Mount Jordan / Kern Point / Picket Guard Peak
Ascents of Mount Jordan (East Slope, class 4), Kern Point (Southwest Slope, class 2) and Picket Guard Peak (East Ridge, class 2), with René Renteria, June 23-28, 2025
Timeline:
June 23, 2025. Approach from Shepherd Pass TH to Mahogany Flat. Having had little time to recover from two intense trips (one to Miter Basin and the other to the Cirque Crest and Monarch Divide), I lobbied for a late start on our entry date. After a leisurely morning in Mammoth, we set off from the Shepherd Pass trailhead at 16:03, with the goal of making it as far as we could toward the Sierra Crest. It was 20:20 when we stopped for the night at a comfortable campsite at Mahogany Flat. (4:17 hours elapsed, 3:57 hours moving, 6.92 miles, 3,533 feet of elevation gain)
June 24, 2025. Approach from Mahogany Flat to the headwaters of the Kern River. We left camp at 8:29, still facing a long approach to the Upper Kern Canyon area. We reached Shepherd Pass at 11:52, meeting a couple of people on the way, one of whom was trying to come down the pass from an aborted attempt on Mount Williamson. The lingering snow at the pass stymied his efforts, and he was looking for a way down a steep rocky gully. We continued on across the Shepherd Pass area, down and across Tyndall Creek, taking a cross-country shortcut that made for a more direct approach to the high trail that leads to the headwaters of the Kern River. At a trail junction, we decided to deviate a bit from our plan, in order to visit Lake South America. We took a right turn and hiked north past Lake 3,490. This led us to a pass southwest of Caltech Peak, and to magnificent views of the Kings-Kern Divide and Lake South America. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, and the thick clouds offered a very dramatic effect on the surrounding peaks. It did not rain, however, so we continued on to a comfortable camp at the lakes located in the Upper Kern area. It took us some time to select an appropriate campsite, as there was little flat ground despite the open terrain, and few sources of running water. Mosquitoes were fierce. We finally found a suitable spot, in full view of Mount Ericsson and Mount Stanford to the north and of Mount Jordan to the northwest, our objective for the next day. (8:51 hours elapsed, 7:19 hours moving, 11.31 miles, 3,956 feet of elevation gain)
June 25, 2025. Ascent of Mount Jordan and hike down Kern Canyon. We left camp at 6:54 and headed up easy cross-country terrain to the large lake southeast of Mount Jordan. From there, we gained the East Slope of the peak. This was a mix of scree and talus, quite easy to navigate. We aimed for a notch in the north ridge of the peak, affording a magnificent view of Thunder Mountain. From the notch, the climbing became a bit harder (some class 3) along the eastern side of the north ridge. Soon, we reached the summit area and the base of the famous step-across move to the summit block. We had brought a rope and a little bit of gear for this difficult class 4 step. I set up a sling around a high block, and made the move comfortably. I was soon on the summit (10:26), with René joining me a few moments later. We both agreed that most people would want the protection of a rope on this move. We enjoyed the outstanding views of the Great Western Divide to the southwest, of the Brewer group to the northwest, of the Williamson-Whitney area to the southeast, of the Kings-Kern Divide to the east, and of Kern Canyon to the south. We spent about 40 minutes on the summit, and rappelled down the summit block. The return to camp went smoothly, and we reached the tent at 13:39. It was a hot day, and there was little shade. We had lunch, rested a bit and packed up our camp, before setting off down the Kern River at 15:33. The goal was to cover as many miles as possible to get us closer to our objective for the next day, Kern Point. The afternoon consisted of a relatively easy hike in the forest, down the Kern Canyon. Thinking that we might return via the Tyndall Creek trail, we stashed our climbing gear at the intersection with that trail, before crossing Tyndall Creek (shoes off) at 18:54. Soon after we found a nice camp downhill from the trail, not far from the Kern River. It was a comfortable evening in camp, despite some mosquitoes. We made a fire, which helped a bit with the bugs. (10:37 hours elapsed, 8:26 hours moving, 12.09 miles, 2,781 feet of elevation gain)
