North Palisade
Pictures from the ascent of North Palisade (U-Notch Couloir / Chimney Variation, III, 5.4), with René Renteria, May 7, 2001
Timeline:
I write this trip report 22 years after the climb so my memory is a bit hazy. This was the first time I went on a climbing trip alone with René. We had previously met on trips to Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta, with Lanier Benkard, but never as a pair. I remember that we were carrying gigantic packs full of climbing gear, wore Koflachs, and used my North Face winter tent (which I still have but have never used since this trip). The approach involved postholing, and I hurt my knee while walking in deep snow (I don't recall if that was on the approach or on the exit).* We pitched the tent on snow at the tow of the Palisade Glacier, but could cook on a flat rock just outside the tent entrance. On the day of the ascent, May 7, we left camp early and used some steps that snowboarders had kicked up the U-notch. Conditions were perfect, as was the weather. At the base of the chimney, we dropped some gear, including our food, to lighten our load ahead of the technical part of the climb. This food would later be found and eaten by marmots, which caused us to lack sufficient nutrition at the end of the day. When we began the two-pitch climb up the chimney, René asked me if I wanted to lead, and was surprised when I told him that I did not know how to lead (it would be another full year before I would learn). So he led the two pitches that took us to the crest. There was a lot of snow on the ledges, so I have memories of an interminable traverse to the summit of North Pal. The descent also took us a long time, and while I don't remember the exact timing, I know this was a huge day. René was so beat when we got back to the tent that I had to bring him tea in bed. Or maybe it was soup. The next day we walked back to Glacier Lodge and returned to the Bay Area via Sonora Pass, because Tioga Pass was still closed.
(* Upon my return I wrote an email to Jeff Dozier, a famous Sierra climber and mountaineer, a colleague of my wife's at UCSB, and a fellow academic, to say that we had encountered a lot of postholing on a climb of the U-Notch on North Palisade. He answered with three words, in typical fashion: "Postholing builds character". Which is true.)