Lone Pine Peak / Mount Irvine / Mount Mallory / Mount LeConte
Ascents of Lone Pine Peak (North Ridge, III, 5.5), Mount Irvine (Northeast Ridge, class 2),
Mount Mallory (Northwest Ridge, class 3) and Mount LeConte (Northwest Chute, class 4), with Robert Zeithammer, August 23-27, 2015.
Timeline:
August 23, 2015. I left LA around 13:00 and encountered a huge traffic jam on the 405 due to an accident. I reached Lone Pine shortly after 17:00 and met Robert at the Lone Pine Ranger Station, where we picked up our permit. We then drove to the Meysan Lakes trailhead, and started hiking at 18:10. We hiked with headlamps and reached camp below Little Meysan Lake a little before 21:00 (a 2:45 hour day).
August 24, 2015. We set out to climb the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak, leaving camp at 7:30. We were on the ridge at 9:30, and on the summit of Lone Pine Peak at 17:40. This was a longer route than we had expected, with a lot of continuous climbing and a couple of route finding puzzles. Also a very nice sustained climb, mostly in the 4th class range, but with a few 5th class pitches thrown in. We encountered two difficult moments, one when we failed to find the lieback 5.7 pitch and Robert led a steep pitch immediately to the right of the lieback (maybe 5.8); the other with my leading a 5.7 offwidth move immediately after the previous pitch (on that move, a crucial handhold keeps the offwidth move quite reasonable). Descending from the summit down a steep sandy gully, we were back on the trail at 20:09 and back in camp at 20:39, the last half hour using headlamps. We were in bed at 22:00 (a 13:09 hour day).
August 25, 2015. This was an easy day. We moved camp to Camp Lake, had a long lunch and bathed in the lake. In the afternoon we hiked up to Meysan Lake, and returned to camp at 15:00. I could not sleep all night.
August 26, 2015. Our goal for the last day was to traverse Mounts Irvine, Mallory and LeConte, starting with the Northeast Ridge of Mount Irvine and returning to camp via the sandy gullies directly above Meysan Lake. Immediately upon waking up we saw clouds that would get heavier with time and worried us all day – but did not stop us. We departed camp at 6:27, and reached the summit of Mount Irvine at 8:55 following the very nice class 2 Northeast ridge. The views of the Whitney group from that ridge were spectacular. We traversed to Mount Mallory, intent on climbing its Northwest Ridge (rather than follow the usual Norman Clyde route up the South slopes). We were not disappointed, as the Northwest ridge is a very nice (though short) class 3 route that takes you through two fun squeeze chimneys and a keyhole. The summit of Mallory is overhung, which makes for a nice photo op. We were on the summit of Mount Mallory at 10:15, and came down the South slopes toward Mount LeConte. We reached the base of the North Face of Mount LeConte at 11:11 and contoured right and down to gain the Northwest chute. This is a short chute that contains a 15-foot class 4 section named the Waterfall Pitch – a steep step up a wide double crack. Someone had left a rope with webbing hanging from above, which afforded us good protection on the way up and especially down. We experienced no difficulties on the Waterfall Pitch, and reached the summit of Mount LeConte at 11:43. It was snowing slightly at that point, so we quickly signed in, took summit shots, and departed. The descent was a painful slog down a steep gully toward Meysan Lake – I can’t imagine how painful it must be to go up this way. The gully we chose was class 2, with loose scree and talus. We were at Meysan Lake at 13:58, and took a break at the lake before returning to camp at 14:34. We spent a leisurely afternoon in camp, me catching up on sleep and Robert out hunting for pieces of pinewood (an 8:07 hour day).
August 27, 2015. We left camp at 8:50 and reached the cars at the trailhead shortly before 11:00. We had a burger at the Whitney Portal Store and parted ways – Robert back to LA and me toward Mammoth Lakes.