slope got much steeper at some point below me so I couldn't see all the way down (also there was a little rocky cliff band I had to thread my way through). But the snow was soft and forgiving and I finally was able to spot a line down the steeper bit. I did unleash some small slush avalanches in the steepest section but I just waited off to the side for them to stop creeping downhill before threading the rocky bits. Unfortunately I wasn't able to drop all the way down to the main valley snowfield where the rest of my stuff was so I had to take the skis off a few times to get there. It was nice to be cooking without a lot of wind and to dry out my sweaty clothes before bed. It was so warm without the wind I didn't even wear all of my clothes that night.

On the Summit of Rixford Pk. University Pk behind me

For my last day I wasn't in that much of a rush, and I ended up talking with a hiker who went by for a while. Then I hiked up to Kearsarge pass (the snow was still hard enough to walk on top). There I talked to some PCT through hikers for a bit and then headed up Mount Gould to the north. For the most part I was just walking up scree and talus although I did follow some steps up a steep snowfield at one point. I was entertained by the "top 100 songs of the 80's" - I'm not sure who decided this list though. I was trying to play name that tune and artist and did fairly well, although less well with the year. Eventually I scrambled to the summit only to see that the next pile of rocks was higher, so I went up that one to the 13,005 foot summit of Mount Gould. Then I continued on across an alpine tundra to a few radio repeaters and a nice view down into the Rae Lakes basin. I tried my cell phone but despite 4 bars it said "emergency calls only".  Then I descended back to Kearsarge Pass where I talked with more PCT through hikers and gave one group the rest of my sunscreen (you would get totally crisped without it between the altitude and the snow and theirs wasn't sweat proof and didn't seem to be working so well). Then the stalling was over and I strapped on the skis and dropped over a steep edge and started traversing along the long diagonal trail down. I managed to get down past the second lake with only a little bit of walking and scrambling. Then I switched back to the comfy Inov-8 boots and hoofed it back to the trailhead. There I cooked up a batch of spaghetti while drying some gear and slowly repacking the truck. I also talked with another group of through hikers that I saw coming out when I was going in. It is definitely the season for them all to be passing through.

It was still pretty warm down in the valley when I finally got there, but I still enjoyed soaking in the hot spring  water once it got dark and cooler.

I put a slightly more complete trip report up here:


University Peak and other Sierra peaks trip report

Random Acts of Acrobatics - Las Vegas Style

Here is a video Ben Fullerton put together of Sam and I playing on the Las Vegas strip one night. If nothing else it amused us. I especially like to reactions and the non-reactions of the people around us.

http://vimeo.com/25238141

Maybe there is an easy way to embed a vimeo link, but I don't see it right now.

Bishop Part II

I've managed a few more adventures in Bishop.

Owens River Packraft...

Loaded packraft from the front

I put in at the Pleasant Valley Campground with my loaded packraft - loaded with not enough insulation and my bicycle. The Owens is pretty narrow, but it is also deep and squiggly. Sometimes it seemed like I was paddling down someones intestines. The current was weird too. I am used to rivers where as long as you go where the water goes you are mostly fine. This wasn't the case here, the current would head across the river to the bank and then go underwater. Then it would come up somewhere else and head sideways for a bit before heading down. Add in a lot of willows overhanging the banks and a few strainers (only a few went all the way across the river though) and it was definitely heads up paddling, especially the first day. The bicycle on the front of the boat didn't really help either, but it does open up some interesting trip possibilities and I could have taken out before the aqueduct had I not made it that far.

I paddled downstream for most of 2.5 days. I don't know how many river miles I went but it sure was a lot more than the straight line distance. I only took one longish break when I flipped in a water control structure and one of my dry bags got caught in the hydraulic. It got maytagged for about 15 minutes and finally got flushed perhaps because it got a hole in it. After I fished it out I stopped to dry things out for a while. Generally the days were warm to hot and the nights were cold. Unfortunately my sleeping pad developed some holes so I was without its padding. Combined with the early mornings, mosquitos, and cold nights I didn't sleep very well. Most of the time I was paddling into a strong headwind. Luckily the river wasn't very straight and usually had reeds and trees on the banks so I could usually pick a lee shore. When I was forced to paddle straight into the wind I just dug down and went as fast as I could. This didn't work in the one lake I had to paddle across. This was just painful.

I did see a lot of wildlife though, deer, beaver, some sort of weasel or otter? and lots and lots of birds - maybe 30 or so different kinds. Especially waterfowl and flycatchers and little warblers and lots of raptors.

interesting clouds

cloud detail

I took out at the start of the Los Angeles Aquedect about 10 miles south of Big Pine. Then I assembled the bike and strapped everything on it and headed back. For the first 5 miles on 395 I had a glorious tail wind and cruised along at around 20 mph, then it swung around to around 10 oclock (front left) and my pace went way down. If I believed that God micromanaged things I'd think he hated me, or maybe she is my personal trainer and thought my legs needed a bit of work after sitting for 2.5 days. I stopped off at the Keough hot ditch for a soak on the way back. I think the total biking distance was around 37 miles. The river had to be 2 or 3 times that.

Water intake for the LA Aqueduct

waterfall near where I was camping

I met up with Julie and got to catch up a bit and check out her cool house and garden. Then I did more bouldering at the Buttermilks and a bike - hike - ski - climb ascent of Basin Mountain - via the E couloir. This took longer than I thought it would, but I just checked and it is 13240 ft / 4036 m tall and I was starting around 6,600 ft, so that explains some of it. The weather wasn't very auspicious when I started with low clouds and a bit of snow, but the clouds rose as I did and I even got a fair amount of sun. The fresh snow was nice for skiing.

Basin Mt from a distance. I went up the middle and then up left on the snow and up the left skyline

Here I am on top

ski tracks on the descent - sure beats walking