Mt. Williamson (14,375′)

Those that have been following our blog know that we are avid fans of the great outdoors.  I climbed Mt. Whitney (the highest peak in the continental US @ 14,495′) via the Mountaineers Route in June 2007 with my buddy Dave Kintner.  Although it was early season, we managed to avoid the snow  and I figured I might be able to get as lucky this time around if I attempted an early season ascent of the next highest peak in the Sierra, Mt. Williamson (14, 375′).

Mt. Williamson Background

Although slightly shorter than Mt. Whitney, Williamson is considerably harder to climb as the approach begins nearly 13miles away at 6,600′.  Because the approach is so difficult, most people opt to make the trip a 2 for 1 and climb Williamson’s neighbor, Mt. Tyndall (14,018) as well.  Mt. Tyndall is an easy mountain to summit from Shepherd’s Pass by either the Class 2, Northwest Ridge or the more direct route straight up from the 2nd lake at Shepherd’s Pass (Class 2+).

With such a difficult approach (one of the hardest in California) we planned to cash in on an attempt the 2fer as well.   Like all good stories, a good introduction helps to wet the appetite.

“Mount Williamson is one of the great peaks of the Sierra Nevada. It is truly awe-inspiring: rising 9,000 ft from the Owens Valley, it commands ones attention from great distances, overshadowing & overpowering everything surrounding it. Its incredible bulk is matched only by its complexity- steep facesare framed by seemingly never-ending, sinuous aretes; countless gullies & couloirs separate enormous buttresses; spires tower above the onlooker…”

-www.summitpost.com

Red Tape

There is a little bit of red tape you must deal with when climbing Mt. Williamson.  It lies within the boundaries of the Bighorn Sheep Zoological Preserve and thus requires you to register a permit to climb.  The area is only open from December 15 to July 15.  Which means that the window to climb without substantial amounts of snow is VERY limited.  Shepherd Pass can be used to access Williamson for only half of the year and the entire south face of Williamson is only open only two months of the year: December 15 – January 1 and April 15 – May 15 (but you won’t be going up the south face if you access it from Shepherd Pass).   As of this post, there is a rumor that the long-standing bighorn sheep closure on Mt. Williamson will soon be lifted, check for updates before you plan your climb.

Day 1 – Getting There

With my aspirations high, I applied for (and drew) permits in January and invited my surfing buddies Bill Hofto and Dale Inghram to make the trek with me.  We left Los Angeles on Thursday morning after a quick stop at Adventure 16 for some last second gear.  We rolled into Lone Pine around 3pm, stopped by the ranger station to grab our permits, then headed up to the Mt. Whitney portal campground to enjoy some time at a slightly increased elevation (8,000′) before the big jump the next day.  We setup our tents, made a quick stop by the portal store (always fun) then came back down to Lone Pine to enjoy some dinner at the Totem Diner and a couple of pints at Jakes’ Saloon.  We were back up to camp by 10:30pm.

After a good night sleep, we awoke around 7am to a light flurry of snow coming down.  We quickly packed up, weighed our packs at the Mt. Whitney trail head, then headed down to Lone Pine for a quick breakfast before hitting the Shepherd Pass trailhead outside of Independence.  Heading North on 395 to Independence we turned left/west onto Market Street and followed it as it turned into Onion Valley Road.  After about 4.5 miles we turned left/south onto Foothill Road then followed the signs to the Shepard Pass trail head after another 4 miles or so.

We had been warned that the hike from the trail head (6,600′) to Shepherd Pass was “not a casual outing”, and we quickly found out that calling it a “casual outing” would be a SEVERE under statement even for seasoned hikers and climbers.

Day 2 – Trail head to Symmes Saddle

Leaving the trail head around 10am, we followed the trail along along the Symmes Creek (crossing it 3 times) before the first haul of switchbacks up to Symmes Saddle.

This stretch was pretty brutal  (we counted 53 switchbacks).  It is steep, it is long, and it’s usually very hot.

Once at the top of the saddle  (9,300′) we could see the valley up to Shepherd Pass at 12,040′ .  Those that are curious, it is 8.25 miles from the trail head to the first major camp (Anvil camp – 10,600′) and 10.3 miles from the trail head to Shepherd Pass (12,040′).

Symmes Saddle to Anvil Camp

The next stretch runs downhill for about 1,000′ as you work your away around a small bowl, down some switchbacks, and then into Mahagony flat where the ascent resumes in earnest.

