Alpine climbing is a high-overhead activity. Carefully planned long hikes into the back country culminating with an intimidatingly large mountain presenting itself to you. Not much room for error or you risk benighting at the mountain’s hand. But it is precisely those qualities that draw us to alpine climbing. I am relatively new to true alpine climbing. After this 2013 alpine season I realize that I was extremely lucky with my previous two alpine climbs. The first was Cathedral Peak in Tuolumne Meadows in 2010. And that climb wasn’t immediately successful. It was delayed twice  – first by late snow then by a fire closing Tioga Pass Road. My partner and I finally climbed it in windy and cold conditions. At one belay my jacket whipped in the wind making the same sound flags make in high winds. I could barely stay upright. We opted not to finish the climb to the postage stamp sized summit block in the gale force winds. Instead, we stopped 25 ft from the top and descended the backside. So, although we climbed all but the last 25 ft,  I have not summited Cathedral Peak. The second was the East Buttress Route on Mt. Whitney in 2011. That was the climb of my life.  My trip report from that climb is on the Chicks Climbing website. The climbing was absolutely gorgeous. But we were benighted, summiting at 7 pm and arriving back in camp at 2 am after endless rappels in the dark over the steep snow covered the Mountaineers Route. My first outing in crampons, I wasn’t sure I could successfully self arrest so slipping was not an option!

Sometimes I wonder whether I am cut out for this alpine climbing stuff. But then I find myself looking through guidebooks at new alpine challenges. It’s like the marathons I run, this one will be different… With that thought, my climbing partner Josh, and I considered several Sierra Nevada alpine climbs for the 2013 season: Tenaya Peak, Cathedral Peak, Matthes Crest, and Bear Creek Spire.  We chose Matthes Crest and Bear Creek Spire as our focus and set two dates. As with most climbers, families and work compress our time to try to achieve our alpine climbing goals. We set two dates and knew we would likely only have those two chances. Luckily, Josh and I share the same philosophy that just being in the back country is a reward. Summiting the project peak is gravy. Our friend, Teri, was also able to join us on both dates. So, we planned the trips as a party of three.

Matthes Crest was our first goal. At the end of June, we camped in Tuolumne Meadows campground and planned a car-to-car climb. It’s six miles to the base of Matthes Crest but most climbers I know who have climbed it have done it as a day trip. So, how hard could it be? Famous last words. Teri, thankfully before the hike, realized it was 3 hours, not 3 miles, to the base of the climb. She had been having knee issues and decided the round trip of over 12 miles would be too much for her at that time. So, that left just Josh and me heading to the climb. The weather that day was ridiculously hot. California was suffering through a very significant heat wave. Even at 10,000 ft it was oppressive and humid. We were down to our short sleeve shirts and sweating at 6:30am as we left the car for the trail head. Being fresh in the morning, we still were able to set out on the trail at a speedy but comfortable pace. Unfortunately, we managed to miss our Budd Lake turnoff and suddenly were at the base of Cathedral Peak instead of across the canyon. It turned out we could head off cross country to the shoulder of Echo Peak but this detour ate up precious time.

We hiked over the west shoulder of Echo Peaks and were presented with the Matthes Crest, which was absolutely beautiful. However, there was a large wash between us and the base of the climb. Added to our unplanned detour was the vague description of how to get to the base of the climb once we were over the shoulder of Echo Peak and close to Matthes Crest. Based on the guidebook, we elected to hike down one side of the wash and up the steep other side to reach the base of the climb. As I looked across I was worried about the slabs below the base of the route. They looked very steep. It was slow going in the late morning sun. Luckily, once we were working our way up towards the climb we found that the slabs looked much steeper than they actually were. Finally, we caught a break!

We arrived at the base of the climb at noon on a very hot day. We both agreed that since it was noon, the route is 0.8 miles long, and neither of us had ever simul-climbed we would enjoy our lunch then head back to camp. There was a party on pitch 2 of the climb. We watched their progress, which was pretty slow, and decided we had definitely made the right decision. We now had lots of information about how to get there and what the route looked like in person – for next time!

