Tom Smith from Summit Adventure asked me if I wanted to help him lead a Half Dome day hike with a handful of guys at the beginning of 2020. It’s on the Sierra Peak Section list, so I said, “Yes. Of course.” at the time, but one of the guys got COVID, so we postponed it to May 1. I drove in the night before and Tom picked me up at 5:00 am at the Summit Adventure Lodge.
Sawtooth Peak (South), not to be confused with Sawtooth Peak (North) in Mineral King, is an easy hike off the Pacific Crest Trail in the Chimney Peak Wilderness in the southernmost part of the Sierras. It was on the Sierra Peak Section list and it was too early in the season to get out to the High Sierras, so I did this one as a day trip. I knew this wasn’t going to be “epic,” but it was a lot of fun just to get out.
Idid Owens Peak with the kids on Saturday. Bec watched the grandbaby, and since Owens Peak was close enough for a day hike, it seemed like the perfect objective for all of us. It’s also on the Sierra Peaks Section so I sort of had to do it anyway. I didn’t realize that the big adventure was actually getting to the trailhead.
There is nothing special about Lamont Peak. It’s a sub-8,000 foot peak in the lower Eastern Sierras. It ended up on my list because it is part of the Sierra Peaks Section or SPS List for short. According to the Sierra Club, there are 247 notable peaks in the Sierras.
As I walked on to the 12,887 ft summit of Mount Rixford, the view was spectacular. It was 1:00 pm and there was no wind. There was not one person at the trailhead, on the trail, or on the mountain. I was completely alone on this big mountain and I felt this sense of euphoria.
We reached the summit by 1:30 pm, a much longer trip than Wes or I had planned on. But we made it! The views along the ridge, and especially at the summit of Boundary Peak were incredible. This was the clearest day I had seen all year. We could see for over a hundred miles across Nevada and I would even make out the distinct shape of Mount Humphreys along the Sierra Crest to the West.
We started out at midnight just to make sure we had enough time since I had not hiked with most of the folks on our team. In hindsight, I’m really glad I did. We ended up needing the extra time. More on that later. On the day of the hike, I drove up in the late afternoon and slept in the back of my Subaru Outback until 11:30pm. After breakfast and coffee, I met the rest of the guys at the trailhead.
…soon the class 2 ridge turned to class 3/4 so we roped up alpine style and continued walking. There were a few sections of the ridge Neil climbed ahead and gave us a hip belay, but we never needed to set up any belay anchors along the ridge. This place was so beautiful it was hard to take it all in. And I got to do this with my son – who gets to do that?
…The trail headed up switchbacks that gained about 2,000 feet of elevation over a few miles. I passed a large mining operation, then a spectacular waterfall that rumbled so powerfully I could feel it in my chest. Stunning. As the sun came up, it caught the large granite peak next to me with a bright orange alpine glow. The Lord knows how much I love to see a good alpine glow. I felt myself waking up and coming alive. I felt a surge of new energy to push to the summit of Mount Julius Caesar.
I had been wanting to do Cloudripper (13,525′) for a while, so last year I took the family to make an attempt on the summit. My son Wes and I made it to what I thought was the summit of Cloudripper, only to discover from our GPS tracks that we had summitted the wrong mountain! We summited Vagabond Peak, not realizing that we came about 1000 yards short of Cloudripper. Ever since then, I’ve been wanting to do it again.
