Mount Mendel
Ascent of Mount Mendel (Northeast Ridge, class 4), with Ronald Kleber, June 9-11, 2022.
Timeline:
This trip was meant to take Ronald and I over a few peaks of the Evolution region. Things would turn out quite differently…
June 9, 2022. We expected a fairly easy day approaching Mount Mendel over Lamarck Col. We left the overnight parking lot at 11:40 and stopped for lunch at the North Lake campground in a swarm of mosquitos. These continued to bug us till about 11,000 feet. We made slow but steady progress up the trail with our 45-pound packs full of climbing gear and food for six days. Below Lamarck Col, we met a friendly young hiker whose trail name was Kelso (chosen because he supposedly looked like Ashton Kutcher – I did not see the resemblance). We talked about the Sierra as we made our way up the snow to Lamarck Col, reaching it at 17:45. From there it was a quick descent into Lake 11,745, arriving in camp at 18:32. We chose the campsite where I had stayed with René a few years before, with room for just two single tents. We had a nice evening in camp in the company of numerous marmots. (A 6:52 hour day, 5:51 hours moving, 6.15 miles, 3,436 feet of elevation gain).
June 10, 2022. We woke up early and left camp at 7:40. It took only an hour to reach the base of the steep chute that marks the base of the climb. One must first climb about 200 feet of very steep class 4 rock on the left side of the chute, to avoid a chimney and chockstones, before ultimately rejoining the chute. We had brought a short rope and a few pieces of gear to protect this exposed part. I offered Ronald the first lead, and that's where things turned sour. While trying to place a red Camalot a few feet above the belay, Ronald fumbled a little bit with the placement and his left foot slipped off a sandy ledge. He came flying down 25 feet, head first and on his back, before stopping in a sort of rock ramp, arrested in part by my belay and in part by the gentler terrain below the spot where I stood. I was certain his injuries would be very serious, but he quickly got up and checked himself: seemingly nothing broken, but lots of cuts, scrapes and bruises. I offered to go back to camp and call it a day, but much to my surprise Ronald said we should continue with the climb. I am not so sure till now that this was such a good idea, but we proceeded anyway.
I took over the lead for two short 30 meter pitches, that led to the main chute and class 2-3 terrain. Upon arriving at my spot, where I was simply body-belaying him, Ronald took another fall, this one short and on top rope, but enough to further injure his hand. We unroped and continued up the easy chute, to a notch in the skyline. By then it was about 11:00, and we had spent a lot of time on the first few hundred feet of the ascent. The notch marks the start of the Northeast Ridge proper, and we continued unroped. With routefinding challenges, consistent class 3-4 terrain and Ronald's injuries, the going was slow. We made our way over multiple false summits and gendarmes, with beautiful and solid climbing – a classic climb. Just below the last gendarme before the summit, a steep class 4 step forced us to bring out the rope again, for a short pitch that I led. We found ourselves on the left side of the ridge just below the summit area, and went through a keyhole mentioned by Secor (this would mark the start of our descent a bit later). A last steep move up a block led to Mount Mendel's beautiful summit area (14:35). We found the summit register but it contained no pen and no pencil – and I had left my pen in the tent. Thanks to Ronald's profuse bleeding and a pocket knife, we were able to sign in blood, as they did in the old days of Norman Clyde and Pete Starr. I marveled at the number of parties in the register for whom this was just the start of the Evolution Traverse – and the casual way in which they mentioned their plans. Getting to this point had taken us almost six hours! We enjoyed outstanding views from the summit of Mount Mendel (particularly those of the North Face of Mount Darwin) and then started down the East Face at 14:55.
The East Face is a convoluted descent, reputedly class 3 but really quite steep in places, and quite loose throughout (I would not recommend this as an ascent route – though it would probably be much faster that the NE Ridge). At one point we did one short rappel to bypass a steep chimney. Following a steady line of cairns, we made our way down carefully, finally reaching the Darwin Glacier and gentler terrain at 16:47. A mix of glissading and walking down snow slopes brought us to a series of half-frozen tarns about 500 vertical feet above our camp. We took a short break there and continued on down a snow/talus ramp that led directly to our camp, reaching it at 18:38. We had made it back safely, but Ronald's injuries were concerning. He was complaining of pain in the hip area, in the left knee, in one of his pinky fingers (which later turned out to be broken), etc. We resolved to decide what to do on the next day, after a night's rest. We had dinner and retired to our tents early. (A 10:58 hour day, 10:33 hours moving, 2.92 miles, 1,835 feet of elevation gain).
June 11, 2022. Ronald rose complaining of severe pain, which kept him from sleeping that night. We spent the whole morning in camp, hydrating, eating and packing up. The rest of the trip could not happen, and we decided to go home. Every move caused Ronald sharp pain, and I marveled that he had been able to complete the climb the day before. I would marvel even more at his return to the trailhead, carrying his heavy pack despite so many injuries. It must have been excruciating. We left camp at 12:09, and it took two hours and fifteen minutes to cover the half mile (and 1,300 vertical feet) back to Lamarck Col. We took a nice break at the tarn there. It was a bit faster on the descent after that – Ronald refusing to stop for breaks in order to reach the car sooner. I took off for the last couple of miles in order to retrieve the car from the overnight parking lot and spare Ronald the last two-thirds of a mile to the car. I was back at the parking lot at 18:16. We drove back to Mammoth for some well-deserved R&R. (A 6:07 hour day, 5:34 hours moving, 6.15 miles, 1,340 feet of elevation gain).
Trip totals: 23:57 total hours, 21:56 moving hours, 15.22 miles, 6,611 feet of elevation gain.