From the accounts I had read, I really wasn’t prepared for the hike up Mahogany flat to Anvil camp.  Many accounts don’t even make mention of this stretch, but the stretch through Mahogany Flats along Shepherd creek is the bulk of the 8.25 miles from the trail head to Anvil camp.  It is made up even more elevation gaining  switchbacks.  These are just as brutal as the first set, if not worse.  They are longer and appear to take you further from your goal rather than closer.  My moral began to slip a bit as afternoon fatigue began to set in and I could begin to feel the effects of my 40lb pack and the increasing elevation.

Arriving at Anvil camp (10,600′) at 4:30pm (6hrs from the trail head) we decided to call it a day.  We had hoped to get further up the trail, past “The Pothole” and up the 1000′ incline to Shepherd Pass (12,040′), but we had taken our time on the way up enjoying several stops for water, shade, and acclimation.  We were tired and the clouds were rolling in pretty hard by the time we hit camp;  the temp was dropping, and the forecast called for a 50% chance of snow.  We setup camp, cooked some dinner, and called it a night around 8:30pm.

Day 3 – Summit Day

The next morning we woke up around 7am to a fresh blanket of snow.  We hustled to grab breakfast, gather up some essentials and get up the trail.

I knew we had a ways to go just to get to Shepherd Pass (2.5 miles and 1,500′) and didn’t want to burn any extra daylight that we didn’t need to.  Shortly outside of camp we realized that we had made a good decision to stop the night before.   The trail was completely snowed over and the fresh blanket from the night before certainly didn’t help.   There was absolutely no visual signs as to which direction the trail went.  Such are the perils of early season climbing!!  After a brief discussion we decided to hike to the top of a nearby ridge to see if we could get a better vantage of the valley floor in hopes of spotting the trail.  We put on our gaiters and made our way up the snowed over, granite littered slope with a minimal amount of post holing.

The view from the top of the ridge wasn’t much better.  However, we did manage to find a set of prints headed up the mountainside on the south of the valley.  We took another quick consensus, and decided that we should follow these prints higher up the mountain in hopes of finding the vantage we hadn’t properly gained on the ascent of the ridge we were on.

The route we choose pretty much followed the prints that were in the snow ahead of us, traversing across the mountainside then punching directly up a class 3+ chute and onward up to the summit.

With nothing to lose we dove in and began punching toe holds up the heavily snowed over mountainside.  The going was slow, the slope steep, but the climb was enjoyable.  We moved as quickly as possible up the chute, pausing for air and water when needed, until we reached the top of the chute around 11am.

The good news was that from our new vantage point we had a great view down onto the valley floor, past “The Pothole” and up to Shepherd Pass.   The bad news was that we were drastically off course and had spent more time and energy than expected.  Moral was pretty low as we navigated over the summit and down the west ridge toward the Williamson bowl.

I found this topo map from Arturo Crespo’s site, it shows a great topo layout of the area.  As you can see, the red is where we hiked the first day (we took the same approach they did).  The purple shows their second day (the standard approach), the green shows our approach.  We both took the same path back (pink).

Williamson Bowl

Navigating into the bowl from the mountain that we had climbed earlier helped us miss the ascent to Shepherd Pass as well as the 300′ drop into the bowl.  We could see where a couple of people had obviously slid their way down the  trail to lake 3713 (completely frozen over), which didn’t make us hopefully for the climb on the way out.

We continued around the lake following the fresh footsteps of a small group that appeared to have gone in front of us.  Rounding the corner onto lake 3733 (also completely frozen over) we could see some gear that had been left by the group in front of us as they made their ascent up the couloir to the summit of Williamson.  A short review of the mountain side revealed that they were on their way down, and a quick time check put us at 1:30pm.

Back to Camp

We stopped for some much needed water at lake 3713.  We found a spot near the edge that we were able to break a rock through, but it was frozen over pretty solid.  Around the lake, and up out of the bowl … we had to climb a 300′ stretch of wicked steep snow.  Having to stop every 10-15 steps to regain my breath, it took about 20-30 minutes to get up out of the bowl.  Once out, we followed our predecessors footprints back to their camp at the base of Mt. Tyndall near lake 3661.

