K-K Divide to Muir Crest Planning

[Harlen]

I'm headed on a long circle from Onion Valley over the K-K Divide, and then on to the Muir Crest.  I haven't been hitting my goals with any accuracy lately, as I mentioned in the TR from a recent ski trip: 

... so my effort fell woefully short again... this seems to be a pattern common to many of my recent trips, and I wonder if there is a dismal negative correlation between one's age and miles travelled?  Oh well....

 and this trip may be another of my big-eyed, but ill-planned routes, we'll see.  I'll give a sketch of the so called plan via the passes, and see how it evolves as I age along the trail:

Onion Valley (8/9) Kearsarge - Thunder - Russell-Carillon - Whitney-Russell - (*maybe) Discovery - Trail Crest (*these would be the passes if I have the energy to do a long, circular day hike/climb of Mt Muir: Hitchcock Lakes camp to Crabtree, up and around.) - Rockwell Saddle- Shepherd - Junction - North shoulder of University, and back to Onion Valley about 10 days later, ... much older and wiser.  

I really want to see some of this country without the snow for a change.  I will try to take photos from some of these same vantage points.   Any sage advice on these passes, or the climb of Thunder Mtn. is welcome. 

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View southeast from Kearsarge Pass.

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West from Tyndall Creek.

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At the top of Shepherd Pass.

[giantbrookie]

First of all it goes without saying that one of your goals--to see this country without a ton of snow--will be accomplished. Beyond that it is partly a matter of details and what you want to emphasize because all of us have different priorities. With me it would be fun off trail backpacking and top end fishing and you know that there are top prospects for these things along your route. I guess if it was me I might not be doing all those passes around Whitney and depending on specific targets I might not opt for Thunder either, given that the conventional Forrester approach gets you into the promised land faster and more efficiently. In other words, for Thunder, if I didn't have any goals on the Kings side of the KK Divide I wouldn't head for Thunder but if I wanted to visit Reflection or something (or if I wanted to climb Brewer) I would. For Whitney and Russell, even if these were climbing targets, I'm not sure I'd see the need to cross over the crest to the E side and back unless I wanted to do that for the sake of the route itself.

As for age and miles, folks may have noticed that the miles per day of my big 2020 trip was very much diminished relative to the 2019 and 2018 trips, and very much so compared to the 2015 trip. This was not so much a concession to age as it was to the fact that I've shrunk the areas of "new" (for me) exploration I'd like to do so the "new" stuff covered on a given trip doesn't spread out over such a big area anymore. Of course not all miles are equal. No matter what one's age is, most off trail stuff is way slower than trailed travel, so a hugely off trail effort by its nature will cover less horizontal distance per unit time. My buddy Todd carries a GPS unit and it was interesting to gets his "stats" of this. When he checked on our recent trip, our off trail speeds were fairly respectable (and this isn't easy off trail of the sort you'd do heading through Humphreys Basin or the like)--I recall we were averaging in the 1.7-1.8 mph range with a full pack. That still far off what one would expect with the same degree of conditioning for on-trail travel, though.

[cgundersen]

Hi Harlen,
OK, I have a better picture now of your intended loop, and it does not include that snazzy ridge above Robinson Lake that I've looked at, thought about, but never acted on.....But, having done the massive talus hopping to get to Thunder, I'll assure you, it's not a fun approach. And, I got a little case of willies near the top, but so be it. It was a big snow year, and a little slippery for my taste. For my nickel's worth (beyond what John wrote) I'd head up Vidette and over Deerhorn to reach Reflection. Those two basins are wonderful appetizers for Reflection. And, that way, if you wanted to punt on Thunder (and Reflection), you could run Harrison or Ericsson instead. Regardless, it looks phenomenal......Cameron

[Harlen]

Giantbrookie writes:

For Whitney and Russell, even if these were climbing targets, I'm not sure I'd see the need to cross over the crest to the E side and back unless I wanted to do that for the sake of the route itself.

Hey John, yes, those are target peaks. I have never climbed the Mountaineer's Route, and I rate the east ridge route on Russell to be an all-time favorite. I wonder how different the wild exposure will feel 35 years later? Wallace Lakes, including Tulainyo, are just amazing sights to me, and if I am hiking all the way up to Tulainyo, and on to Russell, it was a natural route. Never been to Iceberg, or crossed Whitney-Russell-- I just like to stay high sometimes. my first plan was to drop a car down at Horseshoe Meadow, and do a high route all the way down, but hitching might be hard now, and I haven't figured out the shuttle situation yet??? So I worked out this big loop instead, but I was so looking forward to revisiting some of the highlights of the Muir Crest, I left them in. So there is good fishing in the upper Kern lakes? Thanks, Ian.

[Harlen]

cgunderson writes:

I'd head up Vidette and over Deerhorn to reach Reflection.

I considered Deerhorn and Ericson, and really want to do them, but since I am intrigued by the description of the climb up Thunder Mountain, found in in Roper's "Climber's Guide," and trying to fit in a lot of miles, I went with the easier route to Lake Reflection. Cameron, do you recommend those 4 high lakes under T. Pass for camping? Looks like flat areas on the inlet side of the second, biggest lake, and on the outlet end of the highest-- the round one at 11,920', or is it all boulders? Thanks, Ian.

[giantbrookie]

Hi Harlen,
OK, I have a better picture now of your intended loop, and it does not include that snazzy ridge above Robinson Lake that I've looked at, thought about, but never acted on.....

