Laurel Mountain / Mount Sill / Polemonium Peak
Ascents of Laurel Mountain (Northeast Gully, III, 5.2), Mount Sill (North Couloir, class 4) and Polemonium Peak (Traverse from Mount Sill, class 5), with René Renteria, September 10-13, 2012
Timeline:
September 10, 2012. We left the car at 7:05 am after a night at the Convict Lake campground. We were at the base of the route at 8:10 am, reached the summit of Laurel Mountain at 1:13 pm, and were back at the car at 4:35 pm (a 9 ½ hour day).
September 11, 2012. We left the trailhead at the North Fork of Big Pine Creek at 3:25 pm and (under pouring rain) reached camp at First Lake at 6:30 pm.
September 12, 2012. We left First Lake at 9:30 pm and arrived at the Palisades Glacier at 2:30 pm after a long lunch at Gayley Camp.
September 13, 2012. We left camp at 6:30 am, reached Glacier Notch at 9:30 am after crossing the glacier, were on the summit of Mount Sill at 12:20 pm, had lunch just below the summit where we had dropped our packs, hiked partway toward Polemonium and dropped our backs at the bivy site, summited Polemonium Peak at 16:23 pm, and were back at the bivouac site at 6:25 pm.
September 14, 2012. We left the bivouac site at 8:28 am, had rappelled the fourth class portion of the North Couloir at 9:30 am, were at Glacier Notch at 10:30 am, and back in camp at the Palisade Glacier at 2:00 pm. We were in camp at Sam Mack Meadow at 4:20 pm.
September 15, 2012. We left Sam Mack Meadow at 10:25 am, and were back at the car at 1:45 pm.