TR: Mountaineering Middle Palisade and Mt Sill
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2020 12:27 pm
July 28-August 3, 2020. Middle Palisade, Northeast Face (class 3-4). Mt. Sill, Swiss Arete (5.6).
Charlie Huizenga (Dad), Jeanne Panek (Mom), Coby Huizenga (16yo)
Bare bones here for those who just want snow, glacier, approach and route conditions...
For full report, see Jeanne's blog: http://www.jeannepanek.com/mountains-an ... nd-mt-sill.
Middle Palisade from Finger Lake
We hiked out of the Glacier Lodge TH mid-day July 28, up the South Fork of Big Pine Creek, spending a night at Brainerd Lake on the way to Finger Lake to acclimate our lowlander lungs. Finger Lake has beautiful views, including our objective – the Northeast face of Middle Palisade. We departed Finger Lake July 30 at dawn, hiked across talus/slab and arrived at the Middle Palisade glacier around 9a. The glacier was still frozen hard. We roped up and cramponed to base of climb, spending way too much time trying to find Secor’s ‘easy 3rd class ledges at high-point of glacier’. Glacial retreat has left those ledges high and dry - now accessed by a few fifth class moves in an alcove with small, sloping ledges to the left of a loose, ugly chimney. We left our crampons and ice axes at the base and started climbing at 10a. We found the easy ledges above (huge cairn) and traversed right into the wide chute which is the Northeast Face route. We simul-climbed roped the entire day. The benefit was security climbing an exposed route, the risk was the rockfall the rope induced. We accepted the risk because we were the only climbers in the chute. We finished climb and returned to the glacier at 2:30p. We were back at Finger Lake by 4p.
Mt Sill from South Fork Big Pine Creek
South Fork is a beautiful approach to Mt Sill. We almost let ourselves be scared off by reports of endless talus, but while there was some talus, this route has less than many Sierra peaks. The approach (GPX track link on website, referenced above) follows a use-trail lower down along the creek and traverses large expanses of beautiful granite slab higher up. We found a beautiful sandy high camp in the trees near water at 10,800’ on the north side of the western tributary of South Fork Big Pine Creek, UTM 11S 0368374E 4107335N (WGS84). The approach seems little-used. We saw only one other person, that came through our camp after soloing Sill. Getting here was fairly easy following trail and some talus.
We left our high camp for Mt Sill at 6a on Aug 1 following the north side of the stream to a large marsh/meadow. We crossed it and climbed a ‘dry’ gully well left of main waterfall. At the top of the gully, we climbed slabs straight toward Mt. Gayley, passing many alcoves and ledges bright with beautiful flowers. We climbed over a couple moraines to a high point with a view of the saddle between Sill and Gayley. From the last moraine, we got through the cliff by following an improbable, but relatively easy scramble on loose sandy ledges to an obvious finger of rock on a buttress. Around the buttress more scrambling led to talus slopes and access to Glacier Notch.
We arrived at Mt Sill's characteristic L-shaped snowfield around 9a, just as two climbers high above us on the snowfield fell. One careened into the other, knocking them both down the slope. We shouted an offer of help, but they shouted back they were OK. Whew! The snowfield was in sun and fairly soft as we started climbing. We met up with the retreating climbers. They were chatty and seemed just fine, but warned of ice at the edges of the snowfield. Indeed, traversing the blue ice required axe-point and crampon front-point to gain the fourth class ledge that led to the route.
The Swiss Arete was gorgeous. We topped out at 4p, took the obligatory summit photo and down-climbed toward North Pal, following obvious cairns that led down and right to the rappel onto a ledge in the vertical gully behind the Sill-Apex notch. On the far side of the ledge, we climbed up (not down over slick slab!) loose sand into broken rock above and to the right of the Sill-Apex notch. Easy down-climbing to the notch. A steep but secure trail here let us skip a third of the snowfield before we had to don crampons, navigate the ice on the edge of the snowfield to the soft snow in the middle and crampon down to the talus below. We got back to camp at 9p under a bright and nearly full moon.