Next up, a month later, was Bear Creek Spire in Little Lakes Valley.  The approach to Bear Creek Spire is also 6 miles but 2.5 miles are over talus slope. Hazardous and slow going. So the three of us agreed that we would backpack in to Dade Lake and establish camp. We would have a full day to concentrate on the climb without worrying about a huge car-to-car pressure. Our wilderness permit was for three days, hike in Friday, climb Saturday, hike out Sunday.  Too bad our weekend coincided with heavy smoke in Little Lakes Valley from forest fires burning over the crest of the Sierra to the west. The smoke was so heavy that the surrounding mountains, including Bear Creek Spire were obscured. We had discussions on Thursday night about whether we would continue with our plan. On the positive side, the forecast for Saturday was for no smoke and clear weather. But, it was only a forecast. Friday morning was clear so, off we went.

Little Lakes Valley is gorgeous. Some of the best views in the Sierra. We were quickly at Gem Lakes and the base of the 2.5 mile talus slope.

After several very mentally focused hours of boulder hoping with heavy backpacks on, we were on the fell field at Dade Lake below Bear Creek Spire. I cannot over state the focus the talus field travel required. We were all glad to be at Dade Lake. The smoke, however, crept up the canyon behind us and soon we were surrounded by it in camp.

That night we slept with smoke. I have exercise induced asthma and I wear contact lenses so my throat and eyes were not happy. We wondered what we would find the next day.

Thankfully, Saturday morning brought no smoke at camp but it was visible lingering down the canyon. Would it come up to envelope us while we climbed? We set off for the route just before 7am. More talus confronted us to get to the route. The guide book said it should take 45 minutes to get to the North East Ridge route. It took us almost two hours. It was not clear which way was the best to get to the route start. We wandered a bit, avoiding steep looking slabs and black ice, and we were not on the route until 9am. As we looked south we saw in the distance thunderhead looking clouds. Above us were wispy, swirling clouds. We once again had a discussion about how we should proceed. We decided to start the route while keeping an eye on the sky.

The North East Ridge Route is 1200 ft long so, if we wanted to avoid descending in the dark there would be little margin for error in assumptions about how long it would take us to summit. However, the first third of the route is 3rd and easy 4^th class climbing. We were all still in our approach shoes. I was having a really good time just enjoying the views and the ridiculously easy climbing. Very quickly we were at the first tower.

Just beyond this point is the crux of the route across 5^th class rock fins. Retreating after this point would be doable but complicated. We were worried about the thickening clouds drifting up from the south and the swirling of the clouds above us. We had most of the route still to do and we couldn’t see the easy 4^th class beyond the crux that was described in the guidebook.

We decided, given the potential for bad weather, and the fact that we were climbing in a party of three, that we should retreat to camp. Disappointing, but better safe than sorry. We turned back and headed to camp. We found a better route across the slabs and scree back to camp. Information for a possible next time.

We were back at camp just before noon. Josh and I, always on the same wavelength, were thinking that hiking out that day was an option. It would make Sunday a much shorter day for the drive home. Teri elected to stay the night, preferring to hike out the next morning. She told us she often solo backpacks so we felt ok about heading down without her. Josh and I packed up and headed back to the trail head. About 2 miles into the 2.5 mile talus hike Josh muttered that he didn’t think he needed to do this again. I agreed. But I did point out that memory is a funny thing and we may change our mind later… We were back at the campground, where my husband was camped, by 6:30 pm. We had beers and dinner together. I don’t think we had even finish dinner before Josh and I were plotting our next attempt on Bear Creek Spire. Memory is a funny thing!

So, this was an unsuccessful summer from a goal achieving standpoint but successful in that we learned a lot about two climbs we want to do. The hiking was beautiful and we enjoyed the backcountry.  Successful alpine climbing partnerships are built on agreement about when and where to turn around. This was a very successful summer from that standpoint. I’m disappointed that no summits were bagged but planning for 2014 has already started!

A full set of photos is posted here.