June 26, 2025. Approach to the Kern-Kaweah drainage and ascent of Kern Point. We left camp at 8:20 and continued down the canyon toward Junction Meadow (8:58). There, we crossed the now substantial Kern River at a spot where the river broadens, and gained the Colby Pass trail - which is faint in many places. This took us through and over a beautiful narrow gorge marked by sheer granite walls, ancient Sierra Junipers and gorgeous wildflowers. Down some stairs we went toward the Kern-Kaweah River, to Rockslide Lake and the wider drainage beyond. We found a nice camp in a clump of trees, ideally situated to climb both Kern Point and Picket Guard Peak. We had lunch (I found refuge from the mosquitoes inside the tent) and set out on our climb of Kern Point at 13:12. We went up the trail for a half mile before heading up some granite slabs on the Northwest Slope of Kern point. The steep slabs caused my left Achilles tendon to act up, but I pushed through, with René consistently in front. We gained elevation steadily, and reached the summit at 16:20. The views of the Kaweah Range and Triple Divide Peak, etc., were outstanding. We chose a slightly different way down, further north from our ascent path, but most paths up the Southwest Slope of the mountain should be roughly similar. We were back in camp at 19:04 and again made a fire to keep the bugs at bay. (10:45 hours elapsed, 8:10 hours moving, 8.98 miles, 4,532 feet of elevation gain)
June 27, 2025. Ascent of Picket Guard Peak and start of the return. Many think that Picket Guard Peak is the remotest peak on the SPS list, even though mileage-wise it is closer to a trailhead than Mount Reinstein, Finger Peak and several others. But this peak is certainly hard to get to from any direction. We set out from camp at 7:33, crossed the Kern-Kaweah River (shoes off) and headed up the steep wooded slopes south of camp to gain the East Ridge of Picket Guard Peak. We were surprised to find a spectacular lake, Picket Guard Lake, on the way. We stopped there for a snack and some photos, and then continued up the class 2 ridge, reaching the summit at 10:43. The views here were perhaps even better than from Kern Point, as we were closer to the Kaweah Range. The register dates back to 1970 (with earlier entries till 1963 copied in), and is full of the names of famous Sierra luminaries. We returned the same way we came, taking another break at Picket Guard Lake to take in its outstanding views. We were back in camp at 13:17, had lunch and packed up. We were now some 26 miles from the car, so we had to get a head start on the return. We retraced our steps up and down the narrow gorge, down to the Kern River and Junction Meadow, up the High Sierra Trail to its junction with the Wallace Creek Trail, and further up the Kern River for a total afternoon mileage of about 7.5 miles. This put us back close to the Upper Kern area. After some searching, and feeling quite exhausted by that point, we found a somewhat flat spot for the tent in the trees along the Kern River. Not a great campsite. (10:18 hours elapsed, 8:34 hours moving, 11.09 miles, 4,037 feet of elevation gain)
June 28, 2025. Return to Shepherd Pass Trailhead. We left camp at 8:07 and started on our almost 19-mile return to the car, first up the Kern River canyon to a trail junction, then east across Tyndall Creek and up its drainage toward Shepherd Pass. This we reached at 12:51, some 8 miles in. We stopped for lunch in view of Lake 3,661, where we had camped many years prior. Then down the steep snow on the northern aspect of Shepherd Pass to Anvil Camp, where we took a break. As we were departing, a scantily clad young woman scampered out of her tent, and was startled to see us. This lovely apparition gave us a second wind for a short time. The miles down the Shepherd Pass trail went by slowly, as we were quite tired by now. The evening light in the Symmes Creek area was magnificent. A last obstacle had to be negotiated: the several crossings of Symmes Creek made more difficult by the runoff from the winter of 2023. I could not avoid wetting my boots, but we were now very close to the car so it did not matter. We reached the trailhead at 19:13, the end of three intense weeks of mountaineering and peak bagging. We drove back to Mammoth for some well-deserved rest. (11:00 hours elapsed, 9:51 hours moving, 18.63 miles, 3,698 feet of elevation gain)
Trip totals: 55:48 hours elapsed, 46:18 hours moving, 69.02 miles, 22,537 feet of elevation gain.