Charlie Huizenga (Dad), Jeanne Panek (Mom), Coby Huizenga (16yo)
Bare bones here for those who just want snow, glacier, approach and route conditions...
For full report, see Jeanne's blog: http://www.jeannepanek.com/mountains-an ... nd-mt-sill.
Middle Palisade from Finger Lake
We hiked out of the Glacier Lodge TH mid-day July 28, up the South Fork of Big Pine Creek, spending a night at Brainerd Lake on the way to Finger Lake to acclimate our lowlander lungs. Finger Lake has beautiful views, including our objective – the Northeast face of Middle Palisade. We departed Finger Lake July 30 at dawn, hiked across talus/slab and arrived at the Middle Palisade glacier around 9a. The glacier was still frozen hard. We roped up and cramponed to base of climb, spending way too much time trying to find Secor’s ‘easy 3rd class ledges at high-point of glacier’. Glacial retreat has left those ledges high and dry - now accessed by a few fifth class moves in an alcove with small, sloping ledges to the left of a loose, ugly chimney. We left our crampons and ice axes at the base and started climbing at 10a. We found the easy ledges above (huge cairn) and traversed right into the wide chute which is the Northeast Face route. We simul-climbed roped the entire day. The benefit was security climbing an exposed route, the risk was the rockfall the rope induced. We accepted the risk because we were the only climbers in the chute. We finished climb and returned to the glacier at 2:30p. We were back at Finger Lake by 4p.
Mt Sill from South Fork Big Pine Creek
South Fork is a beautiful approach to Mt Sill. We almost let ourselves be scared off by reports of endless talus, but while there was some talus, this route has less than many Sierra peaks. The approach (GPX track link on website, referenced above) follows a use-trail lower down along the creek and traverses large expanses of beautiful granite slab higher up. We found a beautiful sandy high camp in the trees near water at 10,800’ on the north side of the western tributary of South Fork Big Pine Creek, UTM 11S 0368374E 4107335N (WGS84). The approach seems little-used. We saw only one other person, that came through our camp after soloing Sill. Getting here was fairly easy following trail and some talus.
We left our high camp for Mt Sill at 6a on Aug 1 following the north side of the stream to a large marsh/meadow. We crossed it and climbed a ‘dry’ gully well left of main waterfall. At the top of the gully, we climbed slabs straight toward Mt. Gayley, passing many alcoves and ledges bright with beautiful flowers. We climbed over a couple moraines to a high point with a view of the saddle between Sill and Gayley. From the last moraine, we got through the cliff by following an improbable, but relatively easy scramble on loose sandy ledges to an obvious finger of rock on a buttress. Around the buttress more scrambling led to talus slopes and access to Glacier Notch.
We arrived at Mt Sill's characteristic L-shaped snowfield around 9a, just as two climbers high above us on the snowfield fell. One careened into the other, knocking them both down the slope. We shouted an offer of help, but they shouted back they were OK. Whew! The snowfield was in sun and fairly soft as we started climbing. We met up with the retreating climbers. They were chatty and seemed just fine, but warned of ice at the edges of the snowfield. Indeed, traversing the blue ice required axe-point and crampon front-point to gain the fourth class ledge that led to the route.
The Swiss Arete was gorgeous. We topped out at 4p, took the obligatory summit photo and down-climbed toward North Pal, following obvious cairns that led down and right to the rappel onto a ledge in the vertical gully behind the Sill-Apex notch. On the far side of the ledge, we climbed up (not down over slick slab!) loose sand into broken rock above and to the right of the Sill-Apex notch. Easy down-climbing to the notch. A steep but secure trail here let us skip a third of the snowfield before we had to don crampons, navigate the ice on the edge of the snowfield to the soft snow in the middle and crampon down to the talus below. We got back to camp at 9p under a bright and nearly full moon.