Mount Darwin / Mount Solomons / Mount Goddard / Mount Lamarck
Ascents of Mount Solomons (North Shoulder, class 2), Mount Goddard (Starr's route, class 2-3) and Mount Lamarck (Southeast Ridge, class 2), and failed ascent of Mount Darwin (West Ridge, class 3), with René Renteria, September 7-12, 2014
Timeline:
September 7, 2014. We spent the day acclimatizing and rock climbing at Horseshoe Slabs in Mammoth Lakes. We spent the night at the Lake Sabrina campground.
September 8, 2014. We left the North Lake trailhead at 10:20 under incipient bad weather. On the way to Darwin Canyon up the Lamarck Col cross-country route we had to stop for about 2.5 hours due to severe weather, including a long cold break under an overhanging rock just east of Lamarck Col. We arrived in camp at one of the upper lakes in Darwin Canyon under strong winds at 19:30, and had to cook dinner from within the tent. Total: 9:10 hours.
September 9, 2014. We left camp at 7:45 and were at the base of the west ridge of Mount Darwin at 9:45. It took a while to locate the proper way to bypass the glacier and we were halfway up the gully to the West Ridge at 11:40 when we decided to bail. We were back in camp at 14:20 and left camp at 15:15. We were in a new camp above Colby Meadow at 18:30 after taking a wrong turn on the JMT. Not a glorious day. Total: 10:45 hours.
September 10, 2014. We left camp at 9:00, had a long early lunch at Sapphire Lake at 11:30. We were in camp at Wanda Lake at 13:30. We departed to Muir Pass / Mount Solomons at 14:40, reached Muir Pass at 15:35, departed to climb Mount Solomons at 15:50, and reached the summit at 16:40. A JMT hiker called Bryce came along. We were back at Muir Hut at 17:30 and in camp at 18:30. Total: 9:30 hours.
September 11, 2014. We left camp at 7:45 and were at the base of Starr's Route on Mount Goddard at 8:55. We reached the top of the ramp at 10:30 and the summit of Mount Goddard at 11:40. We left the summit at 12:15, were back at the top of the ramp at 13:10, at the base of the route at 14:40 and in camp at 16:00. We departed camp at 17:30 and reached a new camp at Evolution Lake at 19:00. Total 11:15 hours.
September 12, 2014. We left camp at 9:07 and reached Lamarck Col at 14:30. We left the col around 14:45 and reached the summit of Mount Lamarck at 15:25. We reached the hiker parking lot at the North Lake trailhead at 19:15 and drove back to Los Angeles that same evening. Total: 10:08 hours.