Note that the "standard" class 2 University Pk route from Robinson L the lower boulder field is the worst I've ever seen which is why I devised a different class 2 route to climb University from Onion Valley in 1976. When I say "worst I've ever seen" you need to bear in mind that I am a one of those rare Sierra hikers who actually delights in boulder hopping, even with a full pack on at age 61 (Dawn had a fair number of complaints about this on the last trip). Even as a boulder-hopping demon I would not consider taking a full pack over that giant boulder pile. Can you cross University Peak with a full pack and climb it via a class 2 route if it isn't the University pass (or whatever they call it) route? Yes but you have to more or less take your pack nearly to the summit. The key route on the N side down to Onion Valley is via a broad class 2 swale to the W shoulder of University at ~12800'. The beauty of this is to descend it (heading N toward Bench L) is much nicer than ascending because you can steer onto the scree and do the scree skiing to speed the descent rather than being impeded by such treadmill junk on ascent. So if I was going to cross the crest with a full pack near University Pk (and climb the peak) I'd probably ascend NNE from Bubbs Creek in the gully/chute that aims a bit east (and higher) than the actual crossing then I'd leave it near or around 12800 then contour around (or ascend and lose a smidge) to the crossing point. Then you can put on your daypack and head E to the summit. Note that if you head directly to the summit the very highest parts are class 3 across some big blocks and slabs whereas you avoid this last bit of class 3 by contouring a bit east when you encounter this stuff so that your final approach to the summit is more or less from the south.

[giantbrookie]

Giantbrookie writes:

For Whitney and Russell, even if these were climbing targets, I'm not sure I'd see the need to cross over the crest to the E side and back unless I wanted to do that for the sake of the route itself.

Hey John, yes, those are target peaks. I have never climbed the Mountaineer's Route, and I rate the east ridge route on Russell to be an all-time favorite. I wonder how different the wild exposure will feel 35 years later? Wallace Lakes, including Tulainyo, are just amazing sights to me, and if I am hiking all the way up to Tulainyo, and on to Russell, it was a natural route. Never been to Iceberg, or crossed Whitney-Russell-- I just like to stay high sometimes. my first plan was to drop a car down at Horseshoe Meadow, and do a high route all the way down, but hitching might be hard now, and I haven't figured out the shuttle situation yet??? So I worked out this big loop instead, but I was so looking forward to revisiting some of the highlights of the Muir Crest, I left them in. So there is good fishing in the upper Kern lakes? Thanks, Ian.

OK now I see the need for those passes, especially since there is no better alternative to cross over Russell to the Whitney side. One small variation to consider is substituting Whitney's north face for the MR. The most fun part of the MR is the class 3 above the notch which is essentially the top of the north face. The chute of the MR has some drawbacks, the biggest of which is the scary amount of rockfall, quite a bit of which originates from climbers on Whitney's technical routes. I climbed the MR in 1970 and the eerie sound of those rockfalls and some of the subsequent dodges (or with me flattening myself against a north-facing vertical wall to watch a boulder fly over my head) are really etched in my memory. Some of those echoing rockfalls were preceded by the call out of "rock" from climbers somewhere above on the East Buttress whereas others were not. In contrast, crossing Whitney-Russell then heading up the north face seems potentially fun. It looks to me that one can make the north face route to one's taste. With good route finding I think the only class 3 you'd encounter is the stuff near the top but one can increase the amount of class 3 (or go beyond class 3) depending on how one wants to plan the route.

Upper Kern has plenty of fishing options and there are plenty of special places between there and Whitney, too (PM for details).

[Harlen]

John, I do love the view from Uni's summit, but on the last day, I'll just be crossing the ridge. I like your idea of descending the the north side, and I will give it a try. I think I see the swale to use beginning at 12,800. The Climber's Guide mentions a route on the north side: " Class 3 via an inconspicuous route." Sounds good, thanks for the warning, it's been a long time since I went that way. Coming from Center Basin, it was tempting to try it.

DSC00681.JPG

Does the red X mark the spot? (click to enlarge) Cameron, this is part of your ridge project, do you have an opinion on the best route down?

[giantbrookie]

DSC00681.JPG Does the red X mark the spot? (click to enlarge) Cameron, this is part of your ridge project, do you have an opinion on the best route down?

Crossover point is the lower northern circle. Note that the class 3 route in the guides is somewhat closer to the red x as I recall. I picked the class 2 route from the summit of Mt Gould when I climbed it with my dad around 1972 or so. I kept this in my memory until 1976 when my dad and I had to improvise in the face of really bad weather. We had wanted to hit Agassiz but that part of the Sierra and north was getting hammered by storms whereas we were clear in the south, so we headed south, climbed University by this northern class 2 route (from base at Matlock Lake where I caught my first brown--caught rainbows, brookies and the brown in one session), then later, when the weather had blown through headed back north and climbed Agassiz.

Anyhow if you're not planning on climbing University it would probably take less time to go all the way to Kearsarge than to cross off trail via the shoulder.

[Harlen]

giantbrookie writes:

Anyhow if you're not planning on climbing University it would probably take less time to go all the way to Kearsarge than to cross off trail via the shoulder.

I don't know, I still like your first idea John. Starting at Golden Bear Lake, I get 2,330' uphill on the JMT and K Pass route, plus about 13.5 miles. Easy trail cruising, but how does that compare with just 1200' up, and ~ 7.5 miles. And I like finishing the trip mostly off-trail, and leaving the JMT/PCT section out.