From there we came to Shepherd Pass.  Normally the trail is a pile of switchbacks down roughly 1000′, not today.  In fact, if it weren’t for the single set of prints angling up … we would have had ABSOLUTLY no idea how to get down.  More or less we had worked our selves to a cliff edge.  We decided to take a slow, angled approach … stair stepping down where the other tracks had come up.  Didn’t take more than 4-5 steps before Bill (who was leading the gong show) slipped and slid about 10ft.  Quick evaluation left us with the impression that hiking down the pass was not going to be overly possible.  However, SLIDING down the pass was easily do-able and WAAAAY more fun

Bill took the lead, but sliding 20-30yds at time.  Dale was right behind him, and I was enjoying making some nice figure 8′s as slid down in skiing position.  I know one of the other guys has a shot of the slope, I’ll try to include it at a later date … leave it to say we rallied a double black diamond plus in hiking boots!

Through “The Pothole” and back to camp was a pretty easy trek.  The trail was MUCH more apparent coming down that it had been going up.  We did lose the path a couple times under mountains of snow, but basic navigation quickly connected us on the other side(s) of the snow field(s).

Safely back in camp, we dried some gear out (I had gortex shoes, but Bill and Dale didn’t … and they had WET feet after our sliding adventure).  We ate heartily, consuming the last of our dehydrated food (potatoes and chicken breasts – mmmmmmmmmmm!), then rallied off to bed.

Anvil Camp to Trail head

We woke the next morning around 7am, broke camp and began the 8.5 mile trek back to the trail head at 9:30am.  The stretch through Mahogany flat was surprisingly easy on the way down, and we swapped stories as we meandered through switchbacks.  Of course the brief climb back up to Symmes Saddle was less than enjoyable, but having fully acclimated we only stopped once for shade and water.  Once on the other side  we started down the 53 switchbacks (yes, we counted them).  About half way down we jumped a GIANT rock grouse that flapped it’s wings and hissed at us to announce that we had violated it’s airspace (one of us turned and ran back up the trail, convinced that it was “coming after me!” – but we won’t disclose names ).  We arrived back at the truck at 1:30, what had taken 6 hrs to get up took us only 4 hours to get down.

If We Had To Do It Over

All in all, a great trip with a great group of guys.  On the way down we had a discussion about what we would do differently if we had to do it again (which we plan to eventually).  Here is a quick breakdown of what we came up with:

• Chapstick with sunscreen (I had sun blistered lips for a week after the trip)
• More trail food (Cliff Bars, etc …)
• Shoot for late June instead of early June

Gear List:

• Clothes
  • Patagonia Capilene 1 (underwear & and long sleeve top)
  • Patagonia Capilene 2 zip top
  • Patagonia R1 Flash top
  • Patagonia R3 vest
  • Marmot rain jacket (ultra light)
  • North Face light weight puffy jacket
  • North Face waterproof convertible pants/shorts
  • Garmont Eclipse III XCR trail shoes
  • 2 pairs REI wool socks + liners
  • Light weight fleece gloves (Mountain hardware)
  • Baseball hat
  • Stocking hat
  • Sunglasses
• Gear
  • Kelty Storm 3600 Back Pack
  • REI Halfdome tent
  • MSR Whisperlite stove + 2 12oz fuel canisters (only needed one)
  • GSI Pinacle Dualist pot set
  • Marmot Sawtooth sleeping bag (15deg down)
  • Thermarest Trail sleeping pad (small)
  • Petzel Tikka Plus headlamp
  • OR Trail Gaiters
  • 3 pairs of underwear (never can be too prepared here)
  • 2 cotton t-shirts (didn’t use either one)
• Other
  • Bug spray (didn’t use)
  • Sunscreen (75SPF – used EXTENSIVELY)
• Extra
  • RL Winston DL4 + pack tube, reel, small selection of flies (4pc fly rod)
  • Cannon snapshot camera

Links and Resources:

A special thanks to all of the people involved with the resources below.  Without their help, this trip wouldn’t have been possible:

• Weather
  • forecast.weather.gov
  • Whitney Portal Store
• Blogs:
  • Matt Mueller’s climb log (June 10-12, 1999)
  • Arturo Crespo’s climb log (July 3rd-5th, 2004)
  • SierraDescents.com
• Suggested gear lists and itinery
  • Sierra Mountain Center
• Mountain Information
  • Sierra Mountain Center – Williamson & Tyndall climbs
  • Summit Post – Mt. Williamson
  • Summit Post – Mt. Tyndall
  • Wilderness Permits